NEW: Read the full transcript of Pres. Biden's exclusive interview with ABC News' GStephanopoulos:
President Joe Biden told ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos that he does not know how he could have prevented chaos while withdrawing American troops from Afghanistan.Read the full transcript of President Joe Biden's exclusive interview with ABC News' George Stephanopoulos on Wednesday.PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: Thank you for doin' it.
BIDEN: Yeah. Well, the question was whether or not it w-- the idea that the Taliban would take over was premised on the notion that the -- that somehow, the 300,000 troops we had trained and equipped was gonna just collapse, they were gonna give up. I don't think anybody anticipated that. BIDEN: Look, I don't think it was a fa-- look, it was a simple choice, George. When the-- when the Taliban -- let me back -- put it another way.
BIDEN: No. Not at -- not in terms of whether we were going to get out in a timeframe all troops. They didn't argue against that. Do you think we woulda -- that we would've just said,"No problem. Don't worry about it, we're not gonna attack anybody. We're okay"? In the meantime, the Taliban was takin' territory all throughout the country in the north and down in the south, in the Pasthtun area.
STEPHANOPOULOS: But if there's no good time, if you know you're gonna have to leave eventually, why not have th-- everything in place to make sure Americans could get out, to make sure our Afghan allies get out, so we don't have these chaotic scenes in Kabul? BIDEN: What I thought was we ha-- we have to gain control of this. We have to move this more quickly. We have to move in a way in which we can take control of that airport. And we did.
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