President Joe Biden “exploded in frustration” when he learned that Afghanistan was on the brink of collapse while he was on vacation at Camp David in Aug. 2021, an upcoming book about the White House alleges.
Franklin Foer makes the claim in his book, “The Last Politician: Inside Joe Biden’s White House and the Struggle for America’s Future,” which is to be released by Penguin Press on Tuesday. Biden reportedly became incensed after he had learned the Taliban was expected to march toward Kabul, causing Ashraf Ghani, then-president of Afghanistan, to flee the city.
“Give me a break,” Biden exclaimed, according to the book.
Ahead of the withdrawal, several White House officials went on vacation. Secretary of State Antony Blinken went to the Hamptons, then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki was at a beach and Biden was relaxing at Camp David, Foer writes.
Psaki decided to come back from vacation after seeing images of “Afghans falling from the sky” as they clung to the landing gear of a plane trying to escape the country, Foer claims.
“I’m contemplating coming back,” Psaki wrote to then-White House Chief of Staff Ron Klain, according to the book.
“I’m sorry,” Klain responded. “I think you need to.”
US President-elect Joe Biden shows a face mask as he answers questions about COVID 19 from the press at The Queen in Wilmington, Delaware on November 16, 2020. (Photo by ROBERTO SCHMIDT/AFP via Getty Images)
The Biden administration quietly released a statement late Thursday to commemorate the second anniversary of the Afghanistan pullout. During the Biden administration’s withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan, which concluded on Aug. 30, 2021, a terrorist attack in Kabul killed 13 American military personnel. (RELATED: ‘He And He Alone’: Gold Star Mother Says Biden Responsible For Terrorist Attack That Killed 13 Soldiers In Kabul)
The Biden administration internally reviewed its withdrawal in April 2023, blaming former President Donald Trump for ordering communication with the Taliban, negotiating a withdrawal date and failing to leave the Biden administration a comprehensive plan on how the operation should be carried out.
White House national security council spokesman John Kirby said in April that Biden was “proud” of how the withdrawal was conducted.
Penguin Press, the publisher of Foer’s book, states that the book draws on “unparalleled access to the tight inner circle of advisers who have surrounded Biden for decades,” as Foer reportedly does not cite a specific source from inside the White House. Foer notes in the prologue that he reported on Biden “from a close distance” through “several hundred interviews with his White House inner circle, his cabinet, his old friends and members of Congress.”