Chris Wallace Confronts Pentagon Press Sec. Kirby About Withdrawing Troops From Afghanistan

On Sunday, Fox News host Chris Wallace confronted Pentagon press secretary John Kirby about the Afghanistan troop withdrawal as he expressed his fears of potential consequences for this move.

“Are you surprised that the Taliban is making these kinds of sweeping advances so quickly?” he asked.

“Kirby replied by saying that the Pentagon is “watching with deep concern” the “momentum” the Taliban has right now, according to Mediaite.

“We’re not unmindful of that, Chris,” he said. “Which is why we are, again, working with our Afghan partners to encourage them to use the capacity and the capability that we know they have. And we know that they know how to defend their country. This is a time for them to step up and to do exactly that.”

Wallace did not seem satisfied by this answer, as he fired back by saying that it is “certainly a possibility” that the Taliban could end up “taking over the country.” He then asked if that would “increase the terror threat to the U.S. homeland.”

Not stopping there, Wallace questioned what would happen to women and girls in Afghanistan if the Taliban does take over.

“What happens if the Taliban takes over and puts all of those girls and women back under sharia law, puts the women back under the burqa?” he asked. “Are we really in effect saying that’s not our problem?”

“I think the progress of women and girls in Afghanistan is the world’s problem,” Kirby said in response.
“It’s everybody’s problem.”

Kirby then doubled down by saying that the Pentagon is looking for “a negotiated political solution to the end of this war that is Afghan-led,” one that “is not imposed on them outside the country.” He concluded by pointing to  the U.S. keeping diplomats in Kabul to continue their work.

President Joe Biden has promised to remove all troops from Afghanistan by September 11, which will be the twentieth anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attack. This comes after Biden failed to meet the May 1 troop removal deadline that had been set by former President Donald Trump.

Check out the full interview below.