President Joe Biden and first lady Jill ventured out for a bike ride Sunday morning during their vacation on Kiawah Island, South Carolina during the one-year anniversary of the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
When reporters asked if Biden would speak to the press he said, ‘no,’ but insisted he has ‘been on the phone a lot’ during his family vacation.
The president wore a blue shirt and khaki shorts along with a Beau Biden foundation hat for the outing Sunday morning while Jill wore a white tank top, black athletic skirt and purple tennis shoes. Both donned a pair of aviators.
Biden took selfies with beachgoers and told reporters he was enjoying his vacation from the White House ‘a great deal’ but wouldn’t comment on any news of the day.
Meanwhile, former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani spoke with Fareed Zakaria on his Sunday CNN program GPS one year after the country fell to Taliban rule.
Ghani claimed that the international community’s support for his government dissipated following Biden’s announcement last year of a total troop withdrawal.
President Joe Biden was spotted on a bike ride at Kiawah Island, South Carolina on Sunday, August 14 during his family vacation to the beach
The ride came the day before the one-year anniversary of the complete Taliban takeover of Afghanistan following the U.S. troop withdrawal ordered by Biden
Ex-Afghan President Ashraf Ghani said in a CNN interview that aired Sunday that Biden’s withdrawal announcement helped lead to international community dropping support for his government
He also defended his decision to flee Afghanistan, claiming taking a stand wasn’t an option like it was for Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whom Ghani claims was more successfully able to fight back due to the international support for his government’s sovereignty.
‘The whole NATO, United States, Australia, other countries, rallied to Ukraine,’ Ghani told Zakaria in an interview that aired Sunday morning.
‘This was a time in 2021 when support for staying in Afghanistan after President Biden’s decision had gone,’ he said. ‘It was an irreversible decision, and people were fundamentally asking, if you are going to fight another round of civil war, what’s the end? What’s the conclusion?’
First lady Jill also biked along the beach on Kiawah Island on Sunday morning
Biden stopped to take selfies and speak with bystanders on the South Carolina beach on Sunday, August 14, 2022
Biden did not, however, speak to press about news of the day, simply telling reporters he was enjoying his family vacation and making several calls
Ghani refused to say whether he felt ‘betrayed’ by America.
‘I don’t use those types of words,’ he said. ‘Because, our trauma, our pain needs not to go to the direction of betrayal or blame. We need to focus on what is now in front of us. We need to draw lessons from the past and deal with the present.’
‘Our country is in dire condition,’ Ghani insisted. ‘I do not have the luxury to engage in blaming or sense of betrayal. Superpowers, big powers decide on the base of their national interest. What I hope is that they’ve considered the implications of those.’
On August 15, 2021, Taliban fighters entered Afghanistan’s capital city Kabul and Ghani fled the country.
On that day, the U.S. completely evacuated diplomats from the embassy by helicopter.
The Taliban entered Kabul on August 15, 2021 and took over the capital city, leading then-President Ghani to evacuate. Pictured: Taliban fighters sit on an Afghan National Army (ANA) humvee the day Kabul fell to their forces
By the end of August 2021, a U.S. military C-17 carried the last American troops out of Afghanistan, marking the formal end of the longest war in U.S. history.
The withdrawal, however, was riddled with complications, including leaving behind in Afghanistan between 100 and 200 Americans and tens of thousands of Afghan allies.
Thirteen U.S. service members also lost their lives in the withdrawal in a suspected ISIS suicide bombing at the Kabul airport.
The withdrawal from Afghanistan last summer was riddled with complications, including the death of 13 U.S. service members in a suspected ISIS bombing at the Kabul airport, along with leaving between 100-200 Americans behind in Afghanistan upon total troop withdrawal
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