Biden’s Pentagon spokesman insisted Afghanistan troop withdrawal wasn’t chaotic, but his emails say otherwise

A Pentagon spokesman has long insisted there was no “chaos” during the botched withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, but his own email correspondence shows senior officials were fully aware that the situation in the country was chaotic and headed toward deadly violence, according to newly released government documents.

The memos and emails describe the Biden/Harris administration’s political efforts to soften the truth to Americans about their first major foreign crisis. The documents were obtained through a Freedom of Information Act request from the nonprofit watchdog group Functional Government Initiative.

The notes show, for example, that while then-Defense Undersecretary for Communications John Kirby tried to fool reporters by portraying the troop withdrawal from Afghanistan as an orderly one, as President Joe Biden had promised, he was receiving briefings from diplomats and military officials in the theater who were desperately trying to stabilize the crisis, especially at the Kabul airport where the Americans were being evacuated.

One State Department situation report emailed to Kirby on Aug. 16, 2021 — 10 days before a suicide bomber killed 13 U.S. Marines — referred to “violations” and “lack of flight path security” at the airport, which led to an exchange of fire that killed five Afghans and likely wounded an American soldier. “The crowd was out of control, and the shooting was intended to break up the chaos,” the email said, citing an official U.S. statement in the country.

“Hundreds of people flooded the flight line and in at least one case boarded at least one US MIL (and other civilian) aircraft. Crowds continued to run past aircraft, including MIL aircraft,” the report added. Several Afghans who were clinging to US aircraft fell to their deaths.

Another email the same day from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s speechwriter urged Kirby to consider having the Pentagon chief host a public event with a foreign counterpart to provide “a major end to the chaos in Afghanistan.”

The day after the Marines were killed by a suicide bomber, Kirby received an email from an Army major who was trying to rescue his former Afghan-born translator. The email described a gruesome Taliban crackdown, saying they were “killing former translators,” and that those who tried to escape were frustrated by the disorganized U.S. effort to evacuate them. “It seems to be up to the discretion of the Taliban and the U.S. service members on the line in the midst of chaos,” Maj. Kirby wrote on Aug. 27, 2021.

In all, the words “chaos” and “chaotic” appeared more than two dozen times in internal Pentagon emails to Kirby, in stark contrast to simultaneous efforts by Kirby and then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki to downplay concerns that the administration had mishandled the troop withdrawal.

“Now some people are saying we should have started mass evacuations earlier and, ‘Couldn’t this have been done in a more orderly way?’” Kirby said after the recall. “I respectfully disagree.”

“The bottom line,” he added, “is that there is no evacuation at the end of a war that can be accomplished without the complexities, challenges, threats that we faced. None.”

Nearly two years after the troop withdrawal, Kirby defended the administration’s actions in the face of new reports following the end of the operation.

“The president is very proud of the way the men and women of the military, the foreign service, the intelligence community, et cetera, et cetera, conducted this withdrawal,” Kirby said at a news conference in April 2023, almost two years after the withdrawal. “I’ve been around operations my whole life, and there’s not one that’s ever gone perfectly according to plan.”

“For all the talk of chaos, I just didn’t see it. Not from where I was,” Kirby added.

Kirby, currently President Biden’s national security communications adviser, did not respond to a request for comment. Only news.

The group that gained access to Kirby’s emails said the documents reveal a troubling discrepancy between the Biden/Harris administration’s public statements from three years ago and the reality it was being told on the ground.

“These documents are Mr. Kirby’s talking point. They show what he saw – confusion, lack of communication, inadequate resources, tragic deaths. This situation showed an administration failing to cope and a military trying to save a nearly impossible situation. But the American public didn’t need these emails to tell them the truth about the chaos. They saw this shameful episode unfold in real time on their television screens,” said Peter McGinnis, a spokesman for the Functional Government Initiative.

The emails show that while the administration was dishonestly dealing with the public fallout from the troop withdrawal, Kirby was simultaneously receiving messages from senior officials and staff that emphasized the chaotic nature of the military response and the deteriorating situation.

In one example, a senior department speechwriter asked Kirby for advice on whether Secretary Lloyd Austin should deliver “warm words” publicly during a bilateral meeting with the Qatari Ministry of Defense, acknowledging that the situation was chaotic.

“Unless you feel like dragging him to the podium, this may be the first time SD has appeared in public since the collapse in Afghanistan,” speechwriter Warren Bass wrote in an Aug. 16, 2021, email. “At the very least, he would have to start with a major distinction in the Afghan chaos.”

“Warren — kind words are good. We’ll look to do a spray, given the circumstances,” Kirby replied.

That same day, Kirby sent an email containing a comprehensive State Department assessment summarizing events surrounding the troop withdrawal, including security breaches at Hamid Karzai International Airport, an intrusion into aircraft, and an exchange of fire as the military attempted to evacuate U.S. citizens and Afghan allies.

“Good summary from you,” Kirby wrote, referring to the email below.

In another email, Kirby alerted Defense Department advisers to the deteriorating security situation at the airport.

“I’m sure you’re all following along. But check out the below. Things aren’t looking good at HKIA,” he wrote. The attached email was a report from a captain, whose name has been redacted, saying that Marines had killed two gunmen in the crowd who were “threatening their post,” and details the deaths of several civilians who tried to grab onto a C-17 as it was taking off from the airport.

“It’s going to be a tough day. We’re still moving people and we plan to move the perimeter south,” the captain concluded.

The full FOIA publication can be read below:

Just weeks after Kirby’s internal emails, an attack by the ISIS-K terrorist group outside Hamid Karzai Airport killed 13 American soldiers and wounded more than 50 others. More than a dozen Afghan civilians, gathered in a large crowd around the airport’s Abbey Gate and trying to escape the Taliban, were also killed. The deadly attack came just days before the last American plane left the embattled country.

The families of the Gold Star-winning soldiers who died in the attack had previously criticized President Biden for refusing to say their names out loud.

Biden later played down the incident, claiming during a July presidential debate with former rival Donald Trump that no soldiers had died overseas under his administration. “The truth is, I’m the only president this century who doesn’t have a single soldier in this decade who has died anywhere in the world like he did,” he said.

Then-White House press secretary Jen Psaki also tried to publicly downplay the chaotic withdrawal and stick to the official White House version of events.

She testified at a closed-door hearing this summer that she “does not question the quality or veracity” of the information she allegedly shared with the American public, supporting the claim that the Biden administration downplayed the disastrous withdrawal, Free Washington Beacon it was announced on Friday.

Christopher Miller, a former acting defense secretary in the final months of the Trump administration, said the deception by senior officials is troubling, especially because it sends the wrong signal to the younger generation who will become military leaders.

“So when, when, when you have a… spokesman or a spokesperson who is deceptive, what message does that send to the young leaders who are in the military who had 30-40 soldiers, sailors, airmen, Marines, space rangers, Coast Guardsmen, whatever, under them, and those people see that their spokesman is deceptive, what message does that send to the force?” Miller said.John Solomon’s Reports” podcast.

“Because we always talk about this, you know… it’s like leading by example, and to see a senior spokesman who, let’s be honest… speaking for the Secretary of Defense, the senior civilian leader of the military in the United States, I find that awful, disturbing and disturbing to me more than anything I could say on your show or anywhere else, but you know what I’m saying, this is what Americans do, these are not the principles that we instill… in those who volunteer to serve our country,” Miller added.