Former Democratic strategist James Carville said Wednesday that the chaotic situation in Afghanistan was not President Joe Biden’s fault.
Carville told MSNBC’s Brian Williams that the U.S. had lost the war in Afghanistan years ago and that the real problem was “hysterical and stupid” press coverage of the Taliban takeover and subsequent evacuation. (RELATED: ‘This Whole Noisy Identity Left’: Former Democratic Strategist James Carville Dissects His Own Party)
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Williams introduced Carville and asked whether he believed 2022 midterm voters would consider foreign policy and the situation in Afghanistan when they went to the polls.
“First of all, there is no elegant way to lose a war,” Carville replied. “We lost this war 15 years ago. All Joe Biden is doing is telling us what time it is. The hysterical and stupid coverage of the mainstream press is just awful just see.”
Carville went on to suggest that the resurgence of the coronavirus pandemic was more politically damaging to Biden than the withdrawal and evacuation from Afghanistan.
“This was a lost war and that Biden came to tell us the truth,” Carville continued. “The evacuations are actually going much better than a lot of people expected, but there’s no good way to lose a war, Brian. I didn’t serve in Vietnam, but I was in the Vietnam era — we lost that war. It looks bad. The country looks bad when you lose a war, you don’t look good. This war was lost a long time ago, and Joe Biden had nothing to do with it.”
Carville concluded by repeating his claim that there was really no good or attractive way to lose a war, saying that it had happened before and could happen again but that it was not on President Biden.
“Do they teach a course at West Point, or Annapolis, or Johns Hopkins on how to lose a war? No, there is no way, there is no good way, to lose a war. We lost this war, we lost it a long time ago before Joe Biden became president. All he is doing is getting us out of there. And, I’m sorry, this is not the Battle of Midway, all right? This is a defeat. And we gotta understand that as a country,” Carville said. “People never learn from history. I hope that some of these images will cause us to take a deep breath before we go off on some other Wall Street Journal-sponsored adventure around the world.”
The Pentagon confirmed Thursday morning that there was an explosion outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. The total number of casualties remains unclear, however, children, Taliban guards and three U.S. service members are reportedly among those wounded. Local Afghan media reports at least 11 deaths. (RELATED: Pentagon Confirms Large Explosion Outside Kabul Airport. Local Media Reports 11 Deaths, Dozens Injured)