Biden speech: President defends US exit from Afghanistan, pledging ‘no deadline’ to evacuate Americans

The White House Covid-19 response team and public health officials are providing updates on the nation’s response to the crisis, including the response as strained health systems in Louisiana and Gulf Coast states overwhelmed by infections begin to recover from Hurricane Ida.

The US put 6 million shots in arms last week, the most since 5 July, according to White House Covid-19 adviser Jeff Zients.

The rates of people getting their first shots has also “accelerated,” he said. In August, more than 14 million people got their first shots – 4 million more than in July.

The spikes follow increased vaccination requirements at businesses, institutions and at the federal level or within local governments in some states.

In Washington, the vaccination rate spiked 34 per cent after requirements were put in place, according to Zients

At Tyson Foods, after vaccine requirements were put in place, 72 per cent of its workforce is now innoculated, he said.

“Bottom line, vaccination requirements work,” he said. “They drive up vaccination rates.”

He urged other businesses to “step up and do their part to help end the pandemic faster.”

Trump called his successor a “disgrace” after right-wing media accused the president of glancing at his watch while paying respects to the 13 US service members who were killed in Afghanistan during a ceremony in Dover, Delaware, as the remains of the dead arrived back in the US.

The claim spread across right-wing media, using manipulated video and a still image from a split-second capture of the president crossing his arms after the remains left the tarmac.

White House pool reporters were told the president’s speech has been delayed. They will receive another announcement to gather, according to the pool. It was scheduled for 2.45pm EST.

Joe Biden is now speaking from the White House. After walking to a podium, he announced: “Last night in Kabul, the United States ended 20 years of war in Afghanistan.”

Biden has called mass evacuations of Afghan and Americans an “extraordinary success” following the implosion of Afghan forces and Taliban dominance.

“The extraordinary success of this mission was due to the incredible skill, bravery, and selfless courage of the United States military and our diplomats and intelligence professionals,” he said.

He called it “not a mission of war, but in a mission of mercy.”

After imposing the 31 August deadline for full US withdrawal, Biden said that “the assumption” among his administration and military officials was that thousands of Afghan security forces would provide a strong defence from the Taliban’s seizure in transition.

“That assumption, that the Afghan government would be able to hold on ... turned out not to be accurate,” he said.

He “instructed the military to prepare for every eventuality.”

“Leaving on 31 August is not an arbitrary deadline,” he said. “It was designed to save American lives.”

Biden slammed Trump’s agreement with the Taliban to withdraw by 1 May without any cooperative governance agreements along with agreements to release thousands of Taliban prisoners, which Biden suggests allowed the Taliban to be in its strongest position in more than a decade.

Biden said the administration was faced with reneging on withdrawal and committing more troops to the 20-year war, or “between leaving, and escalating.”

“I was not going to extend this forever war, and I was not extending a forever exit,” he said.

The president said that “90 per cent of Americans in Afghanistan who wanted to leave were able to leave” while adding that for those who remained beyond the 31 August withdrawal deadline, “there is no deadline.”

“We remain committed to get them out, if they want to come out,” he said.

The US – joined by more than 100 countries as part of a resolution ensuring people seeking to leave Kabul have a “safe passage” to do so – will ensure “the Taliban upholds those commitments,” including the delivery of humanitarian aid, Biden said.

“We don’t take them by their word alone, but by their actions. And we have leverage to make sure those commitments are met,” he said.

The effort sends a “clear message of what the international community expects the Taliban to deliver on moving forward, notably, freedom of travel, freedom to leave,” he said.