As the American Empire dies, it's about time that you diversify into something that actually has some lasting value like precious metals! Another month of inflation, another month where that paper money you're carrying around is worth less. What is your plan to protect your savings? You have homeowners insurance in case of a fire. What insurance do you have in place of inflation? Sets in further and pushes prices even higher. Even folks at the Fed are now saying that this inflation is probably not transitory. If you haven't reached out to Birch Gold to diversify your IRA or 401k into a precious metals IRA, do it today. Text BONUS to 474747 to take the first step in protecting your savings today. The Ben Shapiro Show is sponsored by Express VPN. You have a right to privacy. Defend your rights at ExpressVPN.org/DefendYourRights at ExpressVpn.org. Ben Shapiro is a writer, speaker, and podcaster. His work has been featured in the New York Times, USA Today, CBS Radio, NPR, and many other publications. He is a regular contributor to the Financial Times, the Wall Street Journal, and the Huffington Post. Ben Shapiro's new book, is out now in paperback and is available for pre-order on Amazon Prime, Blu-ray on Amazon, and also rental on Vimeo, wherever you get your copy of the book is available. You can get a copy of his new novel, The Devil Next Door and watch it on Audible, wherever else you re listening to it on the internet, too. If you're listening to the podcast, you can do it? Subscribe to Ben Shapiro s newest podcast on the podcast? Subscribe on iTunes or wherever else is listening to him on the Internet, he's on Podchronicity? or watch his podcast on your favorite podcasting platform, Ben Shapiro Podcasts? You get 20% off his podcasting service, he'll be getting $5 or more than $5,000, you'll get $10,000 and get an ad discount, and he'll get a VIP membership plan, too get $50,000 in VIP access, plus he'll also get a lifetime ad discount when he gets a VIP discount, he says it's all exclusive promo code plus he does it all that gets $5 gets $50 or more, plus a lifetime of VIP access and he says so, you get $5 and he gets an ad-free VIP membership?
00:00:00.000American troops leave Afghanistan and leave hundreds of Americans, thousands of green card holders and tens of thousands of Afghan allies behind.
00:00:07.000The Biden White House pats itself on the back for a job well done and the Taliban take over our helicopters.
00:00:26.000We'll get to all the devastating news in just one moment.
00:00:29.000First, your reminder that as the American empire dies, it's about time that you diversify into something that actually has some lasting value, like precious metals.
00:00:38.000You see it at the pump, the grocery store, and construction costs.
00:00:40.000Another month of the highest inflation since 2008.
00:00:43.000Another month where that paper money you're carrying around is worth less.
00:00:46.000What is your plan to protect your savings?
00:00:48.000You have homeowners insurance in case of a fire.
00:00:50.000What insurance do you have in place of inflation?
00:00:52.000Sets in further and pushes prices even higher.
00:00:54.000Even folks at the Fed are now saying that this inflation is probably not transitory.
00:00:58.000My insurance plan is gold and silver from Birch Gold Group.
00:01:01.000If you haven't reached out to Birch Gold to diversify your IRA or 401k into a precious metals IRA, do it today.
00:01:16.000Have them help you safeguard your retirement savings.
00:01:18.000Text BEN to 474747 to claim your free no obligation information kit on holding gold and silver in a tax sheltered account again. Text my name Ben to 474747 to take the first step in protecting your savings today. Text my name Ben to 474747 to get started today. Alrighty, so Americans are going to have to decide whether we wish to be a world power, whether we wish to be the most powerful country on planet earth, whether we wish our values to be promulgated around the world,
00:01:46.000or whether we wish to just sink back in a warm bath, eat ourselves to death, and then slit our wrists in our gluttony.
00:01:52.000That seems to be the choice being made by the Biden administration.
00:01:56.000That we ought to spend money that has not yet been created in the trillions of dollars.
00:02:01.000That we ought to pay ourselves to do nothing.
00:02:03.000That we ought to pat ourselves on the back for doing all of this in the name of equity and social justice.
00:02:07.000And meanwhile, that we ought to allow other more up-and-coming countries to fill the vacuum left by the United States in the wake of our surrender to world events.
00:02:26.000Very often, empire is simply a reality of the world.
00:02:29.000This does not mean the United States must go around conquering countries and then taking them over as colonial assets or anything like that.
00:02:35.000It just means that when you're a very powerful country, you have a lot of interests in the world.
00:02:38.000Those interests are frequently challenged.
00:02:40.000And if those interests are challenged, you have to defend yourself.
00:02:43.000And when you leave a vacuum, somebody else fills that vacuum.
00:02:46.000So for all the talk about how America needs to shirk off its burgeoning empire, how America doesn't have to be an empire, how we need to bring all the troops home, how we need to consolidate it at home, the history of world powers demonstrates that this is not actually an option.
00:03:00.000You either are aggressive in foreign affairs, in defense of your own propriety, in defense of your own priorities and your own values, or that gap is filled by somebody who hates you, who ends up taking those resources and using them against you.
00:03:14.000It applies all the way from the Spanish empire through the English empire, certainly through the American empire, applies to the Roman empire as well.
00:03:26.000Always and forever, somebody fills the gap.
00:03:28.000And so, your choice is, do you stand up for your prerogative as the world's leading state, or do you not?
00:03:35.000Do you have enough confidence in your own values that you stand up for that, or do you not?
00:03:39.000Are you so busy worrying about whether our troops learn about transgenderism and Genderless bathrooms and whether our kids learn about critical race theory that you don't care about world affairs or that you believe that America is so evil that it has no place on the world stage.
00:03:55.000Or do you believe that America still is a repository of phenomenal values and that the world is done an enormous good?
00:04:03.000When the United States fills the gap left by great powers.
00:04:06.000Great powers are not going away, gang.
00:04:47.000There's a king of Thessaly who is called Erysichthon.
00:04:52.000And I apologize if I mispronounce the name.
00:04:54.000But this particular king in Greek mythology, he was so greedy that he decided that he was going to cut down a sacred forest outside of his castle.
00:05:06.000And he was warned by everybody, don't cut down the sacred forest outside the castle because that is a repository of our values.
00:05:10.000If you cut down that sacred forest, then something bad will happen.
00:05:13.000He cuts down the sacred forest, and in return, he is cursed.
00:05:16.000He's cursed with an unquenchable hunger in his stomach.
00:05:20.000And no matter what, he cannot satiate himself.
00:05:41.000That is, I think, an excellent metaphor for what a large swath of the country would have us do at this point.
00:05:49.000That we ought to satiate our own hunger by eating ourselves, by cannibalizing our own society, by cannibalizing our values.
00:05:56.000And we've cut down the sacred forest of our values.
00:05:59.000And now the only question is, what is going to satisfy that hunger?
00:06:02.000And apparently what's going to satisfy that hunger is endless social welfare benefits, endless spending, endless deficits, destruction of many of the key institutions that were fundamental to our society because those were tied to that sacred forest that we just cut down.
00:06:17.000And then, what inevitably happens to crumbling empires?
00:06:22.000I mean, in the end, crumbling empires do not survive.
00:06:26.000And again, that is not because we opted to be an empire and then we spread our domain too far, and then because we had imperial overreach, then we had to regress.
00:06:37.000Afghanistan is a case in point of that not being true.
00:06:39.000We were expending minimal resources to keep that country stable and to prevent it from falling into the hands of terrorist enemies and to the hands of our geo-strategic enemies.
00:06:48.000This was not about imperial overreach.
00:06:51.000This was purely and simply about an America that does not have the willpower to be what it is and recognize what it is on the world stage.
00:06:59.000It's about an America that is rightly uncomfortable with colonialism and imperialism.
00:07:04.000But is wrong-headed when it comes to the realities of the world.
00:07:08.000And that is somebody always fills the gap.
00:07:11.000And the people who are filling the gap are some of the worst people on earth.
00:07:15.000Which brings us to the actual news of the day.
00:07:17.000The final American military pullout from Afghanistan.
00:07:20.000We should put an asterisk by final because the chances that in the future we'll have to go back into Afghanistan in order to kill terrorists or in order to rescue American citizens are quite high.
00:07:29.000We'll get to that news in just one moment.
00:07:30.000First, let us talk about being an adult.
00:07:32.000If you are an adult, you have to take care of your business.
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00:07:39.000You're walking down the street, suddenly you're mauled by a bear.
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00:08:47.000PolicyGenius, when it comes to insurance, it's nice and incredibly important to get it right.
00:08:51.000Okay, so as of yesterday, last night, Sometime in the evening, Eastern Time, the last U.S.
00:08:58.000military plane carrying evacuees out of Afghanistan took off and left Afghan airspace.
00:09:04.000General Kenneth McKenzie, the commander of U.S.
00:09:06.000CENTCOM, said at a press briefing the Biden administration was still in the process of trying to get American citizens out of Afghanistan, even though the United States no longer has any presence either diplomatic or military there.
00:09:16.000According to the New York Times, the last vestiges of the American presence in Afghanistan departed the Kabul airport on Monday, halting an occupation that cost more than 170,000 lives and ended with a complete takeover of the country by the adversary the U.S.
00:09:56.000The country is now completely in the hands of the Taliban, which we'll discuss in just one moment.
00:09:59.000onto transport planes before loading the remaining service members.
00:10:02.000The last Air Force C-17 with the call sign Moose 85 departed at midnight local time and carrying the final American remaining forces, a US military official said.
00:10:16.000The country is now completely in the hands of the Taliban, which we'll discuss in just one moment.
00:10:21.000Everything that could have been botched here was botched.
00:10:24.000From the complete destruction of the Afghan military at the hands of the Biden administration, which removed all close air support and military contractors, to the complete surrender of Kabul, even though the Taliban apparently offered, according to the Washington Post, control of Kabul to the Americans to help broker some sort of agreement with the interim government.
00:10:42.000And even if that hadn't worked, to at least ensure that Americans could get out, the Biden administration was like, nope, just give us Kabul airport and you guys provide the security.
00:10:50.000And then apparently on the way out, we allegedly killed an Afghan family.
00:10:54.000So because Joe Biden was humiliated by that terror attack at the Abbey Gate at Kabul International Airport, according to local reports on the ground, the United States fired a drone missile at what was supposed to be a suicide bomber.
00:11:09.000And now the credible reports from the New York Times are that actually we didn't hit a suicide bomber.
00:11:13.000We instead killed a person named Zamari Ahmadi, who apparently had ties to the American military in the past, and that killed 10 people, seven of them kids.
00:11:26.000So it is not clear exactly what happened there, so we're still waiting for the details to emerge.
00:11:31.000Suffice it to say, it is hard to imagine a more blown withdrawal than this one.
00:11:34.000Even if you think withdrawal was a good idea.
00:11:37.000Last night, the Biden administration did not release the president from his rubber-padded room.
00:11:45.000He is still trapped in the basement watching Madlock and eating oatmeal.
00:11:48.000You would imagine that after the United States withdraws from a 20-year commitment in Afghanistan and leaves behind hundreds if not thousands of Americans, Thousands of green card holders, hundreds of thousands maybe, of Afghan allies who worked with us, and millions of people who don't wish to live under the predations of the Taliban, that after all of that happened, you would imagine the President of the United States might make an address.
00:12:11.000Last night, Joe Biden was busy hiding in the basement.
00:12:14.000He actually put out a written statement, and then he sent out the head of CENTCOM and the Secretary of State to take the heat.
00:12:20.000Here is the statement put out by President Joe Biden.
00:12:23.000He said, quote, I want to thank our commanders and the men and women serving under them for their execution of the dangerous retrograde from Afghanistan as scheduled in the early morning hours of August 31st Kabul time, with no further loss of American lives.
00:12:35.000The past 17 days have seen our troops execute the largest airlift in U.S.
00:12:41.000citizens, citizens of our allies and Afghan allies of the United States.
00:12:44.000They've done it with unmatched courage, professionalism and resolve.
00:12:47.000Now our 20 year military presence in Afghanistan has ended.
00:12:50.000So he's going to pat himself on the back for all of this.
00:12:52.000For the 13 dead service members, for the 170 dead in that suicide bombing, for the millions of people who are going to be living under the wonderful Taliban regime, for the re-rise of Al Qaeda and ISIS.
00:13:04.000All of that's good, according to Joe Biden.
00:13:07.000According to Joe Biden, Joe Biden is the best president he's ever seen.
00:13:10.000Biden continues, tomorrow afternoon, I will address the American people on my decision not to extend our presence in Afghanistan beyond August 31st.
00:13:17.000For now, I will report it was the unanimous recommendation of the Joint Chiefs and all of our commanders on the ground to end our airlift mission as planned.
00:13:24.000Okay, first of all, if that's true, if it was the unanimous recommendation of all military members on the ground to leave Americans behind, every single person in that chain of command should be fired.
00:13:53.000Their view is that ending our military mission was the best way to protect the lives of our troops and secure the prospects of civilian departures for those who want to leave Afghanistan in the weeks and months ahead, which is just nonsensical.
00:14:03.000Right now, Joe Biden is claiming that the best way to secure the exit of Afghan allies, of green card holders, and of the Americans who are stuck in Afghanistan is to leave.
00:14:16.000I know that when somebody has been kidnapped, the best strategy for getting the kidnapper to release them is to completely leave them alone.
00:14:28.000Says Joe Biden in this long statement.
00:14:30.000Again, he did not appear on camera last night because the president is not sentient, the president is not with us, and the president happens to have just done one of the great immoral acts in American foreign policy history.
00:14:39.000He says, I've asked the Secretary of State to lead the continued coordination with our international partners to ensure safe passage for any Americans, Afghan partners and foreign nationals who want to leave Afghanistan.
00:14:49.000This will include work to build on the UN Security Council resolution passed this afternoon that sent the clear message of what the international community expects the Taliban to deliver on Notably, freedom of travel.
00:15:00.000Oh man, a UN Security Council resolution?
00:15:42.000Diplomacy has been characterized as the velvet glove around the iron fist, but there's no iron fist, it's just a stupid glove.
00:15:49.000And that's basically the Biden administration's strategy.
00:15:51.000He says it will include ongoing diplomacy in Afghanistan.
00:15:54.000Oh, weird, because we withdrew all of our diplomats.
00:15:56.000And coordination with partners in the region to reopen the airport, allowing for continued departure for those who want to leave and delivery of humanitarian assistance to the people of Afghanistan.
00:16:40.000I know, because pretty much all the t-shirts I own are from Cutts shirts.
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00:18:23.000First, for our troops and diplomats who carried out this mission of mercy in Kabul and at tremendous risk with such unparalleled results, an airlift that evacuated tens of thousands more people than any imagined possible.
00:18:32.000Really, did any imagine that possible?
00:18:56.000So, I am perfectly grateful for the people who made the sacrifices that I did not.
00:19:01.000I am not grateful at all for a Commander-in-Chief who is a buffoon and a fool and who has made all of those sacrifices nugatory over the passage of time.
00:19:12.000When he says we should join him in grateful prayer, he says we should pray for the troops and diplomats.
00:19:17.000But what he really means is that we should be grateful and prayerful to him because, of course, he's the one who organized this massive, incredible, victorious airlift.
00:19:25.000Second, to the network of volunteers and veterans who helped identify those needing evacuation, guide them to the airport, and provide support along the way.
00:19:31.000By the way, if you talk to the network of volunteers and veterans, they will say the Biden administration was essentially no help.
00:19:37.000Why was it left to a network of volunteers and veterans voluntarily working outside the auspices of the American government to get people out?
00:19:47.000And third, to everyone who is now and who will welcome our Afghan allies to their new homes around the world and in the United States.
00:19:53.000You know what would have been better is if they could have stayed in Afghanistan.
00:19:57.000You know what that would have required, by the way?
00:19:58.000A presence on the ground of about 3,000 American troops, according to the Joint Chiefs of Staff, And a continued financial obligation of less money than we just handed to the Taliban in terms of military weaponry.
00:20:10.000We apparently handed about $85 billion in military weaponry to the Taliban.
00:20:13.000We were spending about $70 billion a year in Afghanistan to simply hold up the country.
00:20:20.000And then finally, says Joe Biden, I want to end with a moment of gratitude for the sacrifice of the 13 service members in Afghanistan who gave their lives last week to save the tens of thousands.
00:20:27.000And then he lists off all of the people who were killed in the suicide bombing that he made possible by handing security over to the Taliban.
00:20:36.000What unmitigated, really, the utter shamelessness of this president.
00:20:42.000He should feel a deep and abiding shame.
00:20:44.000Instead, he is sitting at home in his recliner, Thinking about what a wonderful job he has just done.
00:20:52.000Not only in effectuating the decay of America as a country, but also in putting American troops in harm's way and forcing volunteers to do the work that he wouldn't allow the military to do.
00:21:02.000What a disgrace the President of the United States is.
00:21:15.000Okay, so, the President was apparently too embarrassed to actually go out and announce this thing himself.
00:21:19.000So instead, he sent out his lackeys to do it for him.
00:21:22.000Today, we are going to get the President of the United States wobbling his way through another lackluster speech, I am sure.
00:21:28.000But, as of last night, he wasn't going to take any of the questions, so he sent everybody else to go out and take the hit.
00:21:33.000Here is General Kenneth McKenzie of CENTCOM announcing the completion of the removal of final troops yesterday.
00:21:39.000I'm here to announce the completion of our withdrawal from Afghanistan and the end of the military mission to evacuate American citizens, third-country nationals, and vulnerable Afghans.
00:21:49.000The last C-17 lifted off from Hamad Karzai International Airport on August 30th this afternoon at 3.29 p.m.
00:22:15.000Again, every single person who's part of this chain of command should be ashamed of themselves and should be fired.
00:22:21.000Why is it that nobody gets fired over this?
00:22:23.000You lose a 20-year war to a bunch of ragtag cave dwellers who you handed American military equipment and you're patting yourselves on the back.
00:22:32.000Tonight's withdrawal signifies both the end of the military component of the evacuation, but also the end of the nearly 20-year mission that began in Afghanistan shortly after September 11, 2001.
00:22:46.000It's a mission that brought Osama bin Laden to a just end, along with many of his al-Qaeda co-conspirators.
00:22:55.000servicemembers and civilians killed, and more than 20,000 who were injured.
00:23:01.000Okay, so how's all that going back in Afghanistan, by the way?
00:23:05.000Well, we'll get to that in just a moment, because suffice it to say that all the purposes for which we went have now been completely overthrown.
00:23:11.000Remember, Joe Biden said we only went there for two reasons.
00:23:13.000One, to kill Osama bin Laden, which was one reason, but that was not the biggest reason.
00:23:17.000And the second was to stop the threat of Afghanistan being a terror base.
00:23:20.000Afghanistan is now a giant terror base, run by the same exact people who housed Osama bin Laden.
00:23:25.000And by the way, who have welcomed back in Al-Qaeda.
00:23:28.000ISIS is now extremely active in Afghanistan.
00:23:32.000And with the tacit backing of not only the Pakistani ISI in many ways, but also the Chinese military, I'm sure.
00:23:39.000So things are significantly worse than they were in 2001.
00:23:42.000By the way, they're armed with $85 billion of sophisticated American military equipment.
00:23:54.000First, let us talk about your sleep quality.
00:23:56.000So I will admit I have not been sleeping well since this all went down, but when I do climb onto my mattress at night, not the one made of money, the other one, that is my Helix Sleep Mattress.
00:24:06.000It's more comfortable than the mattress made of money.
00:24:25.000So they have several different mattress models to choose from.
00:24:27.000They have soft, medium, and firm mattresses.
00:24:29.000Mattress is great for cooling you down if you sleep hot.
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00:24:42.000You don't ever need to go to a mattress store again.
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00:24:46.000Helix has been recommended by multiple leading chiropractors and doctors of sleep medicine as a go-to solution for improving sleep.
00:26:35.000So you, the law-abiding American citizen, you cannot have an AR-15, but the Taliban will just hand them our helicopters.
00:26:42.000And they're using it to good effect, the helicopters, allegedly.
00:26:45.000There's video that emerged from Kabul yesterday of them using our helicopters to excellent effect, namely to take their enemies and tie them to the bottom of the helicopters and then hang them, Scarface style.
00:26:59.000You can see there is a person who is hanging from the bottom of the helicopter.
00:27:05.000So, things are going incredibly well in Taliban land already.
00:27:09.000Meanwhile, remember that time that Joe Biden said Al-Qaeda wasn't in Afghanistan, that we defeated Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan, so our purpose there was done?
00:27:15.000Oh yeah, one of the Al-Qaeda leaders is back.
00:27:18.000In fact, this is one of the co-founders of Al-Qaeda, along with Osama bin Laden, good friend to Osama bin Laden.
00:27:22.000he arrives back in Afghanistan to plot its and cheers.
00:28:27.000We should be thankful and grateful, guys.
00:28:29.000We should be praying in gratitude to the President of the United States.
00:28:35.000By the way, Jen Psaki was asked, OK, so you said that there's going to be, quote unquote, over the horizon capability here, right?
00:28:41.000You said that we're going to be able to strike at targets inside Afghanistan, terror targets inside Afghanistan.
00:28:45.000She was asked about this yesterday, and she had no good answer as to whether we have any sort of actual over the horizon capacity.
00:28:53.000Is there any concern that we're limited in our ability to respond in a timely manner if we've got eight hours of flight time and then they can only hang out over the target for like four or five hours before they've got to turn around and go back?
00:29:04.000Is there a future sort of ongoing worry that we're going to be behind the eight ball again?
00:29:11.000Well, first I would say the fact that we have had two successful strikes confirmed by CENTCOM tells you that our over-the-horizon capacity works and is working.
00:29:54.000Jimmy Carter became not president because there were 50 Americans who were taken hostage in Iran.
00:29:59.000We have left at the very least 250 Americans under the tender care of the Taliban, plus thousands of green card holders, plus tens of thousands of people who worked with us.
00:30:08.000Now, this administration's been lying about this all along.
00:30:11.000Remember, it was just a couple of weeks ago that Joe Biden said, if there are American citizens left behind, we'll get them out.
00:30:16.000Remember, he said this to George Stephanopoulos.
00:31:21.000We are committed to bringing Americans who want to come home, home.
00:31:24.000We are in touch with them via phone, via text, via email, via any way that we can possibly reach Americans to get them home if they want to return home.
00:31:32.000There are no Americans stranded is the White House's official position on what's happening in Afghanistan right now.
00:31:38.000I'm just calling you out for saying that we are stranding Americans in Afghanistan when we have been very clear that we are not leaving Americans who want to return home.
00:32:20.000But I want to emphasize again that simply because we have left, That doesn't mean the opportunities for both Americans that are in Afghanistan that want to leave and Afghans who want to leave.
00:32:32.000They will not be denied that opportunity.
00:32:34.000I think our Department of State is going to work that very hard in the days and weeks.
00:32:36.000Oh man, the Department of State is going to work it super hard.
00:32:38.000We'll get to the Department of State in a second.
00:32:40.000They're going to tickle the hell out of those Taliban members.
00:32:42.000They're going to hit them with pillows made of foam.
00:32:44.000They're going to send them some strongly worded statements to those illiterate cavemen.
00:32:51.000Really, like, if you're General McKenzie, at some point don't you just have to say, I'm not going out there and I'm not gonna repeat this garbage?
00:32:57.000Aren't you gonna say, like, get somebody else to be your spokesperson on this?
00:34:11.000The military phase of this operation has ended.
00:34:14.000The diplomatic sequel to that will now begin.
00:34:17.000And I believe our Department of State is going to work very hard to allow any American citizens that are left, and we think the citizens that were not brought out, number in the low, very low hundreds.
00:34:30.000I believe that we're going to work, we're going to be able to get those people out.
00:34:32.000I think we're also going to negotiate very hard and very aggressively to get our other Afghan partners out.
00:34:38.000We're going to negotiate hard with John McClane.
00:35:02.000And by the way, you're going to bribe them.
00:35:03.000The only question is whether you're going to do it illegally.
00:35:06.000The Biden administration is now claiming, as we will see, that they are going to funnel the money through the UN, which presumably will make it legal.
00:35:51.000I think we did a very good job of getting everybody that we could get out, given the unique challenges of the tactical situation on the ground.
00:35:59.000The fact that really, not all Americans wanted to leave.
00:36:02.000There are Americans that, for a variety of reasons, want to stay for a while.
00:36:05.000I think we'll go back and they'll have the opportunity to revisit that and come out if they want.
00:36:18.000Not only did we leave early, none of the last jets had Americans on them.
00:36:22.000So for all this talk about how we were working until the last minute to get people out, we absolutely were not.
00:36:25.000Here's McKenzie saying, yep, we sent some empty jets back.
00:36:29.000No American citizens came out on the last, what we call the joint tactical exfiltration, the last five jets to leave.
00:36:36.000We maintained the ability to bring them in up until immediately before departure, but we were not able to bring any Americans out.
00:36:43.000That activity ended probably about 12 hours before our exit, although we continued the outreach and would have been prepared to bring them on until the very last minute, but none of them made it to the airport and were able to be accommodated.
00:37:15.000Here's General McKenzie, just unreal, talking about how wonderful the Taliban have been.
00:37:21.000I will tell you, the Taliban have been very pragmatic and very businesslike as we have approached this withdrawal.
00:37:28.000We did not turn it over to the Taliban.
00:37:31.000General Donahue, one of the last things he did before leaving was talk to the Taliban commander that he had been coordinating with about the time we were going to leave, just to let them know that we were leaving.
00:37:41.000But there was no discussion of turning anything over of that at all.
00:37:47.000You know, really, I was kind of surprised at their pragmatism and their businesslike manner as they allowed a suicide bomber to kill a bunch of Americans and as they threatened to kill all of our allies and were dragging people out into the streets house by house and beating women.
00:38:06.000In a second, we're going to get to the State Department, which again, remains.
00:38:09.000When you talk about the quote-unquote deep state, you know, career bureaucrats who continue to design policy despite being lifelong incompetence, the State Department is the repository of all these ne'er-do-wells.
00:38:18.000It's just a repository of useless human beings.
00:38:21.000We'll get to the pathetic State Department in just one second and its head, Tony Blinken, who never should be in charge of anything up to and including a popsicle stand.
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00:41:11.000Alrighty, so by the way, we didn't just leave Americans behind.
00:41:19.000For those of you who are in the category of I care about dogs more than I care about human beings, I'm just going to point out that the U.S.
00:41:26.000military abandoned its contracted working dogs to the Taliban, which means they're just going to shoot them.
00:41:31.000The American Humane Society condemned the effective death sentence the U.S.
00:41:34.000withdrawal from Kabul in favor of the Islamist Taliban militia has spelled for contract working dogs.
00:41:38.000According to Robert Ganzert, American Humane's president and CEO, these brave dogs do the same dangerous life-saving work as our military working dogs deserve a far better fate than the ones to which they've been condemned.
00:41:47.000It sickens us to sit idly by and watch these brave dogs who valiantly served our country be put to death, or worse.
00:41:54.000Mr. Ganser said the contract dogs should have their status upgraded to prevent such future abandonments.
00:41:59.000Well, presumably they won't be abandoned in the future the same way because Biden won't be president forever.
00:42:04.000But, you know, just a pathetic capper.
00:42:06.000Meanwhile, the State Department trotted out the inimitable Tony Blinken.
00:42:11.000So Blinken, who always has a deer in the headlights look.
00:44:38.000Let me tell you, if I read that letter, says Tony Blinken, I would probably stop for a moment and I would think about it very seriously.
00:44:46.000Here's Tony Blinken talking about this incredible, masterful letter.
00:44:51.000The kind of letter that changes the world.
00:44:54.000More than half the world's countries have joined us in insisting that the Taliban let people travel outside Afghanistan freely.
00:45:02.000As of today, more than 100 countries have said that they expect the Taliban to honor travel authorizations by our countries.
00:45:10.000And just a few short hours ago, the United Nations Security Council passed a resolution that enshrines that responsibility, laying the groundwork to hold the Taliban accountable if they renege.
00:45:22.000So the international chorus on this is strong, and it will stay strong.
00:45:45.000Also, you know, he says there's a UN Security Council resolution.
00:45:48.000This is from Politico, quote, A divided UN Security Council pressed the Taliban on Monday to live up to its pledges to let people leave Afghanistan after the US withdrew its forces.
00:45:56.000But China and Russia refused to back the resolution, which they portrayed as diverting blame for chaos surrounding the US pullout.
00:46:03.000Oh, so like he says it was the UN Security Council resolution.
00:46:06.000And so everyone's on board, except for like the two countries that now have the biggest stake in Afghanistan because we left.
00:46:13.000China, which is there for the rare earth minerals, and Russia, which is there to basically rub America's nose in it.
00:46:19.000So the two other competitive world powers with the United States, China and Russia, are both not interested in whether the Taliban allow people to leave.
00:46:26.000But Tony Blinken says diplomacy is the way forward.
00:46:30.000The measure also calls for letting humanitarian aid flow, upholding human rights, and combating terrorism.
00:46:35.000Well, I mean, if the forces that just left in ignominious surrender call for upholding human rights and combating terrorism, then probably that's what's going to happen.
00:46:44.000French Deputy Ambassador Nathalie Brodhurst said after the vote, quote, The eyes of all Afghans are watching this council and they expect clear support from the international community.
00:47:40.000Every step we take will be based not on what a Taliban-led government says, but what it does to live up to its commitments.
00:47:49.000The Taliban seeks international legitimacy and support.
00:47:52.000Our message is, any legitimacy and any support will have to be earned.
00:47:57.000And if you don't earn it, then you won't get it, you cavemen who can't read, but who have our military equipment and who we just surrendered to.
00:48:04.000Okay, then Blinken decided, you know what?
00:48:29.000Everybody will be left behind the Biden administration's back.
00:48:32.000Such courage, such unbelievable courage.
00:48:36.000All righty, meanwhile, you can start to see the media turning in real time from Joe Biden is a disaster and this is horrifying to probably Joe Biden was right and he knew this was coming.
00:48:48.000So the coverage from the people on the ground in Afghanistan who have spent time there, who have dealt with the American military there, who have spent years there covering the conflict, that coverage was universally negative last night.
00:48:58.000And the media were fighting mad about it on all the networks.
00:49:00.000They were saying, you know, this is brutal.
00:50:15.000It had been basically a band in the United States was turning over the whole thing to the Taliban.
00:50:18.000And Engel says, yeah, we've turned this country over to the Taliban.
00:50:22.000This was a humbling day for the United States, a day of humility for a world superpower.
00:50:29.000Afghanistan has been called the graveyard of empires.
00:50:33.000The British Empire fought in Afghanistan and withdrew in defeat.
00:50:37.000The Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan for 10 years and withdrew in defeat.
00:50:41.000The United States fought in Afghanistan for 20 years and is now, tonight, withdrawing, just completed its withdrawal in defeat.
00:50:51.000Okay, meanwhile, ABC's Ian Pinnell says we're abandoning these people on the ground, which of course is true.
00:50:55.000I think many people will be left questioning tonight about the way those decisions were made, the way the evacuation was handled, and a final thought, really, just to those people still stuck in Afghanistan, at home, afraid, and feeling abandoned.
00:51:12.000But you can see, in real time, as the media try to switch the narrative.
00:51:16.000So, for example, the New York Times has a piece called, quote, So, they just went and they interviewed a bunch of people who agree with Joe Biden.
00:51:27.000And the New York Times is holding up California's 39th congressional district.
00:51:30.000That's the district with Hacienda Heights in it.
00:51:31.000They're holding up that district as a swing district.
00:51:33.000It went 54-44 for Joe Biden in the last presidential election.
00:51:38.000So, the New York Times found a Democrat-lean district And then they found a bunch of people who agree with Joe Biden.
00:51:46.000Quote, Brenda and Leo Ortiz had paid enough attention to the news from Afghanistan that it was hardly a surprise when their 11-year-old son asked them a question.
00:51:52.000How could so many Americans be killed last week?
00:52:01.000Ortiz was focused on more personally pressing matters.
00:52:03.000Her three children were completing their first month of in-person schooling since the start of the pandemic.
00:52:08.000She said she was saddened by the death of Americans, but she wondered aloud how she could possibly focus on a crisis on the other side of the world when there was more than enough to worry about in the United States, in her own backyard.
00:52:17.000I don't think it was ever going to be easy to leave, Ms.
00:52:19.000Ortiz said while watching her children play soccer.
00:52:22.000At the end of the day, our country is where we need to be focusing.
00:52:24.000We have our own issues, getting the kids to school, healing our communities.
00:52:29.000At a time of deep partisan division in a Southern California congressional district, where Democrats narrowly outnumber Republicans, voters interviewed over the weekend were largely united on at least one issue.
00:52:38.000After a two decade war, President Biden was right to pull American troops out of Afghanistan.
00:52:42.000Well, look to the New York Times to immediately ignore all of the current polling, which shows that this move is deeply unpopular, that Joe Biden blew it in massive fashion.
00:52:50.000And instead, find anecdotal evidence that a bunch of people agree with the decision to pull out of Afghanistan more broadly.
00:52:56.000In every poll, Americans say they don't want us to be in Afghanistan.
00:53:00.000Then when they are asked, how do you feel about having like 2,500 troops in Afghanistan just to make sure the Taliban don't take over the country and so we can hit Al Qaeda, a majority of Americans support that.
00:53:08.000This is the problem with polling data.
00:53:10.000Polling data very often depends on exactly what you are polling.
00:53:14.000If you poll Americans on the broad question of whether we ought to have troops in far-flung lands, Americans will say no.
00:53:19.000If you poll Americans on the exact number of troops, the exact cost, and what it is we are seeking to prevent, Americans are generally in the assent.
00:53:39.000So what the New York Times does here is they just go and they find a couple of people who agree with Joe Biden and they weave it into a front page story.
00:53:46.000The bombing at Kabul airport says the New York Times had done little to change their minds.
00:53:49.000The killing of 13 soldiers leaving them more numb than saddened.
00:53:52.000Many said they were simply too overwhelmed to pay close attention to another overseas crisis.
00:53:56.000We have a lot of mending here to do, said Ms.
00:53:58.000Ortiz, who considers herself a political moderate and voted for Mr. Biden.
00:54:03.000Afghanistan could be ignored, say many of the voters in Hacienda Heights.
00:54:08.000But the possibility of their too young to be vaccinated children getting sick could not.
00:54:12.000Again, like, this demonstrates everything, right?
00:54:14.000Okay, the reality is that you're too young to get vaccinated.
00:54:16.000Children are not getting particularly sick from COVID.
00:54:20.000The New York Times is pushing that narrative.
00:54:22.000Leaders in Washington might worry about the threat of terrorism or America's standing with allies, but voters in Hacienda Heights said they were far more concerned about issues directly affecting them.
00:54:31.000COVID-19, homelessness, and climate change, to name a few.
00:54:38.000So I'm not worried about what just happened in Afghanistan, where America completely humiliated itself and handed over an entire country to America's worst enemies.
00:54:59.000They seemed hesitant to hold Biden accountable for last week's attacks, at least for now.
00:55:03.000When you have no good choice, you still have to pick one, said Patrick Wong, a 65-year-old independent who has voted for both Republicans and Democrats.
00:55:11.000So I would love to see a quote from someone in this article who was like, Actually, divided about this decision.
00:55:21.000Instead, they found somebody who voted for Trump named Tanya Chang and Andrew Chang in downtown Fullerton saying they may be exited more quickly than they should have, but I think it was right to be out.
00:55:29.000It was multiple presidents missteps. We couldn't have stayed there forever.
00:55:32.000Even representative Young Kim was less critical of the president than many lawmakers in her party.
00:55:38.000She said, we don't have the luxury to be sad about what is happening, but we have to be resolute, gather information and get people to safety.
00:55:42.000This is not the time to point fingers when people are desperate and people are dying.
00:55:46.000But she added she was hearing from her constituents who are not satisfied with what they're seeing and hearing from our commander in chief.
00:55:53.000They commit, they quote one person who's a national Trump voter here who said, quote, about Biden, he left Americans behind.
00:55:59.000It's two thirds of the way down in the article, of course.
00:56:58.000Biden wanted out now, not because that was the best policy, but because he wanted the headlines to stop.
00:57:03.000And his assumption is the headlines will now stop because getting these people out, watch, the language is going to change over the next 24 hours.
00:57:10.000Getting these people out will now be a protracted process.
00:57:33.000Because after all, isn't that the story of what just happened in Afghanistan?
00:57:36.000We got bored and tired and sleepy, and three quarters of the arguments made about Afghanistan were completely unrelated to the actual figures on the ground right now.
00:57:43.000And when you talk to people about Afghanistan, as this withdrawal began, people were like, yeah, we got an endless war.
00:57:49.000And you're like, yeah, there are 2,500 troops there, and zero people have died since February of last year.
00:57:53.000And you're like, well, yeah, but it's still an endless war.
00:57:59.000But everybody is still, because the American attention span is five seconds long, this is how empires crumble, it's how countries crumble, frankly.
00:58:08.000And America right now is so bored and so fat and so stupid that we have decided that it is not important to stand up for foreign interests.
00:58:15.000We don't have to have any long-term vision at all.
00:58:18.000We don't have to think beyond the next five minutes, which is why we can spend money that our grandchildren will not be able to repay.
00:58:24.000It's why we can blow out inflation and then assume the government is somehow going to magically take care of it.
00:58:28.000It's why we can take COVID policies that are designed to have short-term impact but serious long-term ramifications and then champion those.
00:58:38.000All of this is dependent on Americans having an attention span that is shorter than the average Looney Tunes cartoon.
00:58:45.000And dependent on a media that is willing to lie in favor of Democrats and move on from a news cycle as soon as that news cycle is no longer important to them.
00:58:58.000Which is why I think that for all the talk about Joe Biden being a disgrace, which he is, and pathetic, which he is, for all the talk about the cowardice and the betrayal here, and there's plenty of both, I think Joe Biden knows that everybody will just move on.