On Wednesday’s broadcast of “CNN News Central,” former Defense Secretary and former CIA Director Leon Panetta, who has endorsed 2024 Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris, stated that Harris was in the room when decisions about the Afghanistan withdrawal were made, but she was there “to listen” and doesn’t “bear the same responsibility that the President bears with regards to the final decision.”
Co-host Brianna Keilar asked, “So, Harris is going to be giving this interview on the eve of what is the third anniversary of America’s total withdrawal from Afghanistan. You spoke last week at the DNC, forcefully making the case for Harris as commander-in-chief. Does she carry the legacy of President Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal in your opinion?”
Panetta responded, “Well, look, this is the President’s decision, from my experience as chief of staff, it’s the President who makes a decision like that. And there’s no question in my mind that Joe Biden carried [out] this decision because he felt deeply about trying to remove the troops from Afghanistan. The fact that the Vice President was in the room, along with, I’m sure, other members of the National Security Council, they are, without question, there, to listen, but at the same time, they just don’t bear the same responsibility that the President bears with regards to the final decision.”
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