yet this administration turned the country over to them. president biden choose to withdrawal from afghanistan without conditions and without prudent plans and without most important telegraphing to the taliban that they would enforce the conditions that the taliban had agreed to. it didn t happen. it was a strategic unforced error and he did this against the advice of the commanders the ground. one of the most embarrassing things i thought was the strike that was made and obviously we can t talk about what we know from intelligence stand point, but the strike that was made after the taliban enter the the country, this dominimous strike had dire consequences for civilians but not for the taliban. these are facts. and the president s withdrawal led to a taliban offensive, that toppled a democratic elected government. slammed the door on any chance for a final peace agreement, reversed the hard earned rights
making the points of shagking hands of democrat and republican mem members committee. and with us kylie atwood and editor nic robertson. good to have you both here. we re following the new reporting which i imagine will come up today with secretary blinken. when it comes to afghanistan, nick, walk us through a little bit of that and what the impact is right now. reporter: erica, i think what we ve heard from secretary blinken speaking yesterday for afghans at least that is for them they are sort of moving on from the united states pullout. of course many people here still very afraid. very deeply afraid of what could happen with them. i was sitting with someone in the house today with i ll have to have you hold that thought there.
afghanistan decision making. first upon coming into office, how did the biden administration assess the impact on the the ground of president trump s flawed deal with the taliban. did the administration attempt to negotiate better terms with the taliban upon coming into office? second, did the president s april withdrawal announcement set in motion any contingency planning in the event that the taliban rapidly took over the country? what was the plan to evacuate all americans? what was plan to evacuate sivs, p-1, and p-2s and other at-risk groups and staff and those affiliated with radio free europe, voice of america, the national endowment for democracy and other u.s. funded organizations. president trump s with steven miller intentionally blocked sieves from being processed. which i think is a barbaric and cruel decision which likely resulted in death for some u.s.
accountable. let me turn to the focus of today s hearing. mr. secretary, the execution of the u.s. withdrawal was clearly and fatally flawed. this committee expected to receive a full explanation of the administration s decisions on afghanistan since coming into office last january. there has to be accountability. we will have other hearings to develop a set of lessons learned over the course of the war to understand the many mistakes made over the course of 20 years. the diversion of attention and resources when the bush administration decided to invade iraq, despite its irrelevance to the 9/11 attacks. the double dealing by pakistan in providing a safe haven to the taliban and the list goes on. we need to understand why successive administration made so many of the same mistakes repeatedly. perhaps most urge ently we need understand why the military
he was defiant on day one of his testimony. he clashed with republicans, multiple calls to resign and tough questions from fellow democrats. also refusing to acknowledge any short comings in the administration s handling of the afghanistan withdrawal. placing blame for the chaotic scenes on the trump administration negotiations with the taliban. let s get straight to cnn, we see secretary blinken walking in here. again arriving as he s set to testify before the senate. we re going to go straight to congressional correspondent lauren fox joining us now from capitol hill. as the sect gets settled there. you know more information on what the plan is from lawmakers today in terms of questions for the secretary. reporter: well that is right, erica. look, everyone is just entering the room preparing for this high-staking hearing on capitol hill this morning. where this is going to be senators first opportunity to get to the bottom of what