One high-ranking servicemember, Rear Adm. Peter Vasely, was part of the military leadership overseeing President Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan… and he dropped a truth bomb about why the operation went awry.
The disaster was, in part, blamed on First Lady Jill Biden getting in the way, according to Vaseley’s sworn testimony.
In August, Vasely fielded an investigator’s questions about the withdrawal. He was asked whether the first lady and the pope had indeed requested for the military to assist specific people.
“That’s accurate,” Vasely responded.
He went on, “I was being contacted by representatives from the Holy See to assist the Italian military contingent… in getting through groups… of special interest to the Vatican. That is just one of many examples.”
In other words, the first lady and others may have been distracting the military from vital missions with their personal requests during the Afghanistan withdrawal. Previously, the first lady has appeared at fundraisers for nonprofits addressing the needs of military families.
Vasely’s testimony became public on Thursday after a Freedom of Infomation Act request from The Washington Post. The Post called it “the most detailed official account to date of the 17-day evacuation.”
According to Vasely, the troops were receiving emails and voicemails from total strangers asking for help. The Post itself has admitted to asking for the military’s help with its Afghanistan correspondents.
In his testimony, Vasely identified his goals: evacuating American citizens first, lawful permanent residents second, and then the Afghan nationals with a history of aiding the U.S.
“But you had everyone from the White House down with a new flavor of the day for prioritization,” Vasely said.
On Thursday, President Biden fielded NBC News’ questions about Vasely’s report. He refused to describe the reports as either true or false. He simply said, “I’m rejecting them.”
However, some outside sources have corroborated the report to the Post.
Scott Mann, co-founder of a volunteer group for evacuating Americans, said according to the Post, “Just about every volunteer group can tell you stories about lawmakers and other people with authority calling and saying, ‘You need to get my guy out.'”
Some officials are acknowledging the report but viewing it skeptically.
One federal official told the Post Thursday, “It’s important to keep in mind that these are interviews with investigators, not reporters.” For security reasons, the official spoke on the condition of anonymity.
“The people being interviewed weren’t trying to score points, weren’t messaging anyone,” he or she said. “They were simply doing their level best to help investigators get to the bottom of a terrible attack.”
The Biden administration claims to have offered help before the deluge of emails and voicemails.
Jon Finer, the White House principal deputy national security adviser, told the Post, “The president, at least once at each meeting — and these meetings were daily — would directly ask the people who were on the ground in Kabul, ‘Is there anything else that you need to execute what you’ve been asked to do?’”
Vasely himself described some special requests as warranted.
“There was all goodness in this, but the lesson learned is it was a distraction from the main effort as they were coming directly to the individuals on the ground trying to accomplish the task at hand,” Vasely told investigators.
In his testimony, Vasely stopped short of blaming the voicemails for stranding Americans in Afghanistan. He said that he “can only speculate” about the effect of these distractions from people like First Lady Biden.
However, he also said, “I cannot stress enough… how these high-profile requests ate up bandwidth and created competition for already stressed resources.”
Vasely remains unavailable for comment to the Post, as of Thursday.
The Horn editorial team