Did Jill Biden improperly interfere?
A U.S. Navy admiral alleged “high-profile” requests, which included one from first lady Jill Biden, disrupted last year’s evacuation in Afghanistan.
Rear Adm. Peter Vasely, serving as a special assistant to the Director of the Navy Staff, revealed persistent requests for help as efforts were underway to get Americans out of Afghanistan caused distractions leading to “competition for already stressed resources.”
These recent remarks come from a Washington Post story, after the outlet retrieved a 2000-page report probing the 17-day Kabul operation.
When questioned about sworn testimony for the report which detailed that First Lady Jill Biden and Pope Francis intervened by requesting evacuation efforts be allocated to certain people, Vasley simply responded, “that’s accurate.”
Vasley elaborated, saying he was “contacted by representatives from the Holy See to assist the Italian military contingent” get through groups of special interest to the Vatican.”
He continued saying, “I cannot stress enough how these high-profile requests ate up bandwidth and created competition for already stressed resources.”
Overwhelmed with numerous calls, text messages, and emails, Vasley implemented a “coordinated cell” to assist with the volume of communication from Washington and elsewhere, while he was at the U.S. operations center at Kabul’s international airport.
In the report it details how Vasley told investigators that “everyone from the White House down with a new flavor of the day for prioritization.”
In an interview with NBC News released on Thursday night, Biden rejected the declassified report even though it featured dozens of interviews with military officials.
When questioned by anchor Lester Holt about the report, specifically if accusations in the report were true, Biden responded by saying, “No. That’s not what I was told.”
Holt went on to clarify by asking Biden if he was “rejecting the conclusions, or the accounts that are in this Army report.”
Biden responded saying “Yes, I am.” When Hold pressed for a more elaborate response b y asking if they were not true, Biden answered, “I am rejecting them.”
