Harris campaign hits Trump on 2020 Taliban deal in response to his criticism of Afghanistan withdrawal

Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign is rehashing former President Donald Trump’s 2020 deal with the Taliban, as the Republican nominee has repeatedly criticized her for the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan during President Biden’s first year in office. 

August 26 marked three years since the Abbey Gate suicide bombing attack outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, which killed 13 U.S. service members, injured 18 others, and killed about 170 Afghans. 

During a speech in Detroit marking the day, Trump placed the blame for the “humiliation in Afghanistan” on both Harris and Mr. Biden. 

In a response first shared with CBS News, Harris’ campaign is using Trump’s announcement, and abrupt cancellation, five years ago of a meeting at Camp David with Taliban leaders, to highlight the role his deal with the Taliban played in the withdrawal. 

The campaign argues that Trump’s deal created a “virtually impossible” deadline and left “the Biden-Harris administration with zero plans for an orderly withdrawal — only a dangerous, costly mess.”

“Trump shamelessly attacks the vice president because he hopes he can trick the country into forgetting that his own actions put troops in harm’s way,” Harris campaign national security spokesperson Morgan Finkelstein told CBS News. “Trump wanted to bring the Taliban to Camp David just days before September 11th—think about that. He cut a bad deal with the very same people who violently took over Afghanistan and led to the collapse of the Afghan government.”

On Sept. 7, 2019, Trump tweeted that a meeting with the Taliban was canceled after a U.S. soldier was killed in an attack by the terrorist group. Months later, in February 2020, Trump signed an agreement with the Taliban to pave the way for a significant drawdown of U.S. troops in Afghanistan by the end of that year, in exchange for guarantees from the Taliban that the country would not be used for terrorist activities. 

However, Taliban attacks on Afghan forces continued. Trump’s former national security adviser H.R. McMaster called the deal a “surrender agreement with the Taliban” during a podcast interview.

CBS News has reached out to the Trump campaign for a response to the Harris campaign’s criticism. 

The attack at the Kabul airport happened during the effort by Mr. Biden to evacuate American soldiers and Afghans out of Afghanistan, part of a longtime goal shared by him and Trump to officially end the long-running war. House Republicans are currently investigating the Biden administration’s withdrawal. 

Mr. Biden panned Trump’s Taliban deal, but followed through with it, extending the withdrawal deadline by a couple of months to have troops out by Sept. 11, 2021, to avoid further military escalation in the country. 

“It is perhaps not what I would have negotiated myself but it was an agreement made by the United States government, and that means something,” Mr. Biden said in April 2021.

A plurality of respondents in an August 2021 CBS News poll believed the removal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan went “very badly,” and the moment began a steady decline of Mr. Biden’s approval rating. 

In recent weeks, Trump has leaned into more criticism of Mr. Biden and Harris over the attack and the withdrawal. 

In late August, Trump was invited to the Arlington National Cemetery by family members of some service members for a wreath-laying ceremony. The visit was overshadowed by an altercation between a cemetery employee and Trump’s campaign over the presence of a campaign photographer, which the families granted permission for access but the cemetery’s federal law prohibits. 

During a speech at the National Guard Association conference in Detroit later that day, Trump called on the resignations of Biden administration officials involved in the withdrawal.

“It’s not even believable how stupid these people were, to allow this to happen to our country. And we became a laughing stock all over the world, and we buried 13 soldiers,” he added. 

In a statement that day, Harris reaffirmed her support for Mr. Biden’s decision to end the war and wrote that the 13 deceased service members “represent the best of America, putting our beloved nation and their fellow Americans above themselves and deploying into danger to keep their fellow citizens safe.”

Before becoming vice president, Harris had supported a withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and an end to the war. In April 2021, she said she was the last person Mr. Biden consulted with before the president decided to withdraw all remaining U.S. troops from Afghanistan. 

As the chaotic withdrawal unfolded in August 2021, Harris emphasized the focus on evacuating American citizens and Afghans working with the U.S.

“There’s no question there will be and should be a robust analysis of what has happened,” she said during a trip to Singapore in 2021. 

contributed to this report.