An intimate recount of the botched Afghanistan withdrawal described President Biden as a leader who sometimes appeared "icy" and "detached" in the face of human suffering, often stubbornly dismissing advice from foreign policy experts.
In a lengthy piece published in The Atlantic, Biden author Franklin Foer said that while the catastrophic operation showed the "shortcomings" of Biden's inner circle on "obvious display," those who participated in the withdrawal held a "desperate" need to explain their failings.
"Even in the thick of the crisis, as the details of a mass evacuation swallowed them, the members of Biden's inner circle could see that the legacy of the month would stalk them into the next election—and perhaps into their obituaries," Foer wrote.
The crisis also taxed the character and "managerial acumen" of Biden, who "revealed himself" throughout the many calamities that broke out in late August 2021.
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"For a man long caricatured as a political weather vane, Biden exhibited determination, even stubbornness, despite furious criticism from the establishment figures whose approval he usually craved," Foer wrote. "For a man vaunted for his empathy, he could be detached, even icy, when confronted with the prospect of human suffering."
The portrait of Biden's character revealed that Biden held a "swaggering faith in himself" regarding foreign policy, often criticizing pundits and diplomats attending the Council on Foreign Relations and the Munich Security Conference.
Those close to the president said he described these establishment figures as "risk-averse, beholden to institutions" and "lazy in their thinking."
"You foreign-policy guys, you think this is all pretty complicated. But it's just like family dynamics," Biden said, according to one aide
In Biden's opinion, diplomacy was "akin to persuading a pain-in-the-ass uncle to stop drinking so much."
Foer also revealed that, although he never officially complained about it, General Mark A. Milley could not understand why Biden had announced September 11 as the new deadline for the U.S. Afghanistan withdrawal.
"How did it honor the dead to admit defeat in a conflict that had been waged on their behalf?" Foer said of Milley's mindset.
After horrifying video footage emerged showing, among other things, Afghans falling to their death after clinging to the side of a moving U.S. military plane, the State Department doled out therapy dogs for distraught personnel.
"They felt a connection with the country, an emotional entanglement. Fielding an overwhelming volume of emails describing hardship cases, they easily imagined the faces of refugees. They felt the shame and anger that come with the inability to help," Foer noted.
According to the author, Afghanistan, over the years, had become an "abstraction" in Biden's mind. He thought of the country through a lens of the "cold logic of realism" and surmised it was a "strategic distraction" whose costs outweighed the benefits.
However, Foer said the images of suffering in Kabul awakened a newfound sense of compassion in the president previously unseen in the public eye.
Biden obsessively combed over the images of Afghans, trying to find ways to bring as many refugees into the country as quickly as possible.
The State Department did not vet all Afghans and was unsure how many were "genuinely endangered," striving for a better future, or merely "petty criminals."
"But if they were in the right place at the right time, they were herded up the ramp of C‑17s," Foer added.
Nevertheless, Biden received widespread criticism across the political spectrum from media outlets for his handling of the withdrawal. The coverage allegedly "infuriated" the president but did little to change his mind about how to handle the situation.
"So much of the commentary felt overheated to him. He said to an aide: Either the press is losing its mind, or I am," according to the piece.
The withdrawal continues to linger over Biden and his administration heading into the 2024 U.S. Presidential Election.
Former South Carolina governor and U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley, who is running for the 2024 Republican presidential nomination, said in mid-August the world is "less safe" than it was two years ago before the U.S. military withdrew from Afghanistan, effectively handing over control of the country to the Taliban.
She also suggested President Biden should be personally held accountable for the withdrawal as 13 Americans – 11 Marines, one Army soldier and one Navy personnel – were killed during an attack on the Kabul airport in August 2021.
Fox News' Lawrence Richard contributed to this report.
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