Biden says he’s leaving Trump ‘strong hand to play,' defends his record on Afghanistan
2025-01-14
Category: world

President Biden on Monday spoke for the last time from the State Department on the state of American foreign policy and national security following his four-year term set to conclude in one week when President-elect Donald Trump will once again take up the top job.&nbsp; Biden did not specifically address or name the inbound president, but he referenced the prior, and incoming, Trump administration and touted that he is leaving a "strong hand to play." BIDEN CALLS FOR IMMEDIATE CEASE-FIRE IN CALL WITH ISRAEL'S NETANYAHU  The president listed off a number of major nations of top geopolitical importance to U.S. national security, but he also referenced the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan – which has been among the president’s most heavily criticized policy decisions and which resulted in the death of 13 American service members and roughly 140 Afghan civilians ISIS-K launched an attack on those evacuating at Abbey Gate. "[I am] the first president in decades who's not leaving a war in Afghanistan to his successor," Biden said. The president pointed to the 2011 assassination of 9/11 mastermind, Osama bin Laden, during the Obama administration and said he assessed that large numbers of American forces were no longer needed when he took up office. &nbsp; CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP "So when I took office, I had a choice – only I saw no reason to keep thousands of servicemen in Afghanistan," he added. "In&nbsp;my&nbsp;view, it was time to end the war and bring our troops home, and we did." This is a developing story.