On Thursday, CBS News Senior White House and Political Correspondent Ed O’Keefe stated that the release of the Biden administration’s Afghanistan report on the Thursday before a holiday weekend is “the definition of a news dump.” And the report “has been ready for weeks, if not months.”
O’Keefe stated, “This is a twelve-page watered-down, neutered cleansing of what [are] two otherwise classified, far more detailed, lengthy after-action reviews done by the Pentagon and by the State Department that will not be released to the public, because they are classified.”
He added, “What’s telling is that this — we are led to believe — has been ready for weeks, if not months. Versions of this have been to the secretary of Defense and the secretary of State. They have then been passed up to the National Security Council, which, in essence, serves as the super desk for all things international or foreign relations in the administration and they’re the ones that wrote this watered-down public report — if you want to call it that. And they’re releasing it here on the Thursday before a holiday weekend, in the midst of the Catholic and Jewish high holidays, when the president literally was leaving the White House as the report was released, and when reporters were given just ten minutes heads-up before they came out for that briefing, which meant that we weren’t necessarily able to give it the fullest review that would lead to better questions. And now, the State Department and the Pentagon press corps at least won’t have a chance to ask people in public about this until next week. Fine, that’s their decision. The other thing is that Congress isn’t in session, and they’re the ones that have been asking for this. … It’s the definition of a news dump.”
Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett
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