RNC Accused of Removing Praise for Trump's Taliban Deal from Site

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        Praise for Trump's Taliban 'Peace Agreement' Disappears From RNC Website and the RNC Just Responded
    

        Brandon Bell/Getty Images // Yahoo! News
    
By Evan BrechtelAug 17, 2021
Evan Brechtel
Evan Brechtel is a writer and actor living in New York. A Fordham University graduate, he also writes a monthly column for Chosen Magazine and is currently working on a historical fiction novel about New York queer bars over the twentieth century.
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President Joe Biden's administration began carrying out a long-awaited withdrawal of American troops in Afghanistan after 20 years of war in the region stole hundreds of thousands of lives and cost nearly $1 trillion.
But the Taliban's fundamentalist regime soon retook the country at a dizzying pace unanticipated by administration officials, leading to chaos that endangered both Americans on the ground and Afghans who worked with them as allies of the United States. After the Taliban overtook the presidential palace in Kabul, the cities airport was flooded with thousands of residents desperately trying to escape.
The botched withdrawal is the Biden administration's biggest foreign policy disaster yet, but amid two decades' of futile war, no American President in recent history is blameless. 
This is especially true for former President Donald Trump, whose administration extended unprecedented goodwill toward the Taliban to the point of openly negotiating with the group, securing the release of thousands of Taliban prisoners, and even inviting its leaders to Camp David on the week of September 11.
As the Biden administration faces intense scrutiny for the messiness of the withdrawal, Republican entities and elected officials have leapt to criticize the administration.
But the party's prior praise of Trump's withdrawal plan to remove American troops from the region by May disappeared from its website, as pointed out by the Washington Post's Dave Weigel.
How quickly can the politics around Afghanistan change? Here's a section on the RNC's website in June; click it now and you get a 404 error. (Rest of page was about Kosovo/Israel-Arab deals.) https://gop.com/president-trump-is-bringing-peace-to-the-middle-east-rsr/\u00a0\u2026pic.twitter.com/HkZok9mgJW
 — Dave Weigel (@Dave Weigel)
        1629062813

According to Yahoo! News, this was on the GOP's webpage earlier this month.
It said:
"PRESIDENT TRUMP HAS CONTINUED TO TAKE THE LEAD IN PEACE TALKS AS HE SIGNED A HISTORIC PEACE AGREEMENT WITH THE TALIBAN IN AFGHANISTAN, WHICH WOULD END AMERICA'S LONGEST WAR."Now, the page is nowhere to be found.
Deputy chief of staff for the Republican National Committee, Mike Reed, pushed back, calling Weigel's suggestion "dishonest."
This is so dishonest. We launched a new website last week\u2026 some of the old posts haven\u2019t been carried over yet. Go look\u2026 all blog/research pieces from years ago aren\u2019t there. But good try attempting to divert attention from the folks actually in charge of this disaster.https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1427018983379640323\u00a0\u2026
 — Mike Reed (@Mike Reed)
        1629113876
Weigel later clarified the intent of his tweet.

This is obviously material from 2020 that stayed online for a while, not a new statement from June 2021. It just jumped out to me as an example of how politically popular withdrawal was until this weekend. RNC didn\u2019t scramble to delete it, it was just left up before site updates.
 — Dave Weigel (@Dave Weigel)
        1629122590
According to Business Insider, the page was removed on August 15, as Kabul fell, so people were skeptical at Reed's claims, even though no posts from 2020 remain on the RNC's site.
Nice try. You got caught dishonestly attempting to rewrite history...\n\nhttps://www.businessinsider.com/gop-removes-page-hailing-trump-taliban-deal-2021-8\u00a0\u2026pic.twitter.com/4aPNPeQ5ok
 — Jeff Mayers (@Jeff Mayers)
        1629120599

pic.twitter.com/OLxxaKn46c
 — CH Graham (@CH Graham)
        1629126716

pic.twitter.com/9qMyxmlNXq
 — lynley (@lynley)
        1629128808
But the RNC site is far from the only instance the party's figureheads expressed support for a swift withdrawal. As recently as June, Trump was crediting himself with the end to America's longest war.
People aren't forgetting.
Trump wanted to withdraw from Afghanistan on May 1st (months earlier). \n\nRepublicans fully supported that plan.pic.twitter.com/TCzfSgvlbQ
 — Kaivan Shroff (@Kaivan Shroff)
        1629114752

Don\u2019t ever forget, Republicans fully supported withdrawing troops from Afghanistan until they thought they could make Biden look bad.https://twitter.com/hawleymo/status/1382026034695041026\u00a0\u2026
 — Jessie Shepherd (@Jessie Shepherd)
        1629204438

Here is a prime example of Radical Republicans rewriting history, since Pro-Trump Lamborn supported the deal with the Taliban, but he blames crt. How about asking the CIA and IC what they knew? Do your job! #Afghanistanhttps://twitter.com/RepDLamborn/status/1426264293436178438\u00a0\u2026
 — Foley4Colorado (@Foley4Colorado)
        1629120678

3 months ago republicans were screaming \u201cSECURE OUR BORDERS, GET OUT OF AFGHANISTAN, ISOLATE\u201d.\n\nThe @GOP supported the Taliban Deal that trump brokered (and got whipped on).\n\nNow in a matter of days they are overwhelmed their NEW SUPPORT for Afghans.\n\nRepubs root against the US.
 — Long Strange Trip (@Long Strange Trip)
        1629207019

I\u2019m actually old enough to remember when Republicans not only supported the war in Afghanistan, they actually STARTED it. \n\nSpare me your pathetic soap boxing now about the inevitable & tragic end to a moronic Bush era decision.https://twitter.com/larryoconnor/status/1427024228470173702\u00a0\u2026
 — Philip Allen (@Philip Allen)
        1629073567

Whole lotta republicans who not only did nothing to improve prospects for success in #Afghanistan but actively supported strategies that made things worse now have nothing to say but \u201ctold ya so.\u201d Super helpful, Lil Marco.https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1426919305409609729\u00a0\u2026
 — Left Crew Politics (@Left Crew Politics)
        1629051922
The Biden administration now faces calls to ensure the rescue of as many Afghan refugees as possible.
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President Joe Biden's administration began carrying out a long-awaited withdrawal of American troops in Afghanistan after 20 years of war in the region stole hundreds of thousands of lives and cost nearly $1 trillion.

But the Taliban's fundamentalist regime soon retook the country at a dizzying pace unanticipated by administration officials, leading to chaos that endangered both Americans on the ground and Afghans who worked with them as allies of the United States. After the Taliban overtook the presidential palace in Kabul, the cities airport was flooded with thousands of residents desperately trying to escape.

The botched withdrawal is the Biden administration's biggest foreign policy disaster yet, but amid two decades' of futile war, no American President in recent history is blameless.

This is especially true for former President Donald Trump, whose administration extended unprecedented goodwill toward the Taliban to the point of openly negotiating with the group, securing the release of thousands of Taliban prisoners, and even inviting its leaders to Camp David on the week of September 11.

As the Biden administration faces intense scrutiny for the messiness of the withdrawal, Republican entities and elected officials have leapt to criticize the administration.

But the party's prior praise of Trump's withdrawal plan to remove American troops from the region by May disappeared from its website, as pointed out by the Washington Post's Dave Weigel.

How quickly can the politics around Afghanistan change? Here's a section on the RNC's website in June; click it now and you get a 404 error. (Rest of page was about Kosovo/Israel-Arab deals.) https://gop.com/president-trump-is-bringing-peace-to-the-middle-east-rsr/\u00a0\u2026pic.twitter.com/HkZok9mgJW
— Dave Weigel (@Dave Weigel) 1629062813

According to Yahoo! News, this was on the GOP's webpage earlier this month.

Archived version of RNC page touting Trump's Taliban deal

It said:

"PRESIDENT TRUMP HAS CONTINUED TO TAKE THE LEAD IN PEACE TALKS AS HE SIGNED A HISTORIC PEACE AGREEMENT WITH THE TALIBAN IN AFGHANISTAN, WHICH WOULD END AMERICA'S LONGEST WAR."

Now, the page is nowhere to be found.

GOP Trump Taliban 404

Deputy chief of staff for the Republican National Committee, Mike Reed, pushed back, calling Weigel's suggestion "dishonest."

This is so dishonest. We launched a new website last week\u2026 some of the old posts haven\u2019t been carried over yet. Go look\u2026 all blog/research pieces from years ago aren\u2019t there. But good try attempting to divert attention from the folks actually in charge of this disaster.https://twitter.com/daveweigel/status/1427018983379640323\u00a0\u2026
— Mike Reed (@Mike Reed) 1629113876

Weigel later clarified the intent of his tweet.

This is obviously material from 2020 that stayed online for a while, not a new statement from June 2021. It just jumped out to me as an example of how politically popular withdrawal was until this weekend. RNC didn\u2019t scramble to delete it, it was just left up before site updates.
— Dave Weigel (@Dave Weigel) 1629122590

According to Business Insider, the page was removed on August 15, as Kabul fell, so people were skeptical at Reed's claims, even though no posts from 2020 remain on the RNC's site.

Nice try. You got caught dishonestly attempting to rewrite history...\n\nhttps://www.businessinsider.com/gop-removes-page-hailing-trump-taliban-deal-2021-8\u00a0\u2026pic.twitter.com/4aPNPeQ5ok
— Jeff Mayers (@Jeff Mayers) 1629120599

pic.twitter.com/OLxxaKn46c
— CH Graham (@CH Graham) 1629126716

pic.twitter.com/9qMyxmlNXq
— lynley (@lynley) 1629128808

But the RNC site is far from the only instance the party's figureheads expressed support for a swift withdrawal. As recently as June, Trump was crediting himself with the end to America's longest war.

People aren't forgetting.

Trump wanted to withdraw from Afghanistan on May 1st (months earlier). \n\nRepublicans fully supported that plan.pic.twitter.com/TCzfSgvlbQ
— Kaivan Shroff (@Kaivan Shroff) 1629114752

Don\u2019t ever forget, Republicans fully supported withdrawing troops from Afghanistan until they thought they could make Biden look bad.https://twitter.com/hawleymo/status/1382026034695041026\u00a0\u2026
— Jessie Shepherd (@Jessie Shepherd) 1629204438

Here is a prime example of Radical Republicans rewriting history, since Pro-Trump Lamborn supported the deal with the Taliban, but he blames crt. How about asking the CIA and IC what they knew? Do your job! #Afghanistanhttps://twitter.com/RepDLamborn/status/1426264293436178438\u00a0\u2026
— Foley4Colorado (@Foley4Colorado) 1629120678

3 months ago republicans were screaming \u201cSECURE OUR BORDERS, GET OUT OF AFGHANISTAN, ISOLATE\u201d.\n\nThe @GOP supported the Taliban Deal that trump brokered (and got whipped on).\n\nNow in a matter of days they are overwhelmed their NEW SUPPORT for Afghans.\n\nRepubs root against the US.
— Long Strange Trip (@Long Strange Trip) 1629207019

I\u2019m actually old enough to remember when Republicans not only supported the war in Afghanistan, they actually STARTED it. \n\nSpare me your pathetic soap boxing now about the inevitable & tragic end to a moronic Bush era decision.https://twitter.com/larryoconnor/status/1427024228470173702\u00a0\u2026
— Philip Allen (@Philip Allen) 1629073567

Whole lotta republicans who not only did nothing to improve prospects for success in #Afghanistan but actively supported strategies that made things worse now have nothing to say but \u201ctold ya so.\u201d Super helpful, Lil Marco.https://twitter.com/marcorubio/status/1426919305409609729\u00a0\u2026
— Left Crew Politics (@Left Crew Politics) 1629051922

The Biden administration now faces calls to ensure the rescue of as many Afghan refugees as possible.

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