Rubio on withdrawal from Afghanistan: ‘The true deadline is not the 31st’

Sen. Marco Rubio (R-Fla.) on Tuesday said that he believed the real deadline for the last U.S. troops to leave Afghanistan will be Saturday at the latest and not next Tuesday as the Biden administration was planning.

During an appearance on Fox News, host Sean Hannity said that the U.S. was trying to abide by the Taliban’s desire to have U.S. forces out of the country soon instead of prioritizing getting all people evacuated out of the country, regardless of the timeline.

Responding to Hannity calling the Aug. 31 deadline “the Taliban’s deadline and Joe’s deadline,” Rubio said that is not the “true deadline” and added that the “real deadline” is “this week.”

“But that’s not even the deadline, that’s the deadline for the last plane to take off. The true deadline is probably Friday,” Rubio said. “Thursday, Friday, Saturday — look, it … took from April to, I believe, June or July to get 1,500 people out. Okay, August 31 … is the last day there’ll be any American on the ground in terms of uniform. So the real deadline is actually this week, it’s not the 31st,” Rubio said.

Though President Biden had said previously that troops would stay into September if needed to bring all Americans home, that tone has since shifted and the president is planning to stick to the original Aug. 31 deadline to have U.S. troops withdrawn. However, Biden noted that it depends on the Taliban’s cooperation. 

“We are currently on a pace to finish by August the 31st,” Biden said on Tuesday. “The sooner we can finish, the better. Each day of operations brings added risk to our troops. But the completion by August 31st depends upon the Taliban continuing to cooperate and allow access to the airport for those who were transport — we’re transporting out and no disruptions to our operations.”

“In addition, I’ve asked the Pentagon and the State Department for contingency plans to adjust the timetable should that become necessary,” Biden added. 

That move has faced bipartisan criticism from those who believe that the U.S. is risking leaving allies behind if they rush to meet the Aug. 31 deadline.

“There has been and remains an overwhelming bipartisan consensus that this cannot be done by Aug. 31,” Rep. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.), a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee who served as a senior State Department official during the Obama administration, said following a classified briefing for House lawmakers.