White House downplays 'leaked transcripts of phone calls

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CBS completely avoided the subject of Afghanistan during its evening newscast as well as MSNBC primetime hosts Rachel Maddow and Chris Hayes on Wednesday. Hayes did tweet about the controversial phone call- but to only downplay the revelations as a non-scandal. "Telling the failing Afghan government to ‘fake it till you make it’ as a means of extending its reign as long as possible is a sad statement on cumulative US failures in Afghanistan but not a scandal any more than the war itself was," Hayes wrote. Biden dangled aid in exchange for Ghani publicly presenting a plan to counter the Taliban's advance during the pair's 14-minute July 23 conversation, roughly a month before he fled his country in anticipation of the Taliban taking Kabul. I need not tell you the perception around the world and in parts of Afghanistan, I believe, is that things are not going well in terms of the fight against the Taliban,” Biden said. “And there is a need, whether it is true or not, there is a need to project a different picture.” The White House refused to draw further attention to reports President Joe Biden and ousted Afghan President Ashraf Ghani were unprepared for Afghanistan's quick collapse and that Biden had encouraged his counterpart in Kabul, Afghanistan, to fix his "perception" problem by selling a military strategy with local political heavyweights. Biden also challenged Ghani to "project a different picture" than that of a failing war effort against the Taliban, "whether it is true or not." Press secretary Jen Psaki declined to comment on "private diplomatic conversations or leaked transcripts of phone calls" on Wednesday. Didn't biden do the same thing in the Ukraine, telling them he would hold financial aid if a certain prosecutor was not fired, for investigating his son hunter?