The Republican National Committee has removed a webpage from 2020 in which it praised Donald Trump for signing a "historic peace agreement with the Taliban."
David Weigel, of The Washington Post, was the first to spot that the page had been removed with the web address redirecting to a 404 error page featuring the quip: "It looks like you're as lost as Biden is."
The Guardian's congressional reporter Hugo Lowell later confirmed the webpage's removal after successfully tracking down the now-deleted page via The Wayback Machine digital archive.
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Featured as part of a section titled "President Trump Is Bringing Peace In The Middle East," the page described how the former U.S. president had "continued to take the lead in peace talks."
The page also claims that "while President Trump has championed peace, Joe Biden has taken the lead in pushing for endless wars."
It's also notable that the now-deleted webpage claimed Trump had "taken action to defeat ISIS and eliminate dangerous leaders."
Abdul Ghani Baradar, the co-founder of the Taliban in Afghanistan and the organization's current political chief, was released from a Pakistani jail at the request of the US while Trump was in office.
Trump has been a vocal critic of President Biden's withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan branding it "one of the greatest defeats in American history."
The Taliban has quickly seized control of Afghanistan in the days since the U.S. withdrawal commenced.
"It is time for Joe Biden to resign in disgrace for what he has allowed to happen to Afghanistan," Trump said in the statement.
"It shouldn't be a big deal, because he wasn't elected legitimately in the first place," he added.
"What Joe Biden has done with Afghanistan is legendary." Trump continued.
"It will go down as one of the greatest defeats in American history!"
The criticisms come despite the fact it was the Trump administration which first brokered a deal to withdraw troops from the region.
In the now-deleted GOP webpage, it is stated that Trump negotiated a deal for the withdrawals by May 2021 "in exchange for a Taliban agreement to not allow Afghanistan to be used for transnational terrorism."
Upon his arrival in the White House, Biden instead decided to instigate a total withdrawal from Afghanistan, setting a deadline of August 31 for completion.
That process has been all but completed two weeks ahead of the planned date.
Biden has defended his decision to withdraw, claiming he was left with little choice given the deal Trump had negotiated with the Taliban which he felt left the organization "in the strongest position militarily since 2001."
"When I became president, I faced a choice—follow through on the deal, with a brief extension to get our forces and our allies' forces out safely, or ramp up our presence and send more American troops to fight once again in another country's civil conflict," he said in the statement.
As recently as April, Trump was also voicing his support for withdrawal, stating that "getting out of Afghanistan is a wonderful and positive thing to do."
"Nineteen years is long enough, in fact, far too much and way too long," he said.
Newsweek has reached out to the GOP for comment.
Danysco on August 16th, 2021 at 14:37 UTC »
House Minority leader wants a probe lol. The Trump administration made a deal with the Taliban for a full withdrawal by May 1 2021. Biden admin said no, we move to September. Now they are criticizing Biden saying September is too early.
Can't make that shit up.
somnolence on August 16th, 2021 at 14:36 UTC »
I was so obsessed with following the news leading up to 2020 election and remember so much crazy shit that was being thrown against the wall to see what might change Trumps numbers.
This was one of the stories I remember distinctly, because my understanding was that The Trump administration met with Taliban only, leaving the Afghanistan government out of these negotiations. And in typical Trump style, the administration left the negotiations claiming they had negotiated a peace treaty and there was peace in the Middle East all because of him etc. Total bullshit, because we know that the sovereign government of Afghanistan wasn’t even involved in these supposed negotiations.
There are so many things about the last administration that I want more details on, but this is definitely near the top of the list.
Scubalefty on August 16th, 2021 at 12:49 UTC »
The internet is forever ...
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