Afghan collapse was much faster than expected, Austin says

Austin said Biden was faced with “no good options,” inheriting a May 1 deadline to take out all forces from Afghanistan from the deal the Trump administration struck with the Taliban last year.

Biden “had to very rapidly go through a detailed assessment, and look at all options in terms of what, you know, what he could do. And none of those options were good options. He went through a very rigorous process, very detailed process,” Austin said.

“He listened to the input that was provided by all of the stakeholders in the interagency process. And so, at the end of the day, the president made his decision. But again, he was faced with a situation where there were no good options, all were very tough.”