Biden says May 1 deadline to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan will be ‘hard to meet'

During a press conference Thursday, President Biden responded to a reporter’s question about meeting a May 1 deadline for withdrawing U.S. troops in Afghanistan. He cited tactical issues as the reason for a likely delay.

Video Transcript

- Thank you, Mr. President. I wanted to ask you about Afghanistan. You face a May 1 deadline for the withdrawal of US troops from that country. As a candidate, in "Foreign Affairs," you wrote that it is past time to end these forever wars. Can you commit to the American people that by May 2, the US will no longer have forces in Afghanistan?

JOE BIDEN: The answer is that it's going to be hard to meet the May 1 deadline. Just in terms of tactical reasons, it's hard to get those troops out. So what we've been doing, what I've been doing, and what Secretary Blinken has been doing has been, we've been meeting with our allies, those other nations that have NATO allies who have troops in Afghanistan as well. And if we leave, we're going to do so in a safe and orderly way.

We're in consultation, as I said, with our allies and partners on how to proceed. And Secretary Blinken is meeting in Brussels this week with our NATO allies, particularly those who have forces there. And general Austin just met with Kayani. And I'm waiting for the briefing on that. He's the leader, quote, in Afghanistan in Kabul. And there's a UN-led process that's beginning shortly on how to mechanically get people-- how to end this war.

But it is not my intention to stay there for a long time. But the question is, how and in what circumstances do we meet that agreement that was made by President Trump to leave under a deal that looks like it's not being able to be worked out to begin with? How is that done? But we are not staying a long time.

- You just said people will leave. Do you think it's possible that--

JOE BIDEN: We will leave. The question is when we leave.

- Sorry. Do you believe though, it's possible we could have troops there next year?

JOE BIDEN: I can't picture that being the case.