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Koch-aligned political network backs Biden's Afghanistan troop withdrawal

17 August 2021
Dan Ackermann

President Biden is getting some unlikely backing for his Afghanistan troop withdrawal from a longtime nemesis: the Koch political network.

Driving the news: Concerned Veterans for America, a foreign policy-focused arm of Charles Koch's Stand Together political and policy apparatus is coming to Biden's defense after the U.S. withdrawal handed control of the country to the Taliban this week.

  • The Koch political network was one of the foremost antagonists of the Obama administration in which Biden served as vice president.

What they're saying: "I think he made the right decision to withdraw," CVA executive director Dan Caldwell told Axios in an interview.

  • Caldwell said there should be a thorough review of how the withdrawal was undertaken — and of the larger, two-decade war effort. But "I am frankly uncomfortable to Monday-morning-quarterback decisions made around the withdrawal while it's ongoing," he said.
  • He also rebuked some Republicans for their Biden criticism: "It's incredibly disappointing to see people using the chaos in Afghanistan to score political points against their opponents, primarily against Joe Biden who, in many ways, just was following through on the plan set in motion by President Trump."

CVA plans to continue running digital ads supporting the Afghanistan withdrawal.

  • Late last week, the group also launched a $2 million campaign pushing for full U.S. withdrawal from Iraq.
  • "We think we've made a lot of progress over the past few years," Caldwell said. "We're going to stay committed to this regardless of short-term changes in the political landscape."

The big picture: Biden has faced bipartisan criticism over his handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal, making any public support crucial.

  • Some of that support has come from progressive groups such as VoteVets, which released a statement on Tuesday praising Biden's decision.
  • The Koch political network leans libertarian and noninterventionist, but CVA's backing is nonetheless a cross-ideological chit for the Biden administration as it seeks to minimize political fallout.

What we're watching: White House chief of staff Ron Klain on Monday retweeted Stand Together's vice president of foreign policy, who said Biden's decision demonstrates "real courage."

  • Biden also got some backing from the Quincy Institute for ResponsibleStatecraft, a think tank that receives financial support from the Koch network.

Transcripts show George Floyd told police "I can't breathe" over 20 times

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Newly released transcripts of bodycam footage from the Minneapolis Police Department show that George Floyd told officers he could not breathe more than 20 times in the moments leading up to his death.

Why it matters: Floyd's killing sparked a national wave of Black Lives Matter protests and an ongoing reckoning over systemic racism in the United States. The transcripts "offer one the most thorough and dramatic accounts" before Floyd's death, The New York Times writes.

The state of play: The transcripts were released as former officer Thomas Lane seeks to have the charges that he aided in Floyd's death thrown out in court, per the Times. He is one of four officers who have been charged.

  • The filings also include a 60-page transcript of an interview with Lane. He said he "felt maybe that something was going on" when asked if he believed that Floyd was having a medical emergency at the time.

What the transcripts say:

  • Floyd told the officers he was claustrophobic as they tried to get him into the squad car.
  • The transcripts also show Floyd saying, "Momma, I love you. Tell my kids I love them. I'm dead."
  • Former officer Derek Chauvin, who had his knee on Floyd's neck for over eight minutes, told Floyd, "Then stop talking, stop yelling, it takes a heck of a lot of oxygen to talk."

Read the transcripts via DocumentCloud.