(CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.) — After facing two weeks of delays, the ambitious Polaris Dawn space mission, led by billionaire Jared Isaacman and in collaboration with SpaceX, has set a target launch date and time for this week, despite uncertain weather conditions.
The four-person civilian crew aims to launch from the Kennedy Space Center in Florida on Tuesday, Sept. 10 at 3:38 a.m. ET in SpaceX’s Falcon 9 rocket, according to the latest announcement from the aerospace company.
There are two additional launch opportunities within the four-hour window, at 5:23 a.m. ET and 7:09 a.m. ET. If needed, backup opportunities are available on Wednesday at the same times, according to SpaceX.
The highly anticipated program as faced a series of delays since the originally planned Aug. 26 launch due to unfavorable weather conditions and a ground system issue at the launch site.
Prepping for another possible delay, the weather forecast for Tuesday remains uncertain, according to SpaceX.
“Weather is currently 40% favorable for liftoff, and conditions at the possible splashdown sites for Dragon’s return to Earth remain a watch item,” the company wrote on X Sunday.
Despite the forecast, Issacman remains hopeful about this week’s launch possibility, writing on X, “This is a big improvement over the last two weeks. We are getting closer to getting this mission to orbit.”
The mission was previously delayed due to a ground-side helium leak on the Quick Disconnect (QD) umbilical, SpaceX said on Aug. 26. Umbilical systems employ QD fluid connectors to transfer fluids into a vehicle, according to NASA.
If successful, the Polaris Dawn mission is poised to make history by launching four private citizens into ultrahigh orbit, ascending to 870 miles above Earth. This would be the highest altitude of any human spaceflight mission since the Apollo program, more than a half century ago.
The program is set to span five days under normal conditions and will see two of the crew members exit the spacecraft in the first commercial spacewalk, at an altitude of 435 miles above Earth.
Due to the absence of an airlock on the SpaceX Dragon capsule, all four crew members will be exposed to the vacuum of space during the ambitious spacewalk.
The spacewalk will also serve as a critical test for SpaceX’s new extravehicular activity (EVA) spacesuits, an evolution of the intravehicular activity (IVA) suit.
This new design includes a heads-up display, helmet camera, and enhanced joint mobility. It also features thermal insulation, solar protection, and a suspension system that allows the wearer to pressurize the suit, don a harness and execute operations as if they were weightless.
The Dragon spacecraft also has undergone significant modifications, including upgrades to the life support systems to supply more oxygen during spacewalks, according to the Polaris program. Environmental sensing has been improved, and a new nitrogen re-pressurization system has been installed, according to the program.
The Polaris Dawn mission will be Isaacman’s second journey to space. In 2021, he funded his first mission to orbit Earth. The project was billed as a childhood cancer fundraiser, garnering $250 million for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, and marked the first all-civilian mission in Earth orbit.
(NEW YORK) — Former President Donald Trump on Monday asked the full U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit to delay his criminal hush money case in New York, after the judge overseeing the case delayed Trump’s sentencing.
New York Judge Juan Merchan on Friday delayed the sentencing date from Sept. 18 until Nov. 26, and said he would issue a ruling Nov. 12 on whether to dismiss the verdict on the grounds of presidential immunity.
Defense attorneys Todd Blanche and Emil Bove on Monday sought an “en banc” hearing on Trump’s motion to pause the proceedings indefinitely so a federal court could resolve the applicability of the U.S. Supreme Court’s recent presidential immunity opinion.
“Such a stay is appropriate in order to preserve Trump’s right to a fair and orderly litigation of the Presidential immunity defense in a federal forum,” Blanche and Bove wrote in a letter to the Second Circuit.
Trump was found guilty in May on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to adult film actress Stormy Daniels in order to boost his electoral prospects in the 2016 presidential election.
Trump is seeking to have the case dismissed after the Supreme Court ruled in a blockbuster decision that Trump is entitled to immunity from criminal prosecution for official acts undertaken while in office.
U.S. District Judge Alvin Hellerstein, in a ruling last week denying Trump’s bid to move the case from state court into federal court, wrote that “Nothing in the Supreme Court’s opinion affects my previous conclusion that the hush money payments were private, unofficial acts, outside the bounds of executive authority.”
Trump’s attorneys subsequently asked the Second Circuit to stay Hellerstein’s ruling.
(WASHINGTON) — The Justice Department on Monday charged two California individuals who were alleged leaders of a white supremacist group that wanted to ignite a race war in the United States and allegedly plotted to kill “high value” targets and incite its followers to carry out terror attacks around the globe.
Dallas Humber and Matthew Allison allegedly became leaders of a group that deemed itself “Terrorgram” and was formed on the encrypted social media site.
The two were charged with a host of federal crimes including solicitation of the killing of a federal official, doxing federal officials and making interstate threats.
“The defendant’s goal, the indictment charges, was to ignite a race war, accelerate the collapse of what they viewed as an irreparably corrupt government and bring about a white ethno state. As the indictment lays out, defendants use the internet platform Telegram to post messages promoting their white supremacist accelerationism,” Kristen Clarke, the DOJ’s head of its Civil Rights Division, said during a press conference Monday.
The indictment alleges that the group “solicited terrorist attacks” including on alleged “enemies,” on government infrastructure, and on “high value” targets such as politicians and government figures.
“The List,” according to the indictment, includes U.S. senators, federal judges, U.S. attorneys and local officials.
When disseminating the so-called list, Allision allegedly included comments like “take action now” and “do your part.”
In at least three separate instances detailed by prosecutors in the indictment, users of the group have allegedly moved forward in carrying out violent attacks inspired by the group chat.
One user was a 19-year-old from Slovakia who killed two people at an LGBT bar in Bratislava before killing himself, according to the DOJ. The indictment alleges that the attacker sent a manifesto directly to Humber, which Humber later purportedly narrated and turned into an audiobook.
Both Humber and Allison later allegedly took credit for the attack and celebrated the attacker as the group’s “first Saint,” according to the indictment.
A separate case highlighted in the indictment involved the arrest in July of 18-year-old Andrew Taskhistov of New Jersey who was allegedly incited to plot an attack on an energy facility through his membership in the group. A third case highlighted in the indictment involved an 18-year-old from Turkey who allegedly livestreamed himself stabbing five people outside a mosque and later shared multiple publications from the group.
Part of the group’s alleged strategy was to target critical infrastructure, according to the DOJ.
Humber and Allison also allegedly created a documentary that celebrated racist incidents around the country from 1968 on, according to the indictment.
The pair also allegedly stressed the need to be covert about their operations and, according to the indictment.
No attorney information for Humber or Allison was immediately available.
An ABC News graphic shows the expected path of a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday, Sept. 9, 2024. — ABC News
(NEW YORK) — Tropical Storm Francine is churning in the Gulf and is set to strengthen to a hurricane before making landfall in Louisiana.
Francine is forecast to be a Category 1 hurricane with 85 mph winds by Wednesday. Landfall is forecast in western Louisiana on Wednesday afternoon.
A hurricane watch has been issued in Louisiana, from Cameron to Grand Isle.
A storm surge watch is in effect from Texas to the Mississippi-Alabama border.
By Tuesday morning, Francine’s outer bands will bring heavy rain and gusty winds to Texas. The rough weather will last through the day along the coast, including Houston.
By Wednesday morning, conditions will deteriorate rapidly in southwestern Louisiana. Heavy rain and flooding is expected throughout the day.
About 5 to 8 inches of rain, with locally up to 1 foot, is forecast from Louisiana to the western Florida Panhandle through Thursday morning.
(MEMPHIS, Tenn.) — Jury selection is set to begin Monday in the federal trial of three former Memphis officers charged in connection with the death of Tyre Nichols: Tadarrius Bean, Demetrius Haley and Justin Smith
Nichols, 29, died several days after a January 2023 traffic stop captured in body camera footage and surveillance footage, which allegedly shows officers violently striking Nichols repeatedly and walking around, talking to each other as Nichols was injured and sitting on the ground. His fatal beating triggered protests and calls for police reform.
The medical examiner’s official autopsy report for Nichols showed he “died of brain injuries from blunt force trauma,” the district attorney’s office told Nichols’ family in May 2023.
Five former officers were charged, including Bean, Haley and Smith who are now on trial and have pleaded not guilty, as well as Desmond Mills Jr. and Emmitt Martin III, who have pleaded guilty to some of the federal charges.
Bean, Haley and Smith are accused of violating Nichols’ civil rights through excessive use of force, unlawful assault, failing to intervene in the assault, failing to render medical aid, and conspiring to engage in misleading conduct by attempting to falsify or intentionally withholding details of the arrest in statements and to a supervisor.
Police said Nichols was pulled over for reckless driving, though Memphis Police Chief Cerelyn Davis said she has been unable to substantiate that.
While Nichols’ mother has said that first responders told her her son was drunk and high, the autopsy report shows that his blood alcohol level was .049, the DA’s office said. The district attorney’s office told the family that was “well less than the legal limit to drive.”
If convicted, two of the counts in the indictment carry a maximum penalty of life in prison, while the other two each carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison, according to the DOJ.
Martin pleaded guilty to excessive force and failure to intervene, as well as conspiracy to witness tamper, according to the court records. The other two charges will be dropped at sentencing, which has been scheduled for Dec. 5, according to the online records.
Mills pleaded guilty to two of the four counts in the indictment — excessive force and failing to intervene, as well as conspiring to cover up his use of unlawful force, according to the DOJ. The government said it will recommend a maximum penalty of 15 years in prison, based on the terms of Mills’ plea agreement.
All five former officers also face state felony charges, including second-degree murder, aggravated assault and aggravated kidnapping, in connection with Nichols’ death. They pleaded not guilty.
Booking photo of Apalachee High School shooting suspect, Colt Gray, released by the Barrow County Sheriff’s Office. — Barrow County Sheriff’s Office
(WINDER, Ga.) — The mother of Colt Gray, the 14-year-old suspected of opening fire at his Georgia high school, was in tears and overcome with emotion while speaking to ABC News.
“If I could take their place, I would. I would in a heartbeat,” Marcee Gray said Sunday night.
Barrow County Sheriff Jud Smith told ABC News that the timeline of phone calls and events on the morning of the Apalachee High School shooting are being investigated.
This comes as allegations by the accused shooter’s aunt raise new questions about whether Colt Gray’s mother warned school officials of an “extreme emergency” about 30 minutes before the gunfire on Wednesday.
Colt Gray’s aunt, Annie Polhamus Brown, confirmed to ABC News that Marcee Gray called a school counselor on Wednesday morning, telling school officials to find her son and check on him immediately. This news was first reported by The Washington Post.
According to the Post, “That account is supported by a call log from the family’s shared phone plan, which shows a 10-minute call from the mother’s phone to the school starting at 9:50 a.m. — about a half-hour before witnesses have said the gunman opened fire.”
The sheriff told ABC News he is not aware of that phone call, but he stressed authorities are in the very early stages of the investigation and are working to piece together a timeline. School district officials declined to comment.
Colt Gray is accused of killing two students and two teachers, and injuring nine others, at Apalachee High School on Wednesday.
He is charged with four counts of felony murder. More charges will be filed, prosecutors said.
The teen’s father, Colin Gray, is charged with four counts of involuntary manslaughter, two counts of second-degree murder and eight counts of cruelty to children, the GBI said. He is accused of “knowingly allowing his son, Colt, to possess a weapon,” GBI Director Chris Hosey said.
The father and son both made their first court appearances on Friday. Neither has entered a plea and both are set to return to court on Dec. 4.
ABC News’ Toria Tolley, Stephanie Maurice and Darrell Calhoun and contributed to this report.
This handout image taken and released by the Mount Vernon Fire Department shows rescue vehicles on Interstate 75 during an active shooter incident near London, Ky., Sept. 7, 2024. — Mount Vernon Fire Department
(LONDON, Ky.) — Joseph A. Couch, the man authorities have named as a suspect in a Kentucky freeway shooting that left seven people injured, bought the weapon used in the incident legally on the morning of the shooting, authorities said Sunday night.
Laurel County Sheriff’s Commander Richard Dalrymple said at Sunday night’s news briefing that Couch purchased about a thousand rounds of ammunition, most of which has been recovered.
The suspect remains at large despite a massive search in the area of Saturday’s shooting north of London, Kentucky.
The shooting unfolded around 5:30 p.m. local time on Saturday evening, officials said. Arriving deputies initially found nine vehicles had been shot in both the north and southbound lanes of I-75, Laurel County Sheriff John Root said at a news conference late Saturday night. By Sunday night, that number had jumped to 12 vehicles, according to officials.
Root said deputies found five people with serious gunshot wounds, including one who was shot in the face. He said one vehicle contained two people who were shot.
Laurel County Sheriff’s Deputy Gilbert Acciardo said Sunday that none of the victims suffered life-threatening injuries and were all in stable condition.
“A couple of our deputies, because of the severity of the injuries, loaded the people up, the injured persons, and transported them to London Hospital,” Root said.
Two additional people were injured in a car crash that occurred during the shooting, authorities said.
Root said I-75 was immediately shut down in both directions, saying that at the time, deputies didn’t know where the bullets came from.
“We couldn’t risk somebody else being shot,” Root said.
Authorities previously said they found an AR-15 rifle in the woods near the crime scene on Interstate 75, about eight miles north of London, Kentucky. Couch’s vehicle was also found abandoned in the same area Saturday night, officials said Sunday afternoon.
Couch was first named as a person of interest in the incident but upgraded to a suspect on Sunday. Root said the decision to name Couch a suspect was based on evidence collected in the investigation. Asked to elaborate, Root said that the recovery of the weapon and Couch’s vehicle, as well as “some information” he could not share, prompted investigators to elevate Couch to a suspect in the shooting.
The sheriff’s office earlier released a photo of Couch, who allegedly fled the freeway shooting and was believed to still be in the area, Root said.
Root said Couch has an address in Woodbine, Kentucky, and the sheriff’s office described him as about 5-foot-10-inches tall and 154 pounds.
Dalrymple said Sunday night that the suspect allegedly fired from a ledge about 30 feet down from a cliff by Exit 49. To find the location, Dalrymple said he had to hold onto a tree and look down to see the site to find the location.
Earlier, Acciardo described the shooting as “sniper-like” and said it was not the result of road rage. He said investigators do not believe the shooter knew any of the victims or had contact with them before the shooting.
Up to 60 members of law enforcement searched the area of the shooting until 3 a.m. Sunday before halting the search due to safety concerns, saying it was pitch black on the highway and describing the terrain where the search was being conducted as very rugged.
More than 150 individuals were involved in the search for Couch on Sunday, with efforts set to resume on Monday morning, according to Root.
The FBI, the U.S. Marshal’s Service and the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives are assisting local authorities in the investigation, officials said.
A motive for the shooting remained under investigation.
Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear said in a statement on X on Saturday that he was monitoring the situation.
In an interview Sunday on ABC’s Good Morning America, Christina Dinoto said she was driving with a friend southbound on I-75, heading to Tennessee, when the shooting erupted.
“All of a sudden, we just heard this loud, deafening sound,” Dinoto said. “And my ear, my right ear, started ringing, and we didn’t know what the sound was, but we both looked at each other and said, was that a gunshot?”
Dinoto said that when she pulled off the interstate in Knoxville, she discovered damage to her vehicle that she suspects was caused by a bullet that may have ricocheted off another car.
The Kentucky shooting came less than a week after six people were injured in six shootings that occurred on Sept. 2 on Interstate 5 in Washington state between 8:26 p.m. and 11:01 p.m. local time, officials previously said. A suspect whose vehicle was sought in connection with several of the shootings was arrested in the Tacoma area on Sept. 3, police said.
An ABC News graphic shows the expected path of a tropical storm in the Gulf of Mexico on Monday, Sept. 9, 2024. — ABC News
(NEW YORK) — A tropical system churning in the southern Gulf of Mexico is forecast on Monday to become Tropical Storm Francine as it moves toward a Wednesday landfall in Louisiana, the National Hurricane Center said.
A Tropical Storm Watch has been issued for parts of Texas, with the expectation that hurricane watches could be issued later today for parts of the Gulf Coast.
The storm is forecast Tuesday night into Wednesday morning to significantly strengthen into a Category 1 hurricane with winds near 80 mph.
The storm could then make landfall in western Louisiana late Wednesday afternoon or early evening, as a possible Category 1 hurricane, weather officials said.
Storm surge, rainfall flooding and hurricane wind gusts are forecast from Port Arthur, Texas, to Lake Charles, Louisiana, officials said.
A foot of rain is forecast for parts of Louisiana, with up to a half a foot in eastern Texas.
Heavy rain with flood threats is expected to spread into New Orleans and north into the Mississippi River Valley and Mid-South, all the way to Jackson, Mississippi, and even into Memphis, Tennessee, by Thursday, officials said.
Hand crews clear a defense line during severe temperatures in California as the Line Fire burns near Mentone, California, Sept. 8, 2024. — David Swanson/AFP via Getty Images
(LOS ANGELES) — The wildfire tearing through the foothills of Southern California’s San Bernardino County is now endangering more than 36,000 structures, according to emergency officials.
The Line Fire began on Sept. 5 and has since burned some 20,553 acres east of Los Angeles, with three firefighters so far injured attempting to control the blaze, fire officials said. As of 9:25 p.m. Sunday night local time, the fire remained at 0% containment, the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection said.
No structures have been damaged or destroyed, but the Cal Fire’s Sunday evening update warned that 36,328 structures were under threat.
“Line Fire behavior was moderated Sunday morning due to smoke, but as the afternoon progressed, the smoke cleared and temperatures climbed leading to more fire activity,” Cal Fire said.
“Night flight capable aircraft will be utilized when possible to try to hold the fire within [current] containment lines,” the update said. “Early next week, cooler weather will moderate fire activity below the marine layer. However, fire activity above the marine layer will remain active. There is still potential for spot fires to become established well outside the control lines.”
Gov. Gavin Newsom declared a state of emergency for San Bernardino County on Saturday, and mandatory evacuation orders have been issued for residents in the path of the blaze. The evacuations were expanded on Sunday.
Newsom said the state’s request for Federal Emergency Management Agency assistance was approved by President Joe Biden on Saturday afternoon.
“I thank President Biden for his swift approval of support for the work of our firefighters and first responders battling this fire and protecting local communities,” Newsom said.
“It’s critical that residents in the impacted areas remain vigilant and prepare to evacuate immediately if called for by local authorities.”
The cause of the fire remains under investigation.
Elsewhere, the Bridge Fire in Los Angeles Country has burned around 800 acres north of Azusa in the Angeles National Forest, fire officials said. The fire is at 0% containment and evacuation orders are in place for a mobile home park, campgrounds and a small river community. Night-flying helicopters have been deployed in the effort to control the blaze.
The Boyles Fire in California’s Lake County was at 90 acres late Sunday, 10% contained with Cal Fire noting that “crews are making good progress,” though “forward progress has not been stopped.” Around 30 structures and between 40 and 50 vehicles were destroyed.
Fire fighters are also battling the Davis Fire in Nevada’s Washoe County, where 6,500 acres have been burned and the fire is at 0% containment. The fire is “burning in heavy timber and brush,” according to the U.S. Forest Service. “Gusty conditions” are forecast through the week, the service added on social media, noting that at least 14 structures were so far impacted.
“Power outages continue,” the Forest Service said, with a “portion of south Reno under evacuation notice,” impacting between 12,000 and 14,000 people.
ABC News’ Marilyn Heck contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — House Republicans on Monday released the results of a sweeping three-year investigation they say is the most detailed public accounting yet of the Biden administration’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan that left behind hundreds of Americans and thousands of allies, some so desperate they clung to U.S. planes as the last military aircraft departed Kabul in 2021.
The report by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul — which relied on interviews with 18 top officials and 20,000 pages of documents — blames the White House, its National Security Council and the State Department for being slow to listen to military generals who warned the security situation would deteriorate quickly once U.S. troops began to depart.
The investigation did not, however, find evidence that Vice President Kamala Harris played any role in the planning or execution of the evacuation, although she expressed public support for President Joe Biden’s decision at the time.
Former President Donald Trump and other Republicans have suggested Harris is culpable, noting past comments by the vice president that she was the “last person in the room” when Biden decided to leave Afghanistan.
“Caused by Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, the humiliation in Afghanistan set off the collapse of American credibility and respect all around the world,” Trump told National Guard members and their families in Detroit last month on the anniversary of the 2021 suicide bombing at Kabul’s airport during the evacuation, which killed 13 U.S. service members and some 170 Afghans.
The Biden administration pushed back on the findings by Republicans, calling it a partisan effort that sought to cherry-pick facts ahead of an election.
The Republican probe also is being released ahead of the first political debate between Harris and Trump, which ABC News is hosting on Tuesday night in Philadelphia. Trump and GOP loyalists are expected to hammer the Democratic administration for failing to prepare for a Taliban takeover once U.S. troops began to depart.
“The chaos and devastation that took place in August of 2021 has forever damaged U.S. credibility in the eyes of our allies, while emboldening our adversaries like China, Russia and Iran,” said McCaul, R-Texas. “Yet, not a single person was fired and, to this day, no one was ever held accountable by President Biden or Vice President Harris.”
Last week, McCaul issued a subpoena for Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s testimony on the withdrawal, threatening to hold him in contempt if he doesn’t testify on Sept. 19. In a written statement, State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller noted that Blinken has already testified on Afghanistan and the State Department provided the 20,000 pages of documents the committee was relying on to inform its investigation.
“Though the secretary is currently unavailable to testify on dates proposed by the committee, the State Department has proposed reasonable alternatives to comply with Chairman McCaul’s request for a public hearing,” Miller said. “It is disappointing that instead of continuing to engage with the Department in good faith, the committee instead has issued yet another unnecessary subpoena.”
On the investigation, Miller accused Republicans of politicizing the war and “presenting inaccurate narratives.”
“The State Department remains immensely proud of its workforce who put themselves forward in the waning days of our presence in Afghanistan to evacuate both Americans and the brave Afghans who stood by our sides for more than two decades,” he said.
While many of the details included in the Republican investigation have already become public through media reports and internal government reviews, among the more interesting details come from inside-the-room accounts of U.S. Embassy personnel.
At one point, according to Republicans, staff grew so panicked at the rushed evacuation that they began filling Tupperware containers with passports and visa foils to burn as Taliban forces arrived outside their building. Classified documents were eventually left behind in the scramble, according to the report, although the report doesn’t say how many or what type.
Meanwhile, the NSC was slow to establish criteria for who was eligible for evacuation, a standard the report says changed hourly. At one point, electronic visa letters known as “hall passes” were given to eligible Afghans, but the documents were so easily replicated that bootleg copies began circulating and the U.S. quickly scrapped the plan, according to the report.
The report also paints a picture of a State Department and NSC slow to understand the danger U.S. personnel were in as the Afghanistan government collapsed and the Taliban took control.
Ambassador Ross Wilson, who was brought out of retirement in the Trump administration to serve in Afghanistan and was the top American diplomat in Kabul at the time of the withdrawal, was allegedly reluctant to trigger a military-led evacuation, according to the report. Wilson has spoken publicly before that his staff worked feverishly in those final days to try to process as many travel documents as possible to help qualified people evacuate.
Biden has defended the State Department’s handling of the evacuation in the wake of the operation.
“In the 17 days that we operated in Kabul after the Taliban seized power, we engaged in an around-the-clock effort to provide every American the opportunity to leave. Our State Department was working 24/7 contacting and talking, and in some cases, walking Americans into the airport,” Biden said in 2021 in the wake of the withdrawal.
Biden and other Democrats have also defended the decision to pull out U.S. troops and shutter the embassy after 20 years in the country, saying their options were limited after Trump struck a deal with the Taliban to depart by May 1, 2021.
Trump’s agreement with the Taliban included the departure of U.S. troops and the release of 5,000 Taliban fighters from Afghan prisons so long as the Taliban promised not to collaborate with al-Qaeda or engage in “high-profile” attacks.
Wanting to bring an end to the war and concerned that Taliban fighters might target American service members if the U.S. reneged on the deal, the Biden administration stayed the course but amended the U.S. withdrawal deadline to Aug. 31, 2021.
“He could either ramp up the war against a Taliban that was at its strongest position in 20 years and put even more American troops at risk or finally end our longest war after two decades and $2 trillion spent,” said Sharon Yang, the White House spokesperson for oversight and investigations. “The President refused to send another generation of Americans to fight a war that should have ended long ago.”
Military generals in charge at the time have previously testified that their recommendation to Biden earlier that year was to maintain some 2,500 troops beyond that date regardless of what Trump had agreed to.
“At the end of 20 years, we the military helped build an army, a state, but we could not forge a nation. The enemy occupied Kabul, the overthrow of the government occurred and the military we supported for two decades faded away,” Gen. Mark Milley, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff at the time of the withdrawal, testified last March.
“That is a strategic failure,” he said.
ABC News’ Emily Chang, Matthew Seyler and Shannon Kingston contributed to this report.
