Republican lawmakers called on ABC News to release a portion of its interview with President Biden that was not aired, although the network included the remarks in a full transcript of the interview published online.
ABC did not air a section of its interview with Biden in which the president made inaccurate statements about his son Beau before correcting himself. The interview was conducted following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban last weekend, and Biden used the opportunity to defend his administration’s handling of the American withdrawal from Afghanistan.
In the course of the interview, anchor George Stephanopoulos brought up a statement from an Afghanistan War veteran, who agreed with the withdrawal but added, “I just wish we could’ve left with honor.”
“Look, that’s like asking my deceased son Beau, who spent six months in Kosovo and a year in Iraq as a Navy captain and then major—I mean, as an Army major. And, you know, I’m sure h—he had regrets comin’ out of Afganista—I mean, out of Iraq,” Biden responded, according to ABC’s transcript. “He had regrets to what’s—how—how it’s going. But the idea—what’s the alternative? The alternative is why are we staying in Afghanistan? Why are we there?”
Beau Biden served in Iraq in 2009 with the US Army Delaware Army National Guard, and worked in Kosovo two decades ago following the country’s war with Serbia.
The section of the ABC interview was not aired, leading some Republican lawmakers to call for that section’s release.
“If ABC was going to agree to an exclusive interview with the President, who refuses to answer questions in any public setting, then ABC owes it to the American people to release the entire video,” Representative Jim Banks (R., Ind.) said Thursday on The Hugh Hewitt Show. “Obviously, this interview did not go well for the president.”
Senator Bill Hagerty (R., Tenn.) made similar comments to host Hugh Hewitt.
“Does ABC owe the American people an unedited view of the President since we have nothing else?” Hewitt asked.
“Well, I’m certain the American public would prefer this,” Hagerty responded. “And I think that your raising it, talking about it right now, is a great way to put pressure on the situation, to actually see the raw footage.”