President Donald Trump’s reelection campaign rejected alleged support from the Taliban for the 2020 election.
“We reject their support and the Taliban should know that the president will always protect American interests by any means necessary, unlike Joe Biden, who opposed taking out Osama bin Laden and Qasem Soleimani,” Trump 2020 spokesman Tim Murtagh told media outlets over the weekend.
CBS News quoted Zabihullah Mujahid as saying during a phone interview: “We hope he will win the election and wind up US military presence in Afghanistan.”
Mujahid also alleged that the terrorist group believes Trump “is going to win the upcoming election because he has proved himself a politician who accomplished all the major promises he had made to American people.”
However, the Taliban appeared to reject the CBS News report, with Mujahid asserting the outlet “misinterpreted and misrepresented my words.”
Last week, Trump wrote that he wants to bring U.S. troops serving in Afghanistan home by Christmas. American soldiers have been in the Central Asian country for more than 19 years, following the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001, that left nearly 3,000 Americans dead.
“We should have the small remaining number of our BRAVE Men and Women serving in Afghanistan home by Christmas,” he wrote on Twitter.
A U.S. deal with the Taliban scheduled the withdrawal of soldiers by May 2021. The agreement requires the group to break with the al-Qaeda terrorist group and come up with a power-sharing deal with Afghani government officials.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo also said last month that the United States was slated to withdraw in April or May.
