Hours after President Donald Trump called off a secret meeting between the U.S., Afghan leaders, and the Taliban at Camp David, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday defended the decision to invite Taliban leaders to the U.S. in the first place.
During an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press,” host Chuck Todd pressed Pompeo on whether “it was appropriate to have the Taliban set foot on Camp David” given the area’s historical significance.
Pompeo responded by saying that while there were “lots of discussions” about the issue, “The president ultimately made the decision that if we could get that, if we could get commitments and then put in place a verification regime that would give us confidence that we could observe that those commitments were being honored, that it was a useful effort to try and get all of those parties in one place so that we could have serious conversations about how to reduce America’s risk so that there won’t be other secretaries of state that have to travel to Dover to go see these amazing American heroes who have given so much for our country.”
