| 2,500 Troops United States Central Command Commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie contradicted President Joe Biden on Tuesday, telling members of Congress he advised the president to leave some troops in Afghanistan. McKenzie made the comment in response to a query from Sen. James Inhofe (R-OK), the ranking member on the Senate Armed Services Committee, who asked whether he agreed with an assessment that 2,500 troops should have remained in the country. “I recommended that we maintain 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, and I also recommended earlier in the fall of 2020 that we maintain 4,500 at that time," the general testified. "I also [had] a view that the withdrawal of those forces would lead inevitably to the collapse of the Afghan military forces and eventually the Afghan government.” The remark undermined an assertion to the contrary that Biden made in an August interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos. “Your top military advisers warned against withdrawing on this timeline. They wanted you to keep about 2,500 troops,” Stephanopoulos said at the time. “No, they didn’t! It was split,” Biden exclaimed, before repeating himself twice for effect. “That wasn’t true.” Stephanopoulos pressed the question to be perfectly clear: “So no one told — your military advisors did not tell you, ‘No, we should just keep 2,500 troops. It’s been a stable situation for the last several years. We can do that. We can continue to do that’?” “No,” replied Biden. “No one said that to me that I can recall.” At the hearing, Gen. McKenzie was asked specifically if President Biden was given that recommendation, and he confirmed that Biden heard and considered it. Elsewhere in the hearing, Sen. Tom Cotton suggested Gen. Mark Milley should resign over the Afghanistan withdrawal. Milley turned down the offer. But he did say that America's credibility has been "damaged."
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Programming Notes... Fox News Channel's Geraldo Rivera will be hosting a new show on Fox Nation. The limited series COPS: All Access with Geraldo will premier on October 1st. From the release: "In conjunction with the return of the iconic series COPS, Rivera will recap the first four episodes of Season 33 with the executive producer of COPS, Morgan Langley, as well as reminisce about the history of the cult classic, which was created by his father John Langley in the 1980s. Episode one of the four-part series will also detail the show’s origins and describe the current climate surrounding policing in America. The three remaining episodes will drop each consecutive Friday throughout October." The announcement comes not long after Geraldo signed a new multi-year deal to stay at FOX News Media as a correspondent-at-large. The veteran has been with the network since 2001. 6.5.0 | 
