By Jenny Goldsberry

After a week of reports that the Taliban is overtaking Afghanistan after U.S. troops evacuated, President Biden stands by the withdrawal, saying the effort was never meant to be “nation-building.”

Biden addressed the nation about the Taliban overtaking Afghanistan Monday. Most Americans, 69.3% disapprove of his handling of Afghanistan military operations according to this weekend’s poll from the Trafalgar Group.

“My national security team and I have been closely monitoring the situation on the ground in Afghanistan,” Biden said, calling it a “rapid collapse.” But, he doubled down saying the mission from the beginning was “never supposed to be nation-building,” or “unifying.” Instead, he said it was about “preventing another terrorist attack on American homeland.”

“There was never a good time to withdraw U.S. forces,” Biden said. “The truth is, this did unfold more quickly than we anticipated.”

Yet to Biden, the developments of the past week confirmed to him that it was the right decision to withdraw. “Afghan forces are not willing to fight for themselves,” he said. Despite training and equipping the force, the 300,000 strong military collapsed. According to him, it was a force “larger in size than many of our NATO allies.” Then, the U.S. provided Afghanistan with an air force, something the Taliban does not have. Still the U.S. will continue to provide close air support.

“We could not provide them a will to fight for that future,” Biden said. “It is wrong to order military troops to step up when Afghanistan’s own forces would not.” In the meanwhile, Biden claimed our troops were “bearing the brunt of the fighting for them.”

Now, there are 6,000 soldiers assisting withdrawal and escape for Americans and at-risk Afghans. They have taken over air traffic control, transferring diplomats to the airport as well.

Biden did not take questions following the press conference.

You can follow Jenny Goldsberry on Twitter @jennyjournalism.