"I believed strongly that we were going to have a robust embassy presence in Kabul certainly through the year [2021], well into the next year," Blinken said in the documentary, according to a Politico report on Monday. "Everything that we planned and did was based on that assumption."
The Biden administration learned from Afghanistan and became hyper-vigilant about Russia’s actions concerning Ukraine as a result, documentary director John Maggio reportedly said.
The HBO documentary "Year One: A Political Odyssey" is set to premier on Wednesday, with the film’s central takeaway being that although the Biden administration may have acted with good intentions, its own hubris set it back, the report said.
The documentary features interviews with health and national security officials from across the Biden administration, including former White House COVID-19 chief Jeff Zients, former Press Secretary Jen Psaki and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, according to the report.
Maggio described the general nature of the administration as "urbane" and "worldly," but questioned whether such an approach was ideal.
The documentary covers areas such as the administration’s response to the COVID-19 pandemic, a major issue in its early days.
Confidence was high after meeting Biden’s goal of delivering 100 million vaccine shots in 100 days in just 58 days, the report said, citing an interview with Zients. However, the administration did not have a sense of the impact that new variants such as Delta and Omicron would play in prolonging the pandemic, Psaki reportedly said.
The president and vice president’s offices declined the documentary crew’s requests to interview their principals, the report added.