Afghan exit makes over half of voters think 9/11-style attack is ‘more likely,’ poll shows

More than half of American voters believe President Biden’s handling of the Afghanistan exit makes it more likely the U.S. will see another 9/11-style terror attack, and nearly 56% say the episode made them less confident the president can lead the country overall, according to a poll released Thursday by conservatives.

The Convention of States Action, working with the Trafalgar Group, said 42% of Americans see a major attack as “much” more likely and 15% think it is more likely.

Only 20% think the withdrawal makes it less likely Americans will be attacked and slightly less than a quarter think it won’t make a difference either way.

The U.S. is still trying to pull Americans out of Afghanistan after its chaotic wind-down of military operations in August following two decades of war.

Mr. Biden and his team scrambled after Afghan forces who were trained and equipped by the U.S. fell to the Taliban much faster than they anticipated. Thirteen servicemen and women were killed in a terror attack near the Kabul airport amid the evacuation.

“On the 20th anniversary of 9/11, the American people see that President Biden‘s handling of Afghanistan has undone most of the progress made over two hard-fought decades in the war on terror,” said Mark Meckler, president of the convention. “But the deeper issue this reveals is the utter lack of confidence the public now has in the Biden administration’s ability to lead the country.”

The pollsters said 55.6% of Americans are not confident in the administration’s ability to lead versus 43.8% who feel confident based on its handling of Afghanistan.

That means less than 1% of those polled were left unsure about Mr. Biden’s ability after the operation.

The poll included 1,097 “likely general election voters” and had a margin of error of nearly 3 percentage points.