Former Afghanistan ambassador John Bass was pressed to return to Kabul in August 2021. Bass was called by a top State Department official to return to the nation to help lead the US' withdrawal. Bass was so unprepared for the assignment that he had to run to an outdoor store to get gear. I've just been asked to go back to Kabul and support the evacuations," the book quotes him as saying. According to the book, Biden himself would "pepper" Bass with ideas on how to get more evacuees through the airport's gates.

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Persons: John Bass, Bass, Afghanistan John Bass, REI, Franklin Foer, Joe Biden's, Ross Wilson, Wendy Sherman, I'm, I've, Hamid Karzai, Biden, Foer, Ross, Sherman Organizations: State Department, Service, Airport, Atlantic Locations: Afghanistan, Kabul, Wall, Silicon, Foggy, Virginia