Kevin McCarthy Blames Biden for Afghanistan Crisis
Kevin McCarthy Blames Biden for Afghanistan Crisis and his staff. McCarthy and Veterans present their case against Biden for the failed procedures he used while withdrawing from Afghanistan. They point to all the mistakes Biden and his staff did.
Kevin McCarthy Blames Biden for Afghanistan Crisis
Kevin McCarthy speaks: Good afternoon. With me today, I have a ranking member, Mister Boss, Mister McCall and Mister Rogers. Also with me are veterans who served in Afghanistan. Mister Banks, Mister Walts, Mister Green, and our newest member of congress, Elsie. We’ve all just left the classified briefing.
A classified briefing can talk about what was said inside but, I’ll tell you this, I’m confident after leaving that briefing. There’s no possible way that we can get every American that’s still in Afghanistan out in the next 7 days. We are just 3 weeks away from the twentieth anniversary of 911. at no time, Should America ever bend or allow the Taliban to tell us when we have to stop bringing Americans out. We should stay until every single American is able to get out of Afghanistan. We should use every recourse possible to make that happen and we should not negotiate it. We should explain this is what is going to happen and anybody in our way to stop us from bringing Americas out will be in danger.
I have a number of members that are here much like our other briefings. It was cut off short. You are members still online and veterans who wish to ask questions. The Democrats felt that we could only have the ninety-minute no other time as I watch other countries and our allies across this world bring their bodies back together of government to work on how to bring their citizens home. The Democrats bring us back to spend trillions of dollars. They fight because they can’t be a roll up. They spend their time on phones trying to twist arms to get people to vote whereas they should drop that and our entire focus.
“Image obtained by Defense One shows hundreds of Afghans inside a US military C-17 Globemaster III flown from Afghanistan to Qatar on Sunday following the fall of Kabul to the Taliban. Photograph: Courtesy of Defense One/Reuters “
Republican, Democrat, Independent alike should be nothing else than bringing our Americans home. We shouldn’t work on other items especially spending of trillions of dollars. That should be our only focus. We shouldn’t cut off our briefing with the administration because they have to get back to vote on their rule. This is what we should be voting on. If I look to the Uk, they brought their parliament back to work on bringing their citizens home. We should be doing the exact same. I know the effects that it’s having on those who are there. Those who are back home and those who are served for every single individual from every Gold Star family, from every veteran I want to thank you for your service and your sacrifice. You did exactly what was asked upon you. With that, I’d like to call up our ranking member of veterans, Mister Boss.
Mister Boss speaks: Thank you, leader. You know more than 2000 American heroes have given life in Afghanistan Since 2001. We must never forget their sacrifice and the sacrifice that their families made as well. One of the scariest days of my life was the day that I watched my son leave this United States and move into a war zone. I’ll never stop, being grateful that he made it ,home safely, and that uh so many of his fellow servicemen made it home as well. including those who did deploy into the Afghanistan but after two decades, they did make the world safer. They are still trying to make the world safer and they’re trying to take care of each one of them are reaching out to our offices to try to identify Afghans. People that work with them to try to get them back home so they’re not stopping sacrificing today. They’re still trying to serve.
Unfortunately, the Biden administration has let them down. They’re watching the country that they had to fight in and the people that they fought alongside be left in chaos. My plea to you at this today is check with the veterans, you know, to make sure they’re doing okay. Talk to them the concern that they’re feeling and the uptick that we’re seeing in the calls to the hotlines for those veterans and what they’re feeling has increased tremendously. Make sure that you check on them and if you’re a veteran, a service member who served in Afghanistan and you’re feeling this, reach out to this veteran crisis hotline which is available and I want to give you that hotline number right now. It’s a confidential call. It’s one 800 802 738255 or you can text 838255 Once again, it’s call one 800-802-738255 or text eight three 8255 Now, know this to each of the veterans that are listening out there, you’re not alone. You didn’t fight in vain. You did a great service for this nation and we know you continue to serve you in your communities and with that, I yield back want to introduce a ranking member of a call, you know, thank you ranking member of Boston. Um uh I agree today is the day to say thank you to our veterans. They’re hurting. They’re in a bad place. They wonder was it worth it and um as I see the Taliban take over, it raises a lot of questions. We just got out of a classified briefing with the Secretary of State Defense Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, the DNI. So all the key components and um as a leader said, we left with more questions than we did with answers. I understand he is. The President just announced a firm withdrawal date of August 31st. I can tell you, there’s no way we can humanly get our all of our American citizens in Afghan partners out of country by that time. I’ve called this consistently and unmitigated disaster of epic proportions. It will be a stain on this Presidency and particularly after the decision made today and what we heard today, he will have blood on his hands. People are going to die and they’re going to be behind the biggest credo in the military. There’s no man left behind. No one left behind and that’s precisely what we’re doing. We’re violating the trust and moral obligation uh that we gave them and not only that but how’s this impacting our status in the global community? You know, when our Brits, the Prime Minister and Secretary of Defense are calling upon us to extend the deadline. uh the Germans because they want to get their people out of there as well but instead. We have a President who’s intimidated and is begging to negotiate with the Taliban to put ourselves in the place where we’re begging the Taliban to give us more time to evacuate and then we give the Taliban exactly what they want, empowering them. I know when Biden met with Putin, Putin said, you cannot put your ISR intelligence capabilities and in the region and now we’re here in the President of Russia telling this President what to do. Our global standing has greatly diminished. We’re projecting weakness, not strength, and for months, we told this administration as the IC briefed us on a grim situation that it was deteriorating rapidly and Taliban is going to take over Afghans going to fall. Please get our Americans out. Please go to Afghan Partners out instead. They’re stranded there. Our military’s pulling out and they’re going to be left behind and from a world stage standpoint. Um I can’t think of a weaker posture that we can put ourselves and our allies no longer trust us and our enemies no longer fear us and that’s Russia, China, and Iran, and Pakistan. This will have grave long term consequences for our national security down the road and with that, I’d like to introduce him. another veteran of Afghanistan, Mister Banks. No, I’m sorry, Mister Rogers. I apologize.
Mister Rogers speaks: Uh listen, Joe Biden has not been listening to anybody. Uh he’s not listening now. One fact that was abundantly clear in the briefing we just had is that it’s not possible to get all the Americans out of Afghanistan by next Tuesday and then you heard the president go there within the last hour and say it’s still a hard deadline that is reckless and it is going to leave blood on people’s hands and everything about the situation that we’re in now is Joe Biden’s fault when he told George Stephanopoulos a couple of days ago that none of his advisers advised him against leaving Afghanistan the way he’s doing it. That’s just a lie. Uh the fact is Joe Biden made the announcement in April of withdrawal in May and June. Our committee repeatedly was asking the administration for a plan. How are you going to responsibly withdrawal And they couldn’t give us one. I wrote a letter to the president in July asking for a plan. Still hadn’t got a response and now in August, the Taliban takes over.
He’s not listening to his advisers. He’s not listening to congress and this is the result that we’ve got when you see Isis and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan about to commit terrorist attacks. No Joe Biden created this this uh place that we’ve got over there now to be as dangerous as it is with his reckless decision making. Either he’s seen or he’s in denial but either way, it’s reckless for our country and it’s a disaster that is taking place. It’s his responsibility and I yield out to Jim Banks, Indiana I think the uh the ranking member and the leader for putting this together today.
Jim Banks speaks: I served in Afghanistan in 2014 and fifteen just prior to being elected to congress. My job there was as a foreign military sales officer so I was on the front lines of acquiring the equipment that the Americans provided and turned over to the Afghan army and the Afghan police. I’m going to read to you um what is so painful for me and so many of the other Afghan veterans who served in that capacity and others who served as a part of the train advice and assist equip effort uh in helping the Afghans. We now know that due to the negligence of this administration, the Taliban now has access to over 85 billion dollars’ worth of American military equipment that includes over 200 airplanes and helicopters over 600 thousand small arms and light weapons. The Taliban now has more Black Hawk helicopters than 85% of the countries in the world but they don’t just have weapons. They also have night vision goggles, body armor, medical supplies, and unbelievably unfathomable, unfathomable to me and so many others is that the Taliban now? Biometric devices which have the fingerprints is scans and the biographical information of the Afghans who helped us over the last 20 years and here’s what we just learned again and the briefing that we just walked out of is this administration still has no plan to get this military equipment or these supplies back instead that it’s all falling into the hands of the Taliban. There’s still no to account for what has happened to these weapons. I can tell you uh with ranking member uh Rogers behind me that has Republicans will fight next week when we go to the National Defense Authorization Markup to to fight for a plan. If this administration, the Democrats aren’t going to do it, we will do it. We will demand a plan to account for all of this military equipment but here’s uh here’s what I’m concerned about even more than the Taliban acquiring these weapons. It’s that we that Al Qaeda and Isis K still exist and are growing in Afghanistan and eventually, they acquire these weapons and as I said before, if any American is harmed or killed and not safely evacuated or if any of these military equipment or weapons are used to harm or kill an American, the blood is directly on Joe Biden’s hands. What’s also painfully clear from the briefing that we just walked out of is that behind closed doors, the Biden team tells us one thing, they admit mistakes. They know this is a dangerous situation going on in Afghanistan and President Biden tells us something different. He tells us that everything’s okay that it’s under control. So, either Joe Biden is lying to us or he’s not in touch with the team that just briefed us in the room and that’s a shame as well. So, with that, I yield to Representative Waltz from Florida, a fellow Afghanistan veteran.
Mike Waltz from Florida speaks: I’ve served multiple tours in Afghanistan as a green beret on the ground and uh this is deeply personal to so many of us I personally have helped Afghan my Afghan interpreters get back to the United States. They’re thriving now as American citizens but their families are being hunted down uh as we speak. I’ve also had one that fought with us. His name was little Spartacus. He was such a fighter. He was intercepted Taliban checkpoint with the very American documentation that he needed to get out of here. They didn’t just kill him. They took him home to his village. And beheaded his brothers and cousins in front of him before then beheading him I’ve seen school principals run out of town and murdered after they were hunted down their crime teaching girls and then the girls school was burned down. The Taliban have not changed and what is clear from the briefings? What has been clear from the from the months of briefings that our committee have received on the armed services Committee Is that a Taliban takeover equals Al Qaeda 3.00 and one thing that Joe Biden either won’t admit or doesn’t Is that what happens in Afghanistan doesn’t stay in Afghanistan. It spreads like a cancer. It will follow us home and many of us have been very clear about that danger across multiple administrations. This isn’t about politics. This is about the fact that America now is less safe. Here’s why we’re in even a worse position than we were in 2001 because now we have no basis in the region.
One It’s from the briefings and we’ve been asking for months. It’s not a single country surrounding Afghanistan. Not one has agreed to allow US forces to base there to allow our intelligence, our drones, and other things. We need to understand what’s going on to base there. Much less to allow lethal strikes to keep a lid on Al-Qaeda and Isis and other the intelligence community has been very clear. They have the will and the intent to hit us again.
So as we head into the twentieth anniversary, the anniversary of 911. We now face a prospect of soldiers having to go back in. Now, they have the Taliban is much heavier, much more heavily armed. Our local allies have been hunted down. There is no uh Northern Alliance. They’re very small elements left still willing to resist and I can tell you, we’re going to lead that effort from Congress because the administration won’t lead to continue the fight and to continue to keep America safe. This is a on historic proportions and there needs to be accountability and that accountability sadly is going to come from right here So, with that, I yield and I hand off to my fellow veteran brother in arms, Brian, thank you, brother. Absolutely, Brian Mast was injured in Afghanistan, September 19th 2010.
Brian Mast speaks: Countless friends killed in action to my left and right. Recovered alongside hundreds more had the honor of serving alongside hundreds of thousands that that put on the uniform. I have two briefing to say. One of them is a message to our veterans and one of them is a request for you, the media and all Americans really. This is not a walk and chew gum situation where we go out there and with half of our effort work to get Americans home and with the other half work on things that are peripheral that had nothing to do with that. You as the media can pressure this place when something’s going on here like working on a bill that has to do with altering voting, or infrastructure. you need to ask the question, what the hell are you doing? Get our Americans home when somebody starts working on something other than getting our Americans home here. Say, what the hell are you doing? Work on the rules of engagement for those marines and rangers on the ground to make sure that they have everything that they need in place to get the job done and to get home when somebody’s asking some question here on something else in the rules committee or something else. Say, what the hell are you doing? Did every American get home yet? Did you get all of those s IVs taken care of when somebody’s working on something else? Like, what the hell are you doing? 435? You need to be helping the state department with every asset within your staff to help them process those Ivs. get every American to pressure the people in Washington DC here to get every American and every person that helped Americans back here safe out. Hit that. the hostage hands of the Taliban. That’s an active role that you can play. The administration will listen to you. They’ll probably listen to you more than anybody else. If we know one thing, it’s their most concerned with optics and that’s probably what’s putting more people in danger than anything else. The optics of why they wanted to get out so soon the optics of why they’re not calling this a combat mission. you can help to create the pressure to get back home. My message for veterans is this, and I spoke about it with my friend Jim Baird earlier who lost an arm in Vietnam. It wasn’t Jim Baird fault. that they lost Vietnam It was the fault of those in Pennsylvania Avenue It wasn’t the fault of those that trudge over the mountains in Afghanistan that were in the firefighters that were kicking in doors that were going through those fields improvised explosive devices that Afghanistan is lost. It is the fault of those at Pennsylvania Avenue. I yield to Mister Green.
Mark Green, Tennessee speaks: It’s also very personal to me as well. Um I served in the one sixtieth special operations aviation regiment early during the war. Uh I was there when Pat Tillman was killed. I vividly remember his flag drape coffin being brought out to the airfield through a cord on of our nation’s tier one. I mean, these are the hardest guys in the United States military uh toughest most elite. This flag drape coffin goes through and there’s not a dry eye I can see it like it was yesterday going into the back of that seventeen the doors closing.
The sun was rising at Bahram. It is imprinted in my brain forever like so many other faces and names just like Pats I happen to serve the area that surrounds Fort Campbell. Uh about 85% of the people who live at Fort Campbell are in my district when I go to the pub’s, I have to look into the eyes of children who are gold star children This is deeply personal for me. I want to tell those veterans. this has been echoed here before your service was and it was completely and incredibly valuable to this country For 20 years, you protected our nation from a terrorist attack that has value and the friends that we lost their sacrifice has value If you’re struggling reboot Recovery.com, we’ve talked to many of you but if you are having a hard time reboot Recovery.com, III. just want to make a point about this disconnect between the president and the truth. He’s continually saying things that are completely different than what his own people say. For example, no one thought it was a bad idea to withdraw like this. This has already been mentioned when we know that people and his senior staff have said we shouldn’t withdraw things like the Afghanistan, the Afghan people don’t they don’t want to leave yet. There were tens of thousands of applications already in process. and I think the thing that really angers me the most is that the Afghan military did not want to fight That is absolutely incorrect. I served with those men and women. I took care of them when they were wounded on the battlefield Afghan Special forces in my hands. They are warriors and they have carried the ground fight. If you go do your homework for the past several years with over 50 thousand casualties, they are brave and they want to fight but they felt abandoned by the United States of America when they woke up and went to Mayfield and we were gone. crickets when you withdraw like that, you take the heart out of the heart of fight out of them and of course, their fear of a ruthless beheading Taliban. They blended in This is a tragedy that is on Joe Biden but I want to say one more thing before I step down and hand it over to Jake. Your credibility is at stake too.
Remember when President Trump made the comment or it was a speech to NATO and he left out article five and you guys went crazy. Oh, he doesn’t support NATO. This president has been asked to stay in Afghanistan to support our NATO allies who came to that country on our behalf because we were attacked and he has said no, we’re getting out by the thirty-first regardless of what you think now, say something about that in the press for your own credibility. I yield to Mister Green.
Jake Elsie Texas Speaks: the newest member of this caucus. It’s a 20 year navy veteran flying helicopters and jets of aircraft carriers. 2000-2001, we started the War of then USS Enterprise Flying Tomcat not strikes on Tora Bora before anybody knew what Tora Bora was I tour again in 2009 and ten is commanding officer of a of a fighter squadron flying into Afghanistan yet again and then again, when I retired in 2012 and 2013 and fourteen, I deployed as a contractor flying ISR aircraft out of fam air base for all of us. This is not politics. Nobody wants to be standing up in front of you talking about this This is a failure. We want to be talking about other things, but this is personal and it’s about Americans. not politics. I’d like to point out that 2443 American souls have given their lives for their country and for the betterment of another one. Since this conflict began nearly 20 years ago, since 911, 30 thousand, our brothers and sisters in arms have taken their own lives. Eternally wounded by that which they witnessed and experienced in Afghanistan. They will never be forgotten long after this failure will be talked about. Their memory lives on and it wasn’t in vain. They did their jobs What we have now is September 10th 2001 in Afghanistan They completely owned the country again. Only now they’re one of the best armed militaries in the world with our equipment. That should worry. everybody going forward. The surrounding countries and our allies but it’s a simple fact. So, the question we have is as we talk about how many people were going to get out of this country in the next week when we know we don’t have fifty of them 50% of them gone in the last week. How do we get here? Who made the decision to use Hammond Car International Ingram uh in uh in Kabul instead of Barra. You’ve got a one runway airport and a two runway airport. Thirty miles to the north. That’s easily protected and always has been protected by American military with at least twice the capacity and heavy lift capability to get our equipment out and our people out who made that decision and who is in charge of it. as an analogy. It would be much like the military deciding we’re going to evacuate. Washington DC out of Reagan instead of Andrews does that put that in perspective?
This is a massive failure that we don’t understand and nobody’s talking about how that happened. But it’s just one of many failures that have occurred. Now, the August 31 deadline we’re talking about a military mission here. Nobody can put a date on the accomplishment or the completion of a successful military mission. There’s no arbitrary date. The mission is complete when the mission is complete and if the Taliban harms a hair on an American’s head, all those aircraft and those aircraft carriers, those AC one 30s, we will re hellfire down on you until all are out and that’s what this administration needs to be saying. This commission is complete when it’s complete and not a day before. Thank you for your time leader McCarthy I want to thank them all of them who have served up here. You realize that it’s personal but it’s personal to thousands of Americans out there. It’s extremely personal to the goats, our families, There’s no one in the world outside of Joe Biden who thinks we can get everybody out by August 31st If there’s anything this body of congress should do, to pass a resolution. Exactly, saying that. Do not pick the date, the mission that every single American gets out of Afghanistan and that can determine the date when it’s done, and use whatever means possible to make that happen. We are America We have a force that can get it done. We just need that’ll give the authority to make it happen. Time wasted in congress on any other topic is exactly that. a waste. We’ve only been allotted 90 minutes to have this discussion but we spend an entire night the leadership of the Democrats spent their entire day yesterday in the day trying to twist arms to get people to vote to vote for trillions of dollars, not twisting one arm to make sure you get Americans out. I think they spend a little time listening to this country. They’ll know what their work should be done but that we’ll open it up. Yes, ma’am. Thank you so much. You just said there is no way it’s to complete this withdrawal 7 days. Why don’t you think it’s possible And what is your message to the president if he sticks with this Um the reason why there’s no way possible. Look at the number that we have there. They will not even provide the official number. The amount that we have been able to get out there and personally to the number of members here Mark Green just yesterday working, getting individuals out. Reports that they’re having to go to another country inside. Officials inside call. I raised that to the president as well. Um even from our own reporting from those who are in charge, we will tell you they can’t get the job done in that short amount of time. No one understands our beliefs that they can get out by the thirty-first and to allow the Taliban to dictate to America when we and that we have to leave Americans there. No American should be held hostage and no American should be left and if it’s very clear from this conference that we will spend our time on the floor only focused on this until every American’s out. We should not be working on anything else. I want to ask if you believe the previously negotiated May 1st date for withdrawal. Uh whether you believe that would have worked out better than what we’re seeing today and if so, why? And secondly, I may um you to whip your caucus to vote against the infrastructure bill. Well, first of all, I don’t think what infrastructure bill should come up I don’t think any other business should come up. We should be spending our time on this right here and looking at the past speaking to mister Pompeo, speaking to the former president. I know this would not have taken place to listen to the administration today say they that they had planned for every scenario. Would you have plan for this to watch the president get asked the question, was there any mistakes? Would you do anything different? No, why would you continue with this plan of failure knowing for myself but by being a gang of eight, knowing what the Intel was ahead of time You knew that this was an option that it would fall this fast. You watch why not after the first city? Why not? After the Taliban broke the agreement they had before. Why didn’t you come back with force? Why would you leave and take the military out and leave the citizens there? Why would you leave in the middle of the night? The base and not tell our allies. Our allies went there to protect us because of 911because of the respect they have for America. Our own allies today that have risked their lives and their citizenry are asking us to stay longer. I will tell them we hear them and we believe we should. We should keep our promise. What is happening today won’t go away in a week. It’ll be decades The idea where you heard Jim Banks talk about the weaponry that they have that it is reported that the Taliban now has more Black Hawk helicopters in Australia. Someone to say, oh they can’t fly em if they they can learn or they can sell them to Iran or China or others. If you think Afghanistan is far away, remember what happened 20 ago. If think Afghanistan is far away, understand what’s happened to our borders today. It’s publicly reported. Yes, we’ve got people on the terrorist watch list and they didn’t come from Central America The report is from Yemen. You just had 5000 prisoners released They know how to come here. They have a mission on their hands. So, not only should we make sure every American is taken out of Afghanistan, we should secure our borders and we should do it today. Projected confidence that you’re going to take back the majority of the next election cycles. The Republicans do win. Will you be examining this will be investigated? What are yours? If you have questions, think I’ll play politics with this. The only thing the Republicans are focused on right now is getting every American out and keeping every promise we made. we will hold when we’re in the minority and when we’re in the majority, we will hold people accountable. For the mistakes that were made, the plans that were carried rough. Now, why weren’t they changed? This tarnished the reputation of America for decades to come and people should be held accountable. Yes. If you can talk about in terms of what the intelligence was leading up to this decision making process but the president and the state department have said that their intelligence didn’t reflect that there would have been such a precipitation takeover by the Taliban but yesterday, even Democrats on the House Intelligence Committee said that going 6 months back, there were warnings that there was a problem. Is that what you got from this briefing? You have both DNI and the State Department and White House officials in this meeting today. Was there a disconnect in the room today when they were talking about this, I would leave simply to President Biden’s press conference. In July. What he told the American public and no, they’d be able to fight. There’s no chance of it collapsing. I happened to be the member of the gang of eight. I’ve had intel briefings I never believed what he was saying. There was the briefings that I was requiring. You have the ranking member of Armed Services, Mister Rogers been briefed in a different manner that he’s publicly said. Either Joe Biden made a different decision based upon the briefing that he was given and this is another thing of why we need accountability. What information has been provided to this president When the president just a few days ago told the American public there was no Al Qaeda Less than an hour later. he was contradicted by his own administration to our conference. when he told the American public that he has no report of Americans having problems getting to the airport and cobble We had our own reports that was different in less than an hour. We were told no Americans shouldn’t go. They’re being beaten So, when the president says that the thirty-first is the deadline, I wonder if he’s making that same decision process of why he wanted out to try to make a date of a twentieth anniversary. We want to be very clear with him. Don’t pick the date, Solve the problem. Make sure every American is out then that will be the date that we depart.
End of the Statements…Kevin McCarthy Blames Biden for Afghanistan Crisis
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