one of the most pathetic days in u.s
military and foreign policy history as
the taliban take kabul their gutless
president flees and hours is m.i.a and
we have a shuttle and we have to shuttle
our remaining people and our afghan
allies out of the country and now we've
stopped all flights because of the chaos
at the airport
unbelievable to put in perspective
congresswoman liz cheney uh
congresswoman welcome back
hey brian thanks so much for having me
back i mean listen you're one of the few
people not surprised by this right
now it is it's it's devastating uh it's
certainly heartbreaking to watch the
scenes from the airport um
and and you and i have talked about this
for years uh you know my view has been
that having 2500 to 3500 u.s forces on
the ground
to conduct counter-terrorism counter
intelligence to help us make sure that
the taliban wasn't able to take over
that they weren't able to
continue to provide
safe havens for al-qaeda
that that was um an important um
deployment for our security and we've
watched
just the the absolute devastation the
last three or four days
because
of the determination that we needed to
withdraw completely and because of the
way that
the biden administration is conducting
the withdrawal it's really devastating i
want you what jake sullivan just said
now i was doing fox and friends so i
missed it he was on nbc here's what he
said when when he was asked about this
being a saigon moment
michael walsh told me this is not true
he says that you can get back and forth
in a vehicle but listen to him try to
explain that this isn't like saigon 1975
cut two to be fair
the helicopter has been the mode of
transport from our embassy to the
airport for the last 20 years but you
know the launch
it's not that that is how we are it's
not the mechanism
no no it's the last minute scramble you
know that it's the last minute scramble
when the assurances from the president
himself were this was not what we were
going to see it is certainly the case
that the speed with which cities fell
was much greater than anyone anticipated
including
the afghans including
many of the analysts who looked hard at
this problem
analyst part of the problem what about
your secretary of defense in chamber
that joint chiefs of staff
i don't know congresswoman you have
better sources than i do did they give
him bad advice or did he ignore it
i think that he ignored the advice of
his military leaders
and look you know jake sullivan is right
this isn't saigon it's far worse
uh when when you have a situation where
the very terrorist organizations that
housed al qaeda that house isis but that
housed al qaeda as they planned and
launched the attacks against us
are now back in control of the entire
country they're going to establish a
caliphate um
it's just it's it's uh the damage to our
national security is significant uh the
prisoners that have been released the
extent to which this is going to change
what we have to do in order to keep
ourselves safe just a massive massive
failure
now and look you know brian we talked
about this too i think the agreement
that the trump administration negotiated
with the taliban in 2020 was a surrender
agreement and and that created a
situation where we were legitimizing the
taliban and shutting out the afghan
government and and set us on the path
we're on now so it's this is the
consequences of a policy of american
retreat and withdrawal and it's very
dangerous but they violated uh
everything that they agreed upon they
said they wouldn't move on the
government uh they they actually
uh on that framework that they laid out
i was not for i wouldn't have been
talking to him period president trump
wanted to get out but in speaking with
their officials this weekend and cleanly
general jack keane they were under the
belief after the election that president
trump never would have gotten to get
this far and if you don't believe that
maybe you have a right to not believe it
then think about this his ego wouldn't
have let him allow the taliban to take
over kabul in three days he would have
stopped it in its tracks
well
look i mean
i'm not going to argue with you about
the size of president trump's ego but
but i would just say this that um this
push to withdraw
uh the 5 000 prisoners that were
released as a result of that agreement
the fact that
mike pompeo was the first secretary of
state in history to meet with the
taliban the fact that they were
considering inviting the taliban to camp
david on 9 11.
um i mean that that set this all in
motion and it was we were told uh by
president trump by mike pompeo that the
taliban was going to renounce al qaeda
we were told that the taliban was going
to fight terror the terrorists for us
just none of that happened and i think
you know what we're seeing today
absolutely is the responsibility of joe
biden but i think it's really important
to take a step back and say listen you
know the united states has to do what's
necessary for our national security and
in afghanistan that meant um having the
counterterrorism and counterintelligence
capabilities that 2500 you know forces
on the ground gave us now we don't have
that we're seeing what happens when we
retreat
and and we've got to think about now as
prisoners have been released across
afghanistan you know these global
jihadist movements are going to benefit
from that and and we're going to be in a
situation where uh there are going to be
additional requirements because of
heightened threats uh in order to keep
us safe from islamic terrorists uh
listen uh general austin he's been doing
this what 45 years
he did not know the quality of the
afghan forces really oh really the
general milly did not know the quality
he said well general austin says i
couldn't i didn't know they weren't
going to fight how if you didn't if you
ever had a boot camp you know the
quality of your fighters
yeah i guess i would say a couple of
things i i think that that we will find
that the military advisers the military
the commanders here
uh
that president biden ignored their
advice you know general austin is
somebody who he said in a conference
call that very thing what i just said he
blamed the afghan forces
yeah i know i was on that call um but
but they know that they've now got to
carry out the orders that president
biden has issued uh i think when you you
know i think it's wrong to start talking
about well the afghan forces don't have
the will you know we completely stripped
them of air power uh we you know put
them in a position where we've been been
working with them helping them they had
air support they had our trainers with
2500 forces we were able to prevent the
catastrophe that you're seeing right now
so i think it's wrong to blame the
forces but i do think you'll find this
was a decision made
contrary to the advice that the
president was getting from the senior
military leaders absolutely so uh we're
talking to congresswoman liz chaney uh
who knows enough about national security
as anybody uh in congress
uh and the white house to be totally
candid congresswoman
when you look at this we basically set
them up and talking to people this
weekend almost like an american force to
a degree they used to having commanding
officers but guess who their commanding
officers were americans
so
you could want to fight but if you don't
have a captain a lieutenant or colonel
to turn around and say where do i go
that you believe in
it's over and that's what happened we
totally left so listen to richard haas
who agrees with you about the agreement
the trump team cut cut 25 he's the
president of the council of foreign
relations i would actually think the
agreement we signed with the taliban in
february of 2020 was a disaster that
undermined the afghan government it
asked virtually nothing of the uh of the
taliban in exchange for our withdrawal
and mr biden who hasn't been shy about
changing to all sorts of other policies
he inherited from iran to climate change
why was he unwilling to change this
policy do you have an answer to that and
do you agree with his assessment
i agree with him and and the idea that
the bible administration is somehow
saying we didn't have the ability to
change the bad path we were on it's
ridiculous we've watched him change
policy after policy and and so that you
know look he he bears responsibility for
this he made the decision
just one example you know
when they set the date certain of
everybody's got to be out by i think
they said august 31st ultimately um you
know that meant that we had to start
basically
evacuating turning back over our bases
in the country including baghdam and the
the devastation and the tragic scenes
that you're seeing today out of the
kabul airport we wouldn't be seeing that
if we had held on to bagram so there
were a lot of decisions that that were
made that you know the military uh
determinations about how to conduct this
withdrawal clearly um that people need
to understand what went wrong here this
uh
this is certainly not we should not have
been withdrawing in the first place in
my view um but the idea that we've got
these scenes of death and chaos
is really
uh it's just gonna be hugely damaging
for the united states globally you know
people will look at that how do you
think people in taiwan feel how do you
think people in ukraine feel watching
these scenes thinking well can we count
on america
and you know america's security
uh depends upon our allies being able to
count on us so we've got gotta we've
gotta fix uh this it's not gonna be easy
uh it's gonna require new leadership for
the country um and a new commitment to
reasserting america's role in the world
and and recognizing that weakness is
provocative so i want to project now
instead of
right now we're in a situation where we
stopped
in fights the civilian fights to get
civilians out because we had a couple of
guys get caught in the wheel wells they
were hiding in the wheel wells they died
uh and you saw that you see these images
now of people as the planes taxiing
all these afghans running to keep up
with him as if let me on this plane all
right so they have stopped these flights
now there's ah there's allies of ours
and might even be americans in mazari
sharif and kandahar and other major
cities that are going to need to be
picked up via chinook helicopter
and
what do you expect to happen they say
the taliban said we're not going to
attack at your airport but a
shoulder-fired missile at one of our
choppers going into one of these cities
where we no longer have assets on the
ground can you tell me how you expect
this to play out
well this is this is a complete
mishandling
by the military
of
the orders that were you know misguided
orders from president biden
you know we cannot be in a situation
where we have americans trapped on the
ground
we cannot from a moral standpoint and
also from a national security standpoint
be in a situation where you know we
we've committed to people to if you help
us we'll be here for you
the afghans and that we then abandon
them so we've got we've got to ensure
that we can get americans out we have to
ensure that we can get um
as many of our afghan
translators and and those people who've
been working with us out as possible i
mean it is it is a real
shame and a stain
on the buying administration
when you watch how this is being
implemented over the last several days
and
they they need to make sure that they're
committing the resources necessary um
that we we get out you know every single
person we can that we do not leave
people behind who helped us and worked
with us for so many years now are you
stunned that the president and i'm i'm
up against a break but you stunned the
president remains at camp david quiet
silence no even guarantee he's going to
speak today
yeah he has to speak to the nation i
mean this is it's outrageous to have
this kind of
catastrophe unfolding because of its
directly because of a decision he made
and to have him be silent that that is
not leadership he needs to speak to the
country he needs to explain why he did
what he did and he needs to tell us what
he's going to do to protect us from the
growing jihadist threat that we're going
to face as a result of this
really misguided and you know just
fundamentally dangerous decision that he
made to pull all our forces out of
afghanistan all right congressman
melissa cheney thanks so much i went to
brian kilmeade i want you to do me a
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