Tuesday on Fox News, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA) weighed in on reports that Russia had offered bounties to the Taliban for killing American soldiers in Afghanistan and subsequent comments made by Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) criticizing President Donald Trump’s handling of the situation.
Schumer accused Trump of not knowing or knowing and not doing anything about it, to which McCarthy responded by calling out Schumer for playing politics with American lives.
“I think it’s worse is what Chuck Schumer is playing into,” McCarthy explained. “He’s playing politics with American lives by saying what he’s saying. We all know that Russia is dangerous to America. That’s why this administration — the Trump administration changed from the Obama administration of a resetting. What he — what the president did was gave weapons to Ukraine. What President Trump did is also put sanctions on Russia. President Trump is doing everything he can to protect our American troops. But the idea of leaking information, not even knowing whether it’s true or not in the process, and playing it out in politics is dangerous to all Americans who serve in our military anywhere in the world. This is not a place for this. Chuck Schumer is part of the Gang of Eight, as myself — as I am, myself, and this is not the way we should handle this situation or classified information and play it out into politics.
McCarthy urged public officials to wait and get “all the information.”
“There’d be many options of what we could do to Russia,” he said. “The one thing you do have to find right now, find out if it is true. I know individuals are saying they have questions on both sides. Let’s get all the information, and let’s not play this out into the public. Let’s get the real information so those on hand can do the actions that we need to hold back. The one thing I do know that this president has done, though, stronger sanctions against Russia by any other president — standing up to them. Also, giving Ukraine weapons, where Obama would only give them blankets. I mean, let’s handle this in the manner in which we should, making sure we’re protecting our troops first and foremost. That regardless, whoever looks at American troops that they will have consequences for any actions that they go after.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor