Dem Rep. Moulton: Current Afghanistan Operation a ‘Failure’ and Biden Didn’t Plan for This Situation

On Monday’s broadcast of CNN’s “OutFront,” Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) said the ongoing operation in Afghanistan is a “failure” and President Joe Biden’s claim that his administration planned for every possibility in Afghanistan is false, because “if they had planned for this contingency, then they would have gotten our friends and allies out of Afghanistan a long time ago” like some in Congress urged the administration to, and then “we wouldn’t see the chaotic scenes at Kabul Airport today.”

Moulton said, “[W]hat matters today is the operation that’s ongoing in Afghanistan. That’s the failure that we’re talking about. That’s the operation that we need to fix. Because there are thousands of innocent lives on the line, and, make no mistake, it is still within the power of the United States to save those lives. So, I appreciate the fact that Joe Biden made, in some ways, a compelling case for his decision, but what we should be focused on right now is what’s happening on the ground in Afghanistan.”

He added, “Well, the president said in his speech that they planned for every contingency. But if they had planned for this contingency, then they would have gotten our friends and allies out of Afghanistan a long time ago. And that’s why I’ve been calling on the administration, for the last several months, to evacuate our allies, to evacuate American citizens, dispense with this bureaucratic special immigrant visa process, you can sort that out once they get to a safe place, just get these people out. If they had done that, we wouldn’t see the chaotic scenes at Kabul Airport today. So, I don’t see how he can make the case that he planned for this contingency. It’s clearly catching us by surprise.”

Follow Ian Hanchett on Twitter @IanHanchett

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