House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), flanked by veterans from the House Republican caucus, hammered the Democrats and President Joe Biden in a press conference after being blocked from introducing a bill that would give the American people accountability on Afghanistan.
“It’s been a tragic two weeks for this nation, culminating in the death of 13 of our soldiers, at least 18 seriously injured. Earlier this week, we saw 13 flag-draped coffins arrived back home,” McCarthy said to start the press conference. “These 13 soldiers gave their lives to make sure to bring Americans home safely. They were the best of us. And we will never, ever forget. And we will always remember them as heroes.”
McCarthy added that Democrat Debbie Dingell (D-MI), presiding in the House chamber, refused to let the Republicans offer a bill from Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-WI) to give Americans the deserved accountability on Afghanistan.
The bill would have made the Biden administration create a plan to bring stranded Americans home, make transparent any deals made by the Biden administration with the Taliban, not recognize the Taliban as the government, and prohibit any support for the jihadist organization.
Gallagher, whose bill the Democrats rejected, said Biden “left hundreds of Americans behind and gave safe harbor to the hate of a fundamentalist terrorist Taliban regime” after terrorists killed 13 service members, noting “it didn’t have to be this way.”
He added on Tuesday that Democrats and Republicans had a chance to come together. “We tried to introduce new legislation today to save our citizens that President Biden left behind in Afghanistan,” which was denied on the House floor.
Watch:
Rep. Mike Bost (R-IL) said during the press conference that if you ask any veteran, “What is one of the things we never ever do,” they would all answer, “We never leave our Americans behind,” despite Biden leaving hundreds of Americans behind. Bost added that Congress wants to make sure all of the stranded Americans come home.
“This president ignored the advice of his own top generals and his own intelligence community and went with his own politicos in the White House — this a political decision pure and simple,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-TX) added when it was his turn to speak. He said Biden’s “withdrawal with no conditions” was a complete surrender by the U.S. to the jihadist organization.
“This disaster that we just experienced is solely the responsibility of Joe Biden, Antony Blinken, Jake Sullivan and their leadership team,” Rep. Mike Rogers (R-AL) announced when it was his time to talk.
“It matters who leads this country; we need leadership,” Rep. Mark Green (R-TN) said.
Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) also noted that, as Americans, “We do not let terrorists dictate the time, place and the method in which we get our people out.”
Rep. Brian Mast (R-FL) said it is “very simple to protect lives to save Americans,” claiming that Biden’s administration is lying to the American people:
When they [the Biden administration] send somebody out to the podium, when they send Blinken out to the podium, it’s to lie to the American people. Flat out, when he says the terrorists promised that they won’t let other terrorists in, that’s an example of him lying to the American people. When they send somebody else out from the administration to talk about what’s going to happen with the recognition of the Taliban or other terrorist groups, they’re sending somebody out to lie to the American people. When they send somebody out to talk about the U.S. arms that will be used against our military and other militaries and civilians across the globe, they’re sending somebody out to lie to the American people.
Rep. Jim Banks (R-IN) also mentioned that the Biden “administration still has no idea how many Americans they have left behind enemy lines in Afghanistan.” Breitbart News reported that Biden also admitted to abandoning ten percent of the people left in the country:
The president during the speech said, “the bottom line” — now that the U.S. evacuations are complete and service members will not be shuttling Americans and high-risk Afghans out of the country — is only “90 percent of Americans in Afghanistan who wanted to leave were able to leave. And for those remaining Americans, there is no deadline. We remain committed to get them out if they want to come out.”
By saying this, Biden is openly admitting to the country — and the world — there are still ten percent of Americans who the U.S. wanted to evacuate out of the country left there by Biden.
“Behind closed doors, Democrats have asked for the same thing: accountability of what is there and accountability of who is there,” said Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-TX).
Follow Jacob Bliss on Twitter @jacobmbliss.
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