CNN counterterrorism analyst Phil Mudd took a blowtorch to Reps. Seth Moulton (D- MA) and Peter Meijer (R- MI) over their trip to Kabul in the midst of a chaotic and herculean airlift.
On Wednesday morning’s editiokn of New Day, co-anchor John Berman wrapped up a segment by asking Mudd to briefly weigh in on the trip, while noting that it has been “sharply criticized” by officials in the government.
Mudd did not mince words in his firy reply, denoncing the trip and demanding the members be stripped of their committee assignments:
Reprehensible. Sharply criticized is too polite. Look, the president of the United States, who is responsible first and foremost for American national security, said the situation is so dangerous that the U.S. military can’t stay on, that we have to withdraw U.S. military.So two members of Congress, without the support of their leadership, decide that they’re going to bypass Disneyland and take an Instagram trip to Afghanistan because they want some eye candy for a bunch of constituents.If I were Nancy Pelosi and Kevin McCarthy, I would see this as a chance for bipartisanship. Both those guys on their committees, out! Done.And by the way, ask them, for the two seats they took out, for all their concerns about refugees. What happens to the two refugees who didn’t get those seats? What do you tell them? Last thing I’d say,
evidently, from what I’ve read, one of the brilliant insights they’ve gotten is that the slow start meant that we could get fewer people out than we would have gotten out if we’d started fast. Look, John, I can do oversight from Memphis and give you that. Reprehensible. They ought to go from their committees.
Keilar noted that the two congressmen say there were other empty seats on their flights, and that they were in “crew seats,” but much of the criticism of the trip has centered on the unwelcome distraction it provided to those carrying out the massive airlift.
Watch above via CNN.