Mitch McConnell Blasts Biden’s ‘Botched’ Afghanistan Withdrawal: ‘Everyone Saw This Coming Except the President’
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) slammed President Joe Biden‘s “botched exit from Afghanistan” on Sunday, claiming that “everyone saw this coming except the President.”
“The Biden Administration’s botched exit from Afghanistan including the frantic evacuation of Americans and vulnerable Afghans from Kabul is a shameful failure of American leadership,” McConnell wrote in a statement. “The rapid advance of the Taliban was expected after the US abandonment of Afghan security forces. The plight of innocent Afghans was predicted, and the challenges of safely evacuating US personnel and innocent Afghans have been magnified by our inexplicable withdrawal from Bagram Air Base.”
The withdrawal from Afghanistan has resulted in the Taliban making major gains — including seizing Kabul — and issues evacuating both U.S. troops and Afghans who assisted them.
“Everyone saw this coming except the President, who publicly and confidently dismissed these threats just a few weeks ago,” McConnell claimed. “The strategic, humanitarian, and moral consequences of this self-inflicted wound will hurt our country and distract from other challenges for years to come.”
McConnell’s statement comes in the wake of “receiving a Biden Administration briefing on the deteriorating security situation in Afghanistan.”
“It did not have to happen this way. The United States had the capacity to avoid this disaster,” he said. “We still have the capacity to dampen its effects, but without a presence on the ground or local partners, defending the homeland from a resurgent al Qaeda will be far more difficult.”
On Friday, McConnell suggested the U.S. “hammer Taliban advances with air strikes” to “prevent the seemingly imminent fall” of Kabul. The Taliban took control of Kabul on Saturday, leading to “frantic evacuations” of U.S. embassy staff.
