Washington, D.C. – This morning, House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy joined Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom” to denounce President Biden for letting the Taliban control the United States’ reputation, and foreign policy. “You are the commander-in-chief, you are the leader of the free world and you just allowed the Taliban to dictate our foreign policy,” McCarthy said.
Highlights of remarks are below, or you can watch online here.
“I think [President Biden has] ruined our reputation on the world stage.
“I think he is allowing the Taliban to direct our reputation, but more importantly, our foreign policy. When you have countries such as the UK and France, that are in Afghanistan for only one reason: that America was attacked, that are begging us to extend the deadline past the 31st so they can get their citizens out, that the President sides with the Taliban because the Taliban told them when? That is a very sad day for America.
“And you know what Nancy Pelosi said on the floor [yesterday]? That it was a good day for America and Democrats. Because all they focused on was this spending…Are they so tone deaf that they don’t know what’s happening in the world? This is not going to harm us for the next week, this is going to harm us for the next two decades. That we are leaving Americans behind…
“The Democrats showed their true colors, of what they truly believe. In one of the greatest crises that America has faced, in a moment of time where you look for a public servant to put the public before yourself, the Democrats did the complete opposite. And for the White House to spend time, President Biden calling Democrats to twist their arms to vote on that, when we have Americans in harm’s way?
“I don’t understand this…this should not be political…Americans should come first, the lives of Americans. You are the commander-in-chief, you are the leader of the free world and you just allowed the Taliban to dictate our foreign policy. You just shunned our allies, our greatest supporters, who risked their own lives, and gave their own lives, because America was attacked twenty years ago.
“[President Biden] opened our border. We just released 5,000 prisoners in Afghanistan. We have been catching people on the terrorist watch list…We are less safe today than we were twenty years ago. [The Taliban] reportedly now have more Black Hawk helicopters than Australia has. They have drones. They have weaponry that we wouldn’t want any other army to have. That is what this administration has done, and they spent their time spending trillions of dollars instead of focusing on the protection of Americans.”
“We watched every crisis in this new administration, that he ran from it, that he ignored it. First it became the border, he could not call it a crisis. Then he pushed it off to the VP. We watched ransomware come in. What do you think the Taliban thought when they watched that weakness? What do you think China and Russia believe? What do you think is going to happen in the future now to Taiwan, or to the Baltics or to Eastern Europe, based upon what President Biden’s actions have been recently? It is putting us in harm’s way.”