Far be it from us to second guess House Republican Leader Kevin McCarthy of California. His leadership is usually exemplary. But McCarthy seemed off his game Sunday morning when he awkwardly told Maria Bartiromo that Biden had designed the Afghanistan bugout as a photo op.
Now perhaps we’re just quibbling, but by Sunday it was clear it wasn’t a photo op that could be advantageous in the slightest for the White House. McCarthy also knew Sunday was far too late to reverse the Monday or Tuesday, it was Monday, pullout. So, what gives?
We understand that McCarthy meant that it was a photo op that had gone horribly awry. But as dead Marines came home and Biden continued to ignore questions on Afghanistan, the photo op criticism of the bugout seemed lame. And McCarthy’s delayed pullout call was days too late and doomed. Probably just a bad press day. In a worse use of a photo op gambit…
Our @POTUS at Dover Air Field as he receives the bodies of the 13 members of our military that were killed in Afghanistan. He’s checking the time because he could care less and is doing this as a photo op. This is on you, Joe. Own it. pic.twitter.com/ACXFXzZ3vN
— VOTE YES ON RECALL (@fadde) August 29, 2021
FNC: “House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy on Sunday slammed President Biden’s military withdrawal from Afghanistan as a ‘partisan, political decision designed for a photo-op’ ahead of the 20th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorist attacks.
McCarthy has called on House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., to call Congress back to session early in order for lawmakers to vote on a bill to block Biden’s Aug. 31 troop withdrawal, a deadline backed by the Taliban, until all Americans are evacuated from the country. The House is not expected to return to Washington until Sept. 20, long after the Aug. 31 deadline. A State Department spokesman said Sunday that 250 American citizens remain in Afghanistan, three days after ISIS-K terrorists attacked the airport in Kabul, killing 13 U.S. service members and more than 170 Afghans.”
“There are hundreds and could be thousands of Americans that are going to get left behind in Afghanistan,” McCarthy, R-Calif., told Maria Bartiromo on “Sunday Morning Futures.”
“Anytime you allow a partisan, political decision designed for a photo-op, it will lead to a fatal national security problem on the battlefield,” he said. “And that is what transpired here based upon what Joe Biden as president has done. Even if, at the end of the day, they wanted to close that base, why would they close it before all of the Americans were out? You housed more than 5,000 terrorists in a prison there. They have now been released. You left in the middle of the night without telling your allies. You left weaponry. Now the prisoners are out. ISIS-K, we’re seeing the damage and what they’re able to do in such a short time frame. We’re watching Americans being left behind, and an administration knowingly making that decision.
“There’s no excuse why this deadline has not been extended. The speaker has got to call us back in. We should have the members of Congress back for another classified briefing before they bring our men and women out of there.” That didn’t happen. We’re gone. Those Americans left in Afghanistan are in for a hard time.
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McCarthy being exemplary is the same as saying Biden is competent. I do not know how anybody can claim McCarthy as anything other than a RINO and a poor one at that. When has he shown leadership? Oh yeah when he wants to pretend he is a conservative and only if it helps him get elected. He is, was and always be a RINO and a backstabbing POS.