Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and President Joe Biden have known one another for a half-century, but the Kentuckian minced no words Sunday night, lashing out at what the Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan has wrought.
“Terrorists and major competitors like China are watching the embarrassment of a superpower laid low,” McConnell’s statement read in part.
As the Taliban inch closer to fully capturing the capital city of Kabul, McConnell called the collapse of the U.S. backed-Afghan government a low point for the country.
“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,” the 300-word epistle added.
The GOP leader also criticized the president’s utter lack of planning for such a predictable situation, claiming, “Everyone saw this coming except the President, who publicly and confidently dismissed these threats just a few weeks ago.”
Five weeks ago, Biden replied to a question about whether a Taliban takeover of Afghanistan was inevitable by infamously saying, “It is not inevitable.”
McConnell also said that without additional air support beyond this month, “al Qaeda and the Taliban may celebrate the 20th anniversary of the September 11 attacks by burning down our Embassy in Kabul.”
“It did not have to happen this way,” McConnell concluded, clearly concerned about a reinvigorated al Qaeda and Taliban using Afghanistan as a safe haven to plot deadly terror attacks on the West. “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.”
Related: Mitch McConnell Is Still Okay in My Book. Here’s Why.
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