Republican South Carolina Sen. Lindsey Graham said Friday on “Hannity” that President Joe Biden is “the president of empty promises” and said he the U.S. must “bleed the Taliban dry.”
“President Biden is the president of empty threats,” Graham told Fox News host Sean Hannity. “He said on television, if you hurt one American, we will hunt you down. What B.S.,” Graham continued, suggesting that the U.S. should recognize the vice president of the former government as the “legitimate constitutional leader of Afghanistan.” (RELATED: ‘Why Don’t We Just Go And Kill Them’: Former Navy SEAL Who Killed Obama Says US Should Stop Negotiating With the Taliban)
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The senator said it is necessary to take back the surrendered Bagram airbase and connect it to the Panjshir Valley and that the U.S. “should bleed the Taliban dry by allowing Afghans who hate these bastards the capability to fight back and if we’ll do that, we will be safer. If we abandon Afghanistan more, another 9/11 is coming your way.”
Graham said he is opposed to leaving any Americans or any of “our allies behind,” adding that he is “not for a terrorist group running Afghanistan. He called the Taliban “the soul mate of al-Qaida” and called anyone who thinks a terrorist group can run Afghanistan “a fool,” claiming that most Afghans are not in favor of the Taliban.
“We can get military assistance to these people to let them fight … We should declare the Taliban under U.S. law a foreign terrorist organization. We should recognize the Panjshir Valley as the capital of Afghanistan at every turn and empower our allies on the ground.”
Thirteen U.S. military personnel died in a terrorist attack Thursday. (RELATED: ‘The United States Is In Control Of Its Own Destiny’: Gen. Jack Keane Says US Cannot Allow Taliban To Impede Evacuation Process)
A Taliban fighter stands guard at the site of the August 26 twin suicide bombs, which killed scores of people including 13 US troops, at Kabul airport on Aug. 27, 2021. (Photo by WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP via Getty Images)
During her Friday media briefing, White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters that “clearly, something went wrong” with the Afghanistan withdrawal but then scolded one reporter for questioning the decisions that the Biden administration made in planning and executing the operation.
Pentagon spokesman Jack Kirby faced questions Friday on why airport security was apparently so ineffective to allow a terrorist attack to kill dozens of people.
The U.S. launched an airstrike Friday against an “ISIS-K planner.”
