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Tom Cotton blasts Biden admin Afghan refugee vetting: 'We have almost no way to vet these people'

2021-10-04 | 🔗
Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) explained the Biden administration evacuated Afghan refugees with 'no particular attachment to the United States' during the U.S. withdrawal.
This is an unofficial transcript meant for reference. Accuracy is not guaranteed.
Ask your doctor about living longer with Kisqali. Ask your doctor about Brian bombing Afghanistan Mosque on Sunday raising fears to some that the country is on the brink of a civil war Ainsley. It comes as experts say: Bidens rushed withdrawal led to aircraft leaving Kabul with empty seeds seats. We saw some of those images remember here. Some more one hundred thousand afghan allies left behind Steve a lot of Americans too pledging blackouts as government fails to pay electric bill on time. Just like a lot of other people, g dot, OP, Senator Tom Cotton served in Afghanistan. He joins us, live senator good morning to you. Thank you, its good to be back in studio with Yall Ainsley happy to have you here Steve go back about a month ago you were actually trying to help some of the afghan allies get out and you did successful, but now the news. Apparently, these airplanes were flying in
and flying out empty, because people would not allow the Americans and our allies to get on the plain Brian. Can I tell you exactly why that happened talked to people on the ground two reasons? First, so chaotic that even our own citizens green card holders, our Afghans, who had fought with our troops and were approved for special immigrant visa couldnt, get into the airport, so people who were supposed to be on those planes couldnt get in time to board them. The second reason is: they were trying out of the Kabul Airport. One run way get to the point too many air planes backed up and too many coming in, had to take to have to get them out, got to Balgram, multiple runways and more space to park airplanes. You wouldnt have had that problem. It goes back to Joe Bidens Ill, planned disorganized, chaotic decision to withdrawal from Afghanistan, Brian dont. You think the state Department deserves some of the discredit because Antony Blinken, according to the Defense Department, it was up to state to organize a lot of this stuff. The reason why these people didnt get out the reason why the manifest
werent full the State Department sat on its hands. Absolutely we heard last week from the generals who helped organize this air, lift that the State Department refused to call for the evacuation of noncombatants. For american civilians and green card holders until the very last minute, the military was planning for it as early as April and may right after Joe Biden made this decision, should we do that Tony Blinken States Department sat on its hands the Taliban on the gates of Kabul. What is so unfeweriating see these seats empty. We remember how we felt on those mornings reporting on this hearts, go out to all the people stranded left behind and wanted one of those seats their livelihoods. Their lives depended on it when you say they couldnt get through the gates. At the airport we didnt have our troops thereon the ground to help our american citizens or our allies get ton these planes. Then you read, some of them who had credible documents were stopped and were not allowed to
get on the planes, while others that hadnt been vetted were allowed through whats the vetting process. Now for all the people that are here that came from Afghanistan, have we vetted all of them? No, absolutely not Ainsley Joe Biden, screwed it up coming and going. First, we left a lot of people in Afghanistan who should have imont out seconds. We brought a lot of people out who shouldnt have gotten out. People had no particular attachment to the United States and fought with our troops, seen reports of a young female soldier being assaulted at Fort Bliss in El Paso or sex offenses by of began men by Fort Mccoy, an other offenses. There is really no vetting Brian and just walking off the base hard to do in Afghanistan. One reason it took so long interview people face to face Afghanistan is a night or day world country you dont call up the FBI or the high school or local police. We have almost no way to vet these people. The Biden administration is taking their name. If it is their name testing it against databases, and if they dont come back well, they must be fine to go Steve. I heard one interview somebody was interviewing. Who exactly did we fly out?
The number was seventy five percent of the people. The Afghans were not special immigrant visa holders. In other words, we Fli flew out seventy five percent of the wrong people, unbelievable basically whoever was able to get into the airport, especially on first chaotic days after the fall of Kabul. Again, we have no idea who these people are taking it on face that theyre, using their real name and testing against incomplete databases and saying well, if we dont have a record of you being a terrorist, you must be type you north, going to attack Americans and commit sex offenses against american women. You are not going to bring any kind of disease or anything else into the country, and you dont have right under american law to be here. You are not like the brave Afghans with whom I served to HO fought along side us who risked their lives and family lives who we left behind Ainsley. What do we do? Send them back or what happens? The Biden administration is basically clearing everyone through just like all the migrants we saw at the border in Del Rio a couple weeks ago. Basically, the word is out across the world. If you get to our
southern border, can you get in a lot of special immigrant visa holders would have been better off to get out of Kabul and go to Mexico. Brian got everyone else coming through through Colombia and Panama, Costa Rica and right through Senator great, to see new person great being back Steve you, while you are in New York City, do your Christmas shopping. Nothing is going to be.
Transcript generated on 2021-10-08.