CNN "The Lead with Jake Tapper" - Transcript: Interview with Adam Kinzinger
Interview
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TAPPER: Clarissa Ward in Kabul, Afghanistan, stay safe, thank you so much.
Joining us now to discuss, Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois. He served in Iraq and Afghanistan as part of U.S. Air Force.
And, Congressman, we just heard General Milley say that there was no indication that the Afghan military would collapse in only 11 days. You heard Clarissa say that she agrees that the collapse is not the surprise, the rapidity, how quickly it happened, is a surprise. What do you think? REP. ADAM KINZINGER (R-IL): Well, I mean, a couple things. Yeah, I
don't think we expected it to happen this quickly. But, you know, keep in mind, we abandoned the Afghan military. Over the last 20 years, we've taken as many casualties in 20 years as they were taking every year in the ground fight. We made a deal with them in 2014, you fight on the ground we provide logistics and air. We took off, we left.
And keep in mind, under the prior administration, you had Donald Trump continually saying we're getting out, it's not worth the fight. You had Mike Pompeo negotiating with the Taliban, cutting the Afghan government out of it. This abandonment of the Afghan military began a while ago.
But then particularly in the last 11 days as we saw the military a rapid basically capitulation and the Taliban advances, why were we not then surging in military forces to take back Bagram Air Base, to defend Kabul, to make sure that we have things in place? Because this wasn't a 24-hour collapse. It was still a week and a half and now we're in a decision where we're disgracefully begging the Taliban for basically permission to save Americans.
And the ironic thing here is President Biden said we have to leave so that we can focus on China and Russia. This will have done more damage to our stand against China and Russia and our ability to hold our allies together than probably any event in American history, at least recently.
TAPPER: General Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, also said that the U.S. will not leave behind the Afghan allies who helped U.S. forces during the war. The Biden administration right now has a deadline for withdrawing all U.S. troops who are back in Afghanistan. It's August 31st, less than two weeks away.
I mean, is it even feasible to get all of the Afghan allies who are in the pipeline and their families out by August 31st?
KINZINGER: Not short of a miracle.
So, keep in mind obviously, we have Americans, as you guys have well- reported, stuck outside of the Kabul perimeter. You have at least 80,000 Afghan allies that we have promised.
And the bureaucracy has been slow-walking this up to this very point. We cannot leave those allies behind. Our reputation demands it. And I'll tell you what, Jake, even -- so, I've promised not to leave these folks behind.
So on country1st.com, it's country1st, we've actually set up a fund. Go and click on Afghanistan, we've set up a fault to help through No One Left Behind, and through With Honor (ph), these Afghan allies getting out of here and taking care of their families. It is the number one thing we can do right now.
And, Jake, the American people in the first hour have already given $20,000 to that. And that to me is heartwarming because it says as tragic as this situation is, the American people understand that we have a responsibility and a duty.
The only way to save any shred of dignity that we have basically voluntarily given up is to follow through on our promise to the Afghan people. So, again, country1st.com. That money goes directly to helping these families that are coming out of such a tragic situation.
TAPPER: Congressman, it's been reported in one of the other outlets that one of the reasons why it was slow-walked, all these Afghans getting into the U.S., Afghan allies would help service members, is because some people on the Biden administration were afraid of the attacks from the right wing about immigration and hoards of Afghans coming into the country, the kind of thing we hear all the time on MAGA media.
What do you make of that?
KINZINGER: Well, that very well may be true. I'll tell you, I've been working on this since I've been in Congress, so for 11 years, first with Iraq and then with Afghanistan. And the bureaucracy itself is mind-blowingly slow.
But I'll tell you, in the last administration under Donald Trump, we had resistance both in Republican-controlled Judiciary Committee on this issue when we tried to raise the caps. Obviously, you see people like Steven Miller out there and some of the crazy far right saying things like, this is an alternative plan to populate the United States with Muslims.
No. This is the United States following through on its commitment it made. We failed the people of Afghanistan, but we can at least not fail these people we've made a promise to.
So, everybody in Congress and everybody in politics right now is pointing fingers at the other side trying to see if they can get political win -- both sides own this. Republicans and Democrats failed you, the Republican and Democratic administrations failed you. Donald Trump negotiated a terrible deal and made it clear we wanted to leave. And Joe Biden executed an awful pull-out.
TAPPER: Republican Congressman Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, thank you so much. Good to see you again.
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