CNN "The Lead with Jake Tapper" - Transcript: Interview with Jason Crow

Interview

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TAPPER: Clarissa Ward, live in Kabul. Thanks so much. Appreciate it.

Joining us now to discuss, Democratic Congressman Jason Crow of Colorado, who's a former Army Ranger. He served in the Iraq and Afghanistan.

Congressman, as someone who served in that country, what's your reaction when you see the horror and chaos continuing to unfold at the Kabul airport?

REP. JASON CROW (D-CO): Hi, Jake.

Yeah, my heart continues to break. I'm still in shock that we're at this point in these scenes that I'm seeing and hearing about are unfolding and hearing that story about that general.

My phone is ringing constantly. I'm getting text messages, emails constantly with stories like this. You know, I'm getting passport photos email to me of young children and visa photos, people begging for help. This is not the sign of a situation that's going well.

Our honor as a country, our integrity as a country is as stake, our reputation is at stake, but our moral authority is at stake here. We have made promises for over 20 years to these men and women, these partners that stood by us.

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I may not be here talking to you today had it not been for the service of some of these Afghan friends and partners, and there are thousands of Americans that are in the same situation that I am in. We have the opportunity over the next couple days and weeks to do the right thing, and that's why I'm calling on the administration to take the very clear steps to do so.

TAPPER: Well, when you say the right thing, tell me what you mean. Because, obviously, the Afghan translators and interpreters and others who applied for those special immigrant visas, those SIVs, them and their family, it's about 19,000, plus thousands more and their families. That's one group.

I don't know that this general, whose identity was obviously protected, is one of them. Does the U.S. owe that individual a trip to the United States? What exactly are you calling for?

CROW: Yes, we do owe somebody like that a trip to the United States and safe harbor after proper vetting, but the first step is getting them out of Afghanistan. None of this matters, none of the discussion about whether somebody close in, under a priority 1 visa, priority 2 visa, special immigrant visa -- none of that matters if they're dead.

So, let's get these folks to a military installation overseas, a third country, and figure out the bureaucracy nightmare that continues to bog this down and streamline that process.

But we have to get folks out. You know, the administration is saying that they expect to ramp this up to 6,000 people a day. At the same time, there is this potential deadline at the end of the month, less than two weeks from now, that we're looking at pulling out.

I'm no math genius, but those numbers don't add up. We have 20,000 special visa applicants alone. You multiply that by a factor of three for their family members, and that's 80,000 people right there. Another 5,000 to 10,000 American citizens, that's not even counting the priority 1 and priority 2 visa holders like this general and commandos, civic society leaders, nonprofit leaders and others that we have to get out.

There's well over 100,000 people we need to make every effort to get out, because that's our obligation, that's I think as our moral authority as a nation. We have to get it done and we can get it done.

TAPPER: Yeah.

CROW: That's the other thing. We have the ability to do this. We have to make the commitment. TAPPER: And we should point out to viewers that you were supportive of

President Biden's decision to withdraw all U.S. service members from Afghanistan. And President Biden defended that decision in a new interview.

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STEPHANOPOULOS: You don't think this exit could have been handled better in any way, no mistakes?

BIDEN: No, I don't think (AUDIO GAP) that -- we're going to go back in hindsight and look, but the idea that somehow there's a way to have gotten out without chaos ensuing, I don't know how that happens.

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TAPPER: Do you agree with that?

CROW: I think there's a distinction to be made about the decision to withdraw. I think you're right. I've been supportive of the ending of our combat mission in Afghanistan. After 20 years, it's proven there was no solution here. I continue do agree with that.

But I do not think the noncombatant or the civilian evacuation has gone well and according to plan. I'm still trying to figure out what exactly that plan was.

And that's why, Jake, I have been calling since April to start this evacuation. As soon as the president said he was going to withdraw American combat forces, I knew we could be in this situation, that we might be facing this challenge right now.

That's why I said, let's start the evacuation. Let's get American citizens out, let's get our partners out. We could be so much further ahead in a different position now had we started back in April when me and my colleagues started to call for this. We were beating the drums, talking to anybody who would listen to us, to say, let's get it done.

Unfortunately that did not happen. Now we're in a position of trying to get 100,000 plus folks out under difficult circumstances with limited options. That's why we need to put combat power in, secure the airport, open the streets around the airport to make every effort we can make to get people to the airport and get them out.

TAPPER: Yeah, the evacuation would have been a lot easier before the Taliban took over the entire country.

Democratic Congressman Jason Crow, thank you as always for your time and, of course, thank you for your service.

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