CNN "The Lead with Jake Tapper" - Transcript: Interview with Bob Menendez

Interview

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JAKE TAPPER, CNN HOST: All right, Jessica Dean on Capitol Hill for us. Thank you so much. Joining us live to discuss, Democratic Senator Bob Menendez of New Jersey. He's the chair of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Secretary Blinken will testify before his committee tomorrow.

Secretary -- I mean, Mr. Chairman, thank you so much. I want to start with Secretary Blinken talking about counterterrorism in Afghanistan going forward. Take a listen to this.

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BLINKEN: The Taliban is committed to prevent terrorist groups from using Afghanistan as base for external operations that could threaten the United States or our allies, including Al-Qaeda and ISIS-K. We'll hold them accountable for that. That does not mean that we will rely on them.

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TAPPER: So, Secretary Blinken later acknowledged that the U.S. obviously lost intelligence capacity by withdrawing. Can the United States hold the Taliban accountable do counterterrorism in Afghanistan with no troops there?

SEN. BOB MENENDEZ (D-NJ): Well, we believe that there is ability to do over the horizon efforts that can help us in our counterterrorism efforts. And we believe that they will be sufficient enough to protect the homeland. There's no question that when you're not on the ground in any country for which there is conflict or potential, that you lose some element of it.

I think it would be naive to suggest that you're not going to lose some element of added protection. But I do believe there are over the horizon capabilities. We do this in other parts of the world, for which there is a threat as well. I believe we can do it here.

Holding the Taliban accountable, look, you know, the Trump administration basically signed a surrender agreement with the Taliban, gave them everything, held them to nothing. Gave 5,000 Taliban fighters that were in jail, had them released, which only augmented the Taliban's ability to move as swiftly as it did with extra manpower.

And at the end of the day, got nothing in return including trying to negotiate with the Afghan government to see if there was a peaceful way forward. So, I don't know about holding the Taliban accountable. I don't expect much from them especially when they named three of their leadership from the Haqqani network, which is on the foreign terrorist organization list of our country.

TAPPER: But in terms of the ability of the U.S. to conduct counterterrorism, what's your understanding of what happened with that drone strike when the U.S. was still in Afghanistan at the very end? "The New York Times" and other media outlets and CNN has not confirmed this, but other media outlets like "The New York Times" have suggested that that was not actually a terrorist that was killed.

[17:05:00]

It was either a mistaken identity or bad information. As the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, what do you know about that?

MENENDEZ: Well, Jake, that is a topic that we expect an intelligence briefing on. I've seen the reports. I want to hear what the intelligence briefing has to say about it. Obviously, we were told that it was someone who was involved with ISIS-K and was planning an attack.

The explosion that took place was far more than what we sent as a missile to explode that vehicle. So you have to wonder whether there were not explosives inside of the car. But we haven't had that type of intelligence briefing yet. Now that we're back in session, we expect it.

TAPPER: Some Republicans are calling on Secretary Blinken to resign. I'm sure you do not support that. But do you think that anyone in the Biden administration should resign as a result of the withdrawal that you have criticized?

MENENDEZ: I don't know yet. You know, one of the reasons we're having a hearing in person, the secretary will be before us in person tomorrow, is to get to the truth. And this is only the beginning of a series of hearings that I intend to have because as your two-hour special this weekend showed, we've had 20 years, in my view, a good part of those 20 years we were lied to in Congress by a variety of people in power, who said things that weren't quite the truth. Who made rosier predictions than what was actually happening on the ground.

And so, we have to have a full accounting. And when we have that full accounting, I think those -- when that accounting takes place, will have to be held responsible.

TAPPER: I'm glad you saw our documentary about Afghanistan. Just for anybody watching who hasn't seen it, it's going to re-air Friday night at 10:00 on CNN. But let me ask you, in that special, one of the former commanding generals and former ambassadors to Afghanistan, Karl Eikenberry, told me that he agreed with Biden's choice to end the war, but that the exit was poorly executed. Do you agree?

MENENDEZ: I agree. I believe the exit was poorly executed. Of course, you know, the Biden administration was handed a bad situation. The previous Biden -- I mean, the previous Trump administration with Stephen Miller would not permit the SIV visas who helped us be processed. There was no processing of those visas. But even when you inherit such a set of circumstances, you know, it would have been important to come to the Congress and say, we have a problem, we have to surge dramatically, we need your support in doing so, and to have a clarion call that there was more than needed to be done. In that respect, the execution in my mind was totally unacceptable.

TAPPER: Senator Bob Menendez, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, thank you. We look forward to your hearing tomorrow. Appreciate your time today, sir.

MENENDEZ: Thank you, Jake.

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