CNN "The Lead with Jake Tapper" - Transcript: Interview with Michael McCaul

Interview

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TAPPER: Let's bring in Republican Congressman Mike McCaul. He was at that Homeland Security Committee hearing where the FBI director raised the alarm. He's also the ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

Congressman, let's start there with this -- these potential threats that could re-emerge in Afghanistan.

REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL (R-TX): Sure.

TAPPER: Today marks three weeks since the U.S. has been formally gone from the country. And obviously, no one seems to disagree with the idea that, of course, without the U.S. there, there's a greater threat that al Qaeda or ISIS-K or whatever could reconstitute, become a bigger threat. The argument that President Biden and his director of National Intelligence and others make is not that that threat doesn't exist but just that it's greater in other parts of the world like Somalia or Yemen, Syria or Iraq. Do you disagree?

MCCAUL: Well, I think the Sahel Region in Africa is a big issue. I think China is a big focus for the administration. It should. I was with the British prime minister today talking about the agreement with Australia that you talked about with France to get nuclear submarines, and to the South China Sea. But let's be honest. You've got the Taliban. It's the Taliban five, the prime minister, president, this guy who harbored bin Laden. Haqqani Network is the number two guy in this administration.

And they never cut their ties with al Qaeda. It rivals the numbers pre-9/11. The difference is now they've inherited a cache of weapons and cash. And it makes it a very dangerous situation. I think -- you know, look, when I chaired Homeland, we had threat briefings every month. External operations from ISIS and the caliphate. It's going to take them a little time to reconstitute, but it's just a matter of time before they come back to try to hit the United States.

TAPPER: On August 29th, just days before the U.S. left Afghanistan, the Pentagon botched a drone strike that killed 10 Afghan civilians, including seven children. U.S. intelligence basically got it wrong. They were following the wrong car. It did not belong to an ISIS-K operative. Instead the strike killed Samari Ahmadi, a father of seven. He spent 15 years working for a U.S. aid group helping to feed the poor.

Do you think that that botched operation will make the U.S. hesitant to strike again in a similar situation where they think there's going to be a terrorist threat? How do you see intelligence gathering moving forward?

MCCAUL: The big point here is that they botched it even with us being present in Afghanistan.

TAPPER: Right.

MCCAUL: Think about our military completely out, Title 10 Forces, Title 50 Intelligence out of Afghanistan. How in the world can we conduct anything along these lines if we had it botched when we were in country? So as we remove -- have removed ourselves from Afghanistan, when Bagram shut down, a key national security asset, those were our eyes and ears not only for Afghanistan but China, Russia and Iran.

That is very important. And we've lost that capability. The Chinese will most likely move in with their belt and road and potentially take that over. We have no embassy and our eyes and ears are -- you know, this over the horizon theory, I believe, is really just, you know, it's a pipe dream.

TAPPER: Over the horizon is the theory that the U.S. can conduct intelligence operations and conduct strikes like this from different countries. That's what over the horizon means. It's like police- involved shooting. It's a term that the government uses but no one else in real life would.

I want to get your reaction to what Kylie just reported that the Biden administration did not give, I don't know, maybe they were not able to give or maybe they're reluctant to share the number of U.S. citizens, legal permanent residents, Afghan allies, who have special immigrant visas still in Afghanistan, still trying to get out. What's going on? Why are they reluctant to share that information, and do you sense that they have an urgency to get them out that needs to be there?

MCCAUL: Well, you know, are they not being transparent or do they not know the answer to that questions?

[17:35:08]

TAPPER: Those are the options, I guess.

MCCAUL: And so -- yes, that's right. And the briefing, intelligence briefing, everybody walked out. You know, the fact is, I believe there's still hundreds of Americans still left behind enemy lines. A majority of the interpreters that you and I talked about for so long did not get out.

TAPPER: Yes. MCCAUL: And now I'm getting new reports of, you know, executions,

beheadings of their families and themselves. Horrific stories. I don't think they know all the answers, quite honestly. The last report I got in was that there are servicemen who have their families over there, about 125 of them, and we can't get them.

TAPPER: What do you men servicemen?

MCCAUL: They're Afghans who served with us.

TAPPER: Oh, Afghan allies. Special immigrant visas.

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MCCAUL: Who signed up to work in the United States Military.

TAPPER: OK.

MCCAUL: And they have family left behind in Afghanistan. They can't get them out of Afghanistan. They are certainly, Jake, going to be in the bull's eye.

TAPPER: And State Department officials say it's going to take weeks to get routine commercial flights back returning to Kabul which would obviously help the evacuation process if there is one that's allowed to happen. How worried are you?

MCCAUL: Well, we're at the mercy of the Taliban, yes. And those flights have been held up in, you know, in Sharif. You know, they --

TAPPER: Mazar-i-Sharif in the north.

MCCAUL: They only got like two flights out of there. I think HKIA, they've left a few flights out. Part of the problem is countries accepting them. You know, Doha is the main place where they're flying to. But the longer they are left behind enemy lines, American citizens, interpreters, you know, the girls we talked about, I just worry about their overall safety.

It could have been done better. As you know, I am conducting an investigation. We've hired an investigator to look into what happened.

TAPPER: Yes.

MCCAUL: And how did this get so wrong over the last five months.

TAPPER: Congressman Mike McCaul, thanks so much for being here. We really appreciate it. Always good to see you.

MCCAUL: Thanks, Jake.

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