Republican lawmakers are tearing into President Joe Biden over his handling of the Afghanistan crisis, and House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy blasted the president for hiding as the Taliban take over Afghanistan and US allies scramble to escape.
'Other countries are questioning whether we have the resolve to honor our word because of the bungled withdrawal. President Biden magnified this damage over the past week by hiding at Camp David. Delivering incoherent speeches,' McCarthy said.
The Taliban said that the Aug. 31 deadline was a 'red line' and promised consequences' if US troops stayed longer in Afghanistan. President Biden, despite pressure at home and abroad, heeded the Taliban's demands and said US troops would vacate the nation within one week.
'We should laugh at them when they say, 'Oh well that's a red line for us [and] you need to be out by August 31.' No,' an incredulous Rep. Dan Crenshaw, R-Texas, told Politico. 'And if you get in our way when we are extracting Americans, we will kill you. That is the only message that Biden should be delivering to the Taliban.'
'The only proper response from America to these dirty savage terrorists should be: Go f*** yourself,' Crenshaw wrote on Twitter when the Taliban said Aug. 31 was a 'red line.'
'We need to send a very clear message to the Taliban: We're not negotiating about our deadline. That should be the message,' Crenshaw, a former Navy SEAL in Afghanistan, said.
He blasted the president for ''failing to contact a single foreign leader for 36 hours.'
'We're going to leave Americans behind 11 days before the 20th anniversary of September 11? Are you kidding me?' Rep. Mike Waltz said. 'The Taliban taking over means Al Qaeda 3.0 comes roaring back, except we're in a worse position than before.'
'Are we going to have another pulse night club? Are we going to have another San Bernardino? Are we going to have another 9/11 because of that incompetence?'
'That blood is and will be on Joe Biden's hands.'
Their threat comes as the Taliban announced they are blocking Afghan citizens from accessing Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul after allowing evacuations for little more than a week.
Biden initially seemed open to extending the deadline if necessary. As of Tuesday morning he is standing firm on the August 31 date, Reuters reports after the president's emergency meeting with other G7 leaders.
The GOP lawmakers said blood would be on Biden's hands if he doesn't extend the August 31 deadline to get all Americans and Afghan allies out of Afghanistan
Waltz, the first Green Beret special forces veteran to serve in Congress, served multiple tours in Afghanistan.
He said not extending the deadline means leaving Americans and allies 'stranded' - seemingly taking a shot at White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki.
Psaki on Monday called out a reporter who asked about Americans 'stranded' in Kabul - telling him using the term was 'irresponsible.'
At one point Waltz displayed a framed letter he said hangs on his office wall, claiming it was sent by the Taliban to a school principal.
The Taliban allegedly threatened 'if he didn't get out of town he would be beheaded within 24 hours' for running a school for girls.
At one point Rep. Waltz, a Green Beret, held up a letter from the Taliban to an Afghan school principal, warning he would be beheaded for running a girls' school
'I leave this up as a reminder of the evil we're dealing with, and what we're condemning these people to,' Waltz said.
Rep. Ronny Jackson, former White House physician and also an Afghanistan veteran, said the Biden administration 'betrayed' the people of Afghanistan.
'We are at the very beginning of this crisis that Biden has created,' he said. 'We need him and we need his team to resign.'
The Pentagon said in a
