WASHINGTON, D.C. — Today, House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends to discuss President Biden’s incompetence and misplaced priorities as Americans remain stranded in Afghanistan. Whip Scalise slammed President Biden for spending his time pressuring Democrats to vote for trillions in tax and spending increases rather than working on getting Americans trapped behind enemy lines safely home. In addition, Whip Scalise criticized President Biden for bowing to the Taliban and sticking with the Taliban’s deadline to remove U.S. troops from Afghanistan by the end of August – even if the United States cannot bring home every Ameican.
On President Biden prioritizing his $3.5 trillion tax-and-spending spree over Americans trapped behind enemy lines in Afghanistan:
“In fact, I think what was the most disgraceful thing about this week – in addition to the President of the United States cowering to a terrorist organization, the Taliban, going off of their timeline instead of saying, ‘We’re getting every single American out’ – [is] there are thousands of Americans that President Biden’s stranded behind enemy lines. And instead of spending every minute working to get them out, he put a shot clock on them, saying there [are] only seven days left to get all Americans out.
“He was wasting precious time this week burning the phones up, pressuring Democrats to vote for a $5 trillion spending bill and tax bill. That’s what he was wasting time on. Every minute of his day should be getting all Americans out [because] we’re going to look back after the timeline that shouldn’t be in place is passed. And we’re going to know that there are Americans still behind enemy lines, and he wasted time just trying to pressure to get a tax and spend bill pass through Congress this week instead of trying to get every American out, which is his main responsibility. That’s the oath he took up to uphold.”
On President Biden pushing ahead to remove U.S. troops from Afghanistan even if all Americans cannot be rescued:
“I’ve talked to a lot of my colleagues who served in Afghanistan, and we’ve heard them very vocally talking about their translators, that they worked with friends of theirs that are still left behind enemy lines by President Biden. And they’re doing things to try to get people out. Again, every minute of every day by all of us should be spent trying to help get people out. That’s not where President Biden’s priority was. He led the press conference yesterday, not with Afghanistan and the Americans left behind, but with the $5 trillion tax-and-spend bill that he pushed to pass last week. It was disgraceful.”