Lindsey Graham slams Afghanistan report as ‘political whitewash’ that opens door for ‘another 9/11’
Ryan King
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Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) blasted the after-action report of the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan as a “political whitewash.”
This week, the Pentagon released a 12-page unclassified summary, which laid much of the blame for the turbulence on the Trump administration. Graham conceded that Trump made decisions with which he disagreed, but warned that President Joe Biden planted the seeds “for another 9/11.”
WHITE HOUSE HIT OVER DENYING ‘CHAOS’ IN AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL
“Some of the things President Trump did I disagreed with. But he didn’t withdraw,” Graham told Fox News Sunday. “This report is a political whitewash by the Biden administration to shift blame. The report says that our mission had been accomplished. That’s why Biden got out of Afghanistan.”
In a White House summary of the after-action report, the Biden administration argued the president’s “choices for how to execute a withdrawal from Afghanistan were severely constrained.” The White House further emphasized that former President Donald Trump left Biden with a troop presence that was diminished from 10,000 to 3,000.
Graham quickly emerged as one of Biden’s loudest critics of the Afghanistan withdrawal and repeatedly warned that it could leave a vacuum for new terrorist threats in the future.
“[Biden’s] claiming that we eradicated all terrorist threats in Afghanistan. That’s why he withdrew to end the longest war,” Graham added. “General Kurilla said last week, who’s the head of CentCom, that the rise of ISIS-K and Al Qaeda in Afghanistan is so severe, we could be attacked in America in the next six months without warning.”
During the withdrawal, 13 American troops and numerous Afghan allies were left stranded as images of Afghanis clinging to a C-17 before plunging to their deaths were shown on newscasts. The Taliban quickly came back to power as the U.S.-backed government fell.
Biden’s approval rating dipped into the negatives for one of the first times in his presidency and hasn’t turned positive in the time since, according to a RealClearPolitics polling aggregate.
“When the Biden administration tells you there are no terrorists in Afghanistan, they are lying. There’s a lethal cocktail forming,” Graham warned. “It’s only a matter of time until there’s another 9/11 if we don’t change policies.”
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House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) has been leading an investigation into the withdrawal from Afghanistan. He recently subpoenaed Secretary of State Antony Blinken for a dissent cable.
Graham has endorsed Trump in the 2024 election, despite his more hawkish foreign policy positions occasionally chaffing with Trump’s “America First” agenda, which is generally warier of foreign interventions.