Rep. Rob Wittman Says If Taliban Prevents Planes From Leaving, They Are Holding Americans Hostage
Michael Cantrell
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According to Rep. Rob Wittman, if the Taliban is currently preventing from planes carrying Americans from leaving Afghanistan, that means they are “indeed holding hostages by any definition,” and then stated that the Biden administration is showing uncertainty rather than taking decisive action to fix the situation and bring our people back home.
“I am very concerned these Americans are being held against their will,” the congressman stated during an appearance on Newsmax’s “Wake Up America.” “The president should have this on the front burner. He should be all about getting Americans out of Afghanistan. He should be all about telling the Taliban that under no circumstances will you hold these Americans, and you will let them go, and if you do not allow them to leave Afghanistan, there will be immediate and severe consequences for that.”
The comments from Wittman come just after Rep. Michael McCaul, a Republican from Texas, made an appearance on “Fox News Sunday,” and stated that six airplanes have been blocked from leaving the international airport in Kabul by the Taliban.
via Newsmax:
The State Department said after the interview that it does not have the “reliable means” to back up the claim because there are no personnel or air assets in the country and the government controls no airspace in the region, and Wittman slammed that statement.
“That sounds like a complete disconnect by this administration,” said the congressman.”The reason we find ourselves in this situation is truly the doing of the president. [With] this chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, where we have no diplomatic presence on the ground and the president said he was going to help get Americans out. Doesn’t look like [it] to me. There’s a whole lot of help going on today.”
Meanwhile, President Joe Biden is in Delaware, not in Washington, but he should be back at the White House making the situation his top priority, the congressman said.
“Here’s the Taliban trying to shake down the United States,” Wittman stated. “He should be unambivalent about this. … By any measure, you would say they’re being held as hostages. That needs to be addressed immediately.”
He added that if action is not taken immediately, the situation will only become worse because the Taliban will believe they can get away with even more violent actions because “they will do everything they can to either embarrass America or to extract concessions from America.”
Wittman also rejected an argument from former deputy director of national intelligence Sue Gordon, who said on Sunday the United States is far safer now with troops out of Afghanistan.
“We really don’t have good situational awareness,” Wittman went on to say. “We are operating at great distances to try to gather intelligence surveillance. I would argue our place in south Asia today is weaker than it was prior to 9/11.”
The bottom line here is that President Joe Biden needs to do something that will bring our people home as safely as possible. They are in extreme danger out there, and this wouldn’t be the case had he not botched the troop withdrawal.
He needs to do something now.
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