Impeach! Afghanistan Debacle Is Worse Than a Phone Call

CLAY: So we’ve got all sorts of chaos outside of the airport in Kabul as the American soldiers are beginning to be recalled. The expectation is we have a deadline of August 31st because the Taliban said, “No, you can’t extend it.” They are the captains of the Afghanistan ship, basically. They’re the captains now. Joe Biden has no control. Let’s play cut 5 here, and the danger zone is all of these people desperately trying to get into the airport are an incredibly, incredibly unprotected target for many of the terroristic elements inside of Afghanistan. Let’s play cut 5 here.

REP. JASON CROW: This is not without risk. I think we should be extremely clear about this. This is a very complicated, very high-risk mission. But I think we also have to be clear that if we aren’t willing to use the U.S. military to protect U.S. citizens and our partners and our friends, then what will we use our military for? This falls squarely within the wheelhouse of why we have the biggest, strongest military in the world, and that is to protect our people.

CLAY: Total issue here now, Buck, is, as we have said, Biden’s presidency is hanging by a thread, because if Donald Trump can get impeached for a phone call with a Ukrainian president, how in the world can Joe Biden not have his entire presidency on the precipice here based on what might happen? And as you said, during this hour there have been reports — and you used to study and analyze and sometimes write these reports — about the threats that are emanating potentially in Afghanistan. What is the latest about the dangers in Kabul?

BUCK: We have to understand that while we have thousands and thousands of people that will gather at Kabul international airport — and I’m in email contact with folks who are directly trying to advise people about how to get around checkpoint. People are calling this “the Digital Dunkirk.” They’re telling them, “Go here, don’t go there,” using commercially available satellite imagery.

All this is happening. But, Clay, when you’re thinking about a counterterrorism mission, you immediately go to soft targets, places that will be easy to hit with mass casualty effect. And there’s reporting right now, a credible threat stream and a specific one — this is what CNN was saying a moment ago; now it’s catching on and other places are saying it, too — that there may be targeting going on of the crowd that are stuck trying to get into Kabul international airport.

Let’s just take a step back and think about what’s really going on here. We are reliant — and this is the reality. We are reliant right now on Taliban checkpoints preventing, let’s say, the deployment of many suicide bombers or who knows what the possible plot could be here. We’re relying on Taliban checkpoints to stop that.

Now, as crazy as this may sound with the Taliban trying to establish itself as the legitimate government of the country of Afghanistan, which is now going to be the Islamic Emirate of Afghanistan — I don’t think anybody denies or doubts that — they may not see it in their immediate interests. I don’t think they do see it in anywhere in their interests — otherwise, obviously, they would have already started going after these Americans themselves, right? — to allow something like that to happen.

Keep in mind, allowing someone to slip through, they would pretend is not the same thing as doing or planning the attack themselves. Although we would view it largely, I think, the same way. This is something where we all just have to sit with, honestly, our fingers crossed and saying our prayers that there is not a mass casualty attack perpetrated by elements of ISIS in Khorasan, Al-Qaeda in Afghanistan.

Some faction within the Haqqani Network could decide that they’re just going to attack. There’s all these different possibilities. And we’re effectively helpless to protect people who are stuck outside the gates, right? Military’s protecting the airport and the interior. Outside those gates, we’re at the mercy of the Taliban, Clay, and we’re just hoping that they can keep security enough that there won’t be this kind of an attack.

CLAY: Yeah, and this is the great fear going forward is even if there isn’t an attack outside of the airport now, that in pulling out as ridiculously and haphazardly as we have, we have created an incredible breeding ground for terrorists of many different organizations. And whether or not the Taliban is gonna have any ability to control them or any desire to control them is a major part of this issue going forward.

Again, I would just circle back to the question. Obviously, we have a Democratic House and we have a Democratic Senate and that factors in in a big way. But if the standard for impeachment is a phone call that Donald Trump had with the president of Ukraine, how in the world is all of the failure in Afghanistan not even infinitely more of grounds for potential impeachment? Now, the answer can be, well, again, the Republicans don’t control the House or the Senate.

BUCK: And stupidity is not the same thing as corruption. That’s what the Democrats will say.

CLAY: (laughing)

BUCK: I mean, they won’t say that, I should add. But that’s what the answer effectively will be. “This is for the voters to decide. This is not for the process.” Now, I’m with you. The phone call, the report that was put out by the Mueller probe — which, the whole thing was a sham — they’ve debased impeachment such that if we were using a uniform standard, yeah, of course.

CLAY: He’d be impeached hundred percent.

BUCK: But they’ll fall back on the, “Okay. So Joe Biden’s the most incompetent commander-in-chief since Jimmy Carter,” maybe before that, actually, if we’re really gonna say it.

CLAY: I think he’s way more incompetent than Jimmy Carter because Jimmy Carter, for all the insults that you can levy his way, certainly his tenure as president was a mess and the only reason he got elected was because of Watergate, but Jimmy Carter was incredibly intelligent —

BUCK: Yeah, a smart guy.

CLAY: — and was involved in being able to make intelligent decisions inside of the White House during his presidency. I don’t believe either of those things are true of Joe Biden.

BUCK: One of the great frustrations that I think — and I know we have a lot of callers who’ve been calling in and voicing this — some making it on the air, others just talking to our team here and letting it be known — this was all so predictable.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: I mean, not just the debacle of Joe Biden in charge of Afghanistan but we were all sitting here, waving our arms, jumping up and down saying, “Guys, Joe Biden is a clown! Joe Biden is a sub-mediocrity. This guy was rejected resoundingly by Democrat voters numerous times before this most recent election.”

CLAY: Yes.

BUCK: They all knew that he wasn’t up for this, but this time around during covid as you and I discussed many times, hiding in the basement, “How bad can he be? Return to normalcy.” This became the pitch and so all the sudden he’s the guy. But not only was this predictable, Clay, we predicted it, meaning that the people that were trying to raise the left arm bells about what Biden would mean for national security, the border, the economy, the regulatory state, covid lockdowns, all of this. What we’ve said is coming to pass already and actually, I think, maybe the only criticism we could have of ourselves is maybe it’s even worse than we said it would be.

CLAY: I think it is even worse, because I think it’s even worse eight months in, because I watch Joe Biden every time he has a press conference, and I legitimately wonder whether he’s going to make it through or not. And I can’t imagine he’s gonna make it through four years.