State Department Spokesman to Taliban: Be Nice!

NED PRICE: Additionally, the U.N. Security Council issued a joint press statement earlier today calling for a new government that is united, inclusive, and representative — including with the full and (sputtering) — full and meaningful participation of women. The Council spoke with one voice to underscore that Afghanistan must abide by its international obligations, including the international humanitarian law, and ensure the safety and security of all Afghans and international citizens.

BUCK: Well, I’m sure the Taliban are shaking in their bare feet over that one. They must be terrified at the notion of the international community not being happy with the way the incoming new government — let’s be honest — of Afghanistan treats international norms and respect for minority rights and democracy and all… Look, I got it. By the way, welcome back to the Clay Travis & Buck Sexton Show. This is Buck. I can’t say I’m surprised, Clay, that this is where the State Department spokesman, Ned Price, is going with this.

CLAY: Could Ned Price sound any more like a loser in that statement? Like, I understand that he probably doesn’t write the statement and that they trot him out to say it. But how, with a straight face, if you have paid attention at all to the Taliban over the last 25 years, can you say that you expect for them to be inclusive and representative?

BUCK: Could you imagine sitting down with, let’s say, like a member of Al-Qaeda after… Oh! Oh! Kind of like the way the Obama administration released a senior guy from Guantanamo. Remember all the crying about, “Oh, it’s just a goat herder who was in the wrong place at the wrong time.” That’s what that guy said. Now he’s showing up on the elliptical machines in the presidential palace or sitting at the president’s desk in Kabul saying, “Yeah, I’m actually running the Taliban basically in this area.”

CLAY: Do you think the Taliban would have any respect at all for Ned Price sitting down in his suit, weighing a buck twenty-five and saying, “Hey, guys, I really hope that you’re gonna be inclusive and representative and, hey, what we really wish you would do is go ahead and share your pronouns here as we begin this conversation”?

The disconnect between what the world is like and when the Blue Check Brigade on social media all day long obsess over is so massively gargantuan. I think a lot of people, Buck, have forgotten about what the Taliban is and what they do, because it’s been 20 years since they were really in a position of power.

BUCK: Well, there’s a big difference here, and I think everyone listening to this knows without us even saying it. Let’s say Trump was presiding over the withdrawal and let’s say things got a little messy. Let’s say things turned into what we sort of see — which, by the way, I don’t think that would have happened and I think the people he had around him on issues like this were more sound and serious by a mile than the Biden administration team.

That’s where, again, pronouns and your bio in this White House are the most important signifier of your strategic genius. But if Trump went out and said, “If you guys do anything with the Americans, if you guys come at the American people in any way right now in Afghanistan,” we know that he would have rained holy hell down upon them. There would have been MOABs dropping out of the sky by the dozen.

CLAY: Yes. And, more importantly, they would have known it.

BUCK: And they knew that words from Trump to that end I think would have real impact. You talk Biden, State Department spokesman, yeah.

CLAY: He has to walk out and say it, but it’s so pathetic and weak.

BUCK: The State Department is a place where wokeness has taken root for a long time. I’ll tell you this because I know. I spent a lot of time staying around State Department folks and in Foggy Bottom. It’s a very left-wing place. Yeah, there are awesome, patriotic former Marines who also sign up to be Foreign Service officers. That’s true. But in general, the State Department is a place where you’d be shocked at how… A lot of them you feel like would trade — I’m just telling you the truth. They would trade their American citizenship for international citizenship if they could.

CLAY: They’re citizens of the world.

BUCK: Of the world. There’s a lot of that at the State Department. So that’s reflected in this.