McConnell rips Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal decision

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) on Sunday slammed President Biden’s decision to pull U.S. troops from Afghanistan, calling the move “one of the worst foreign policy decisions in American history.”

“We’re looking at the exit, and over the next two days, our heroic military is doing the best they can with a horrible policy decision. This is one of the worst foreign policy decisions in American history, much worse than Saigon,” McConnell told host Chris Wallace on “Fox News Sunday.”

McConnell contended that the current situation is worse than the U.S.’s withdrawal from Vietnam because of the terror threat that will remain on the ground once American forces leave Afghanistan.

“After we left Saigon, there weren’t Vietnamese terrorists who were planning on attacking us here at home. … We leave behind exactly what we went in to solve 20 years ago, and I fear for the future and continuing the war on terror,” McConnell said.

“You know, just because we decided to quit fighting doesn’t mean the terrorists go away. So they’re still out there. They’re invigorated. They’re emboldened and excited about the success they see in bringing America to its knees in Afghanistan,” he added.

McConnell instead argued that the U.S.’s stance of keeping a small troop presence in Afghanistan was working, citing the fact that there were no mass casualty attacks from the country before Biden announced he was withdrawing troops this year.

“We went over there to protect us here at home. We’ve not had a mass casualty attack from over there in these 20 years. I’d call that a successful policy,” he said.

“We went there to prevent the Taliban from having a regime that would allow terrorists to reconstitute themselves and hit us again here at home. It’s been a total success,” he added.

The minority leader’s latest comments come as the U.S. is entering the final stages of the withdrawal and evacuation processes ahead of Biden’s self-imposed Aug. 31 deadline.