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'Ingraham Angle' on Biden's Afghanistan 'catastrophe'
Published August 27, 2021
This is a rush transcript from "The Ingraham Angle," August 26, 2021. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
LAURA INGRAHAM, FOX NEWS HOST: I'm Laura Ingraham and this is a "Fox News Alert" another blow to Joe Biden moments ago by a 6/3 vote at the Supreme Court. They struck down the administration's latest eviction ban that eviction moratorium we have more on that later with Mark Meadows.
But first we start in Afghanistan where heartbreak and fury. That is what Americans across the nation are feeling tonight after suicide blast at the Kabul Airport, killed 12 U.S. Marines, one Navy medic, and it leaves more than a dozen wounded.
Now, it's been two decades of war since 9/11, leaving behind deep physical and emotional pain for many of the hundreds of thousands, who bravely served here. And many, of course, remember on multiple tours. And as we finally wrap up U.S. military operations in Afghanistan, our enemies are gleefully exploiting our presidents and aptitude.
And the results as we saw today are deadly. Tonight, we're going to bring you straight analysis of this rapidly deteriorating situation. We have all the military and political shockwaves covered perspective from Ed Byers, Retired Navy SEAL Master Chief.
He was the recipient of the Medal of Honor for rescuing an American hostage from the Taliban along with Afghanistan vets, Congressman Waltz Greene and Brian Mast and for the political fallout Newt Gingrich and Mark Meadows. But first, Biden's body bags. That's the focus of tonight's "Angle".
For the past week, Biden and his team have spun it over and over that the evacuation was going well. Well, today, we saw the truth. This was all total crap. This is a catastrophe. And if you and your team Mr. President can't handle this mission, why should we trust you to handle any mission?
Our enemies know that we're being led by a band of incompetence, and none of them are shaking in their boots from this Biden promise.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: For those who carried out this attack know this. We will not forgive. We will not forget. We will hunt you down and make you pay.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: The fact is President Biden and his handpicked military leaders have failed the American people. They failed to bring and build an Afghan army to withstand the Taliban. They failed to organize a withdrawal that didn't devolve into total chaos. And they failed to first extract Americans still in harm's way and instead, they prioritize Afghan nationals.
As far as we know, hundreds of Americans still remain in Afghanistan. How many more men and women in uniform might die because Blinken, Milley and the rest have no idea what they're doing. These young men and women joined the military to serve and protect their country. But now they're forced to serve under leaders who couldn't run a school crosswalk.
All Americans should have been withdrawn weeks ago, not in the last moments. So once they created chaos all around the airport, it created impossible situation one that allowed ISIS militants to murder our soldiers. Just like Joe Biden created a magnet for illegals and the cartels at the southern border. His plan created a magnet for terrorists at the airport in Kabul.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. KENNETH MCKENZIE, COMMANDER OF THE U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: We expect those attacks to continue. And we're doing everything we can to be prepared for those attacks. That includes reaching out to the Taliban who are actually providing the outer security core and around the airfield to make sure they know what we expect them to do to protect us.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: As he even listening to how insane he sounds. He's the Head of CENTCOM. We're relying on the people who we've been at war with for the last 20 years for protection and safe passage. Now we're letting them play TSA for us in Kabul.
Of course, that's not even the worst part. It turns out that the Biden Administration actually gave their Taliban counterparts a list of Americans in country and the list of Afghans - for evacuation.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: There have been occasions when our military has contacted their military counterparts in the Taliban and said we want you to let that bus or that group through. I can't tell you with any certitude that there's actually been a list of names.
I know there may have been but I know of no circumstances that mean it's not didn't exist. We're just counting on their self-interest, to continue to generate their activities. As in their self-interest that we leave when we said and that we get as many people out as we can.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: It's actually scarier hearing that the second time around by the way, I only heard it once. That was the second time. It's terrifying. I cannot believe this is happening in the United States of America, encouraging thousands of desperate Afghans to flock to that airport of course, just an idiotic endeavor.
We've seen it play out at our southern border, desperate migrants, they're rushing in. And it's just pain and suffering caused along the way. These are purely political calculations that Biden's team has made. They wanted millions of migrants at the southern border, they got them.
And now they want hundreds of thousands of Afghan refugees here in the United States, and we're on track to get that number as well. My friends, they cannot be allowed to continue this. This cannot be allowed to happen.
Joe Biden has proved himself to be completely incompetent. A single American serviceman or woman should not die under the regime that they've created. The military leaders from Milley to the Head of Central Command to what we've seen in our Secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin none of them should be still in their positions, none of them.
Accountability is something we need in Washington, D.C. And I remember earlier this week, we heard Biden's and his teams say, oh, now's not the time, Antony Blinken, now's not the time to ask these questions. No. Now is the time to ask these questions. Now is the time to demand accountability. And tonight, we're going to do that.
We have a great lineup of guests, men who've served in Afghanistan, men who know how the struggle for our men and women in uniform goes on a daily basis? They're not just talking about it. They did it.
So joining me first our three House Lawmakers who served in Afghanistan, Florida Congressman Mike Waltz, Greenbrae Brian Mast a Bomb Disposal Expert and Tennessee Congressman Mark Green, Special Ops Congressman Waltz, let's start with you.
Was this - this is kind of a give me question. Was this all avoidable today? And if so, why have we not seen any resignations?
REP. MIKE WALTZ (R-FL): Laura, it's worth noting that the same team that's around the same team that is around Biden is the same team that was around Obama, right? The same ones that were responsible for Benghazi that we're responsible for the rise of ISIS, that we're responsible for the -- trade have now created this mess.
And Biden was there too. And here's where we are. And now he has this in a position because he pulled out too fast too soon. Let the Afghan army collapse did take no action when it was happening. Shut down our main Air Base. Now we have this false choice of either stay and continue to suffer attacks in an indefensible position in Kabul Airport.
And or go and leave Americans behind and create the largest mass hostage situation in American history. It'll make 1979 look like child's play. That's what this team and that's where Biden has gotten us on top of 13 dead Marines.
INGRAHAM: Congress Mast, I want to go to you hear. What I was stunned by about, like the 5000 things that I was stunned by today. And I'm really mad, heartbroken. That's obvious, but I am so - I'm just livid about how this has been able to happen to our troops.
Joe Biden gets up there. And he praises the leadership from the Central Command. Well, we're all - we're all unanimous on the decisions we made. If they're all unanimous on the decisions we made to leave those troops that sitting ducks there. Then we have even bigger problems on our hands Congressman?
REP. BRIAN MAST (R-FL): All of us have been in briefings and we can't give you everything in those briefings by any means. But we can say they were anything but unanimous. And we can look at their words and analyze this. He said we won't be intimidated. America won't be intimidated.
Then being intimidated was what brought all of this about from beginning to end, being intimidated into a red line of the day being intimidated into not following through on their red lines such as any interruption of our operations will be met with a swift response.
Remember Biden saying that I would call the Taliban cordon around the airport in interruption, then not letting people through an interruption taking our Embassy and Bagram Airbase that would be considered interruption stealing our equipment that would be an interruption. Zero response and I just say this about him.
His words are empty. We know that his head is empty, that his heart is empty. And it's costing our friends lives.
INGRAHAM: Congressman Green, we have 13 American families. The larger American family obviously is grieving. But we think of the 13 American families, all of their friends, all of their fellow service members who are grieving tonight. And yet Joe Biden actually says that Bagram - when they look back, well, we didn't really need Bagram Airbase watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
BIDEN: I asked for their best military judgment. What would be the most efficient way to accomplish the mission? They concluded the military. The Bagram was not much value added. It was much wiser to focus on Kabul. And so I followed that recommendation.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Is it just me or was Joe Biden speaking at like three paces too slow? It's too slow today it was weird. It just comes across as weird. Like he's totally disconnected from the content of what he's saying. But Congressman Green, given all your experience, how critical of a mistake was it for us to abandon Bagram Airbase?
REP. MARK GREEN (R-TN): Well, thanks for having us on, Laura. It was a huge mistake, one of the biggest mistakes in our nation's military history. But it was Joe Biden, who made that decision. I know for a fact that the military advised him not to leave Bagram.
He said we're going to downsize to 600 Marines. And the leadership told him we can't hold Bagram with 600 Marines. He said, I don't care go to 600. He arbitrarily picked a number out of the sky. And they couldn't hold that base with 600. So they collapsed to Kabul.
This is Joe Biden, and his incompetence that made that decision. And that decision is what cost those lives today. The perimeter around that base is a street wide. That's it. But out of Bagram, you had kilometers of range that you can see the enemy coming. But not when it's just a street in the middle of an urban area.
It's a horrible decision. It's 100 percent Joe Biden's and that's not the first lie this guy has told or I should say he's totally disconnected from the truth, many, many other lies, and it just he needs to step down. He needs to resign or the cabinet needs to do something.
WALTZ: Laura, can I just jump in that on that point --
INGRAHAM: Congressman Waltz.
WALTZ: Yes.
INGRAHAM: Yes, go ahead.
WALTZ: --on that Bagram point because we were just briefed by the military yesterday on the Armed Services Committee, that when we went back in to evacuate the embassy, they were once again presented Joe Biden with the option of taking Bagram. And he once again didn't choose to do so.
So, on the one hand he didn't listen about shutting it down too fast. By the way, 5000, hardened ISIS, Al Qaeda and Taliban prisoners are now on the loose, and then he didn't listen when they had to go back in to evacuate our Embassy after the after the collapse of Kabul.
And now he's tying the hands of our special forces who are chomping at the bit to go out into the city and outside of the city to get our Americans that are stranded. He won't let them do that either. Their hands are being tied. So this is just in competence. And it's just outrageous.
INGRAHAM: Congressman Mast, I have to get you in on this because when I hear the President of the United States and earlier General McKenzie the Head of Central Command talking about how - essentially relying on the good graces of the Taliban to get our Americans out of there - look I'm not this is your field not mine.
But given what we know they are capable of - how are those words even coming out of their mouths? I feel like I'm living in some kind of alternative reality here but maybe you know you know this I don't so set me straight if I'm wrong?
MAST: What person didn't come again? Did you say we're - the people we've been hunting for the last 20 years the people that we've been exchanging firewood the people we've seen stone their women and their men, the people we've seen rape women rape young girls rape young boys that those are the people that you're saying are going to have our back on the way out.
Those are the ones that you're relying on. Everybody scratch their head and said, excuse me, the people that are now "Have the most sophisticated military weaponry, shoulder fired rocket launcher surface to air assets, mortars, rounds", you name it. Those are the ones that's who you're talking about.
We all had a collective exact response that you just question. You're doing what? And it made no sense to one person on the face of this earth.
INGRAHAM: Congressman Green on the issue of continuing our true presence there, given what we saw and the carnage that we saw today, how is this situation going to get any better? I mean, again, going back to CENTCOM, all the money we spent on CENTCOM, all the personnel, all the expertise, and the general says, yes, we expect more of these attacks.
So our troops just going to be sitting ducks target practice for the terrorists, or are we going to bring in firepower to do something about this?
GREEN: Well, I certainly hope they do bring in the firepower. They got to push that perimeter out to where they have actual fields of fire and fields of vision to see an enemy when it's coming. They can't just sit in the middle of that city and expect to know what the enemy is doing.
I mean, they have to push that perimeter out. And then they have to defend it. And they can do that by sending those Special Forces out, just like Congressman Waltz mentioned. Right now they're tying their hands. So they're not out in that city, looking for the enemy, finding the enemy pushing the enemy away.
There's no buffer zone at all. So until they do that, yes, we're going to continue to see this. And it's unacceptable, it should never happen.
INGRAHAM: Congressman Waltz, we've seen all the heartbreaking video of our Marines holding up little infants and, and water bottles. That's not our military's role as heartbreaking as it is as awful as it is. Is it also not the case that withdrawing from any conflict, especially one that we weren't victorious in? It was always going to be a mess? Not this messy, but it was people were going to be left behind. Is that not the case to play devil's advocate here?
WALTZ: Well, there's lots of different ways that it could have been done better Laura. You know set aside the debate of continuing with a small presence of Special Forces, an Intel, which I believe we are going to have to do one way or another, because one thing the Intel is clear on is that Al Qaeda is coming back.
And Al Qaeda intends to hit the United States again, and Al Qaeda and the Taliban are married at the hit. But if you decide to withdraw, there's a lot better ways to do it. You don't yank everything out at once. In one fell swoop, we took the Afghan army's logistics support, maintenance, support, intelligence support, and their air support, in the middle of the fighting season, and announced to the world a date that we were going to do it by.
You know, there are ways to do it gradually to do it, where it's not such a shock to the Afghan army.
INGRAHAM: But now with these guys -- Congressman - I'm sorry to interrupt interject here. But Congressman Mast, here my problem with all of us is that we have people in charge, our troops are relying on competence to lead them. We have people in charge, which again, I wouldn't trust to -- to do security in an elementary school.
And we're going to have them plan a mission where they're going to go door to door to get Americans or the women that the people at NBC say helped us in a translation. I mean, I'm sorry, I don't trust the leadership.
So until we have a consensus, political consensus in our country, to go back in there and essentially declare war all over again, on with new leadership, military leadership. Congressman Mast I mean, are we going to sacrifice another U.S. service member under this leadership? Troops are great, the leaders are terrible.
MAST: I pray to God as I'm sure you do. Not one more life, not one more limb, not more injury. What you're asking is we have no strategic objectives here. They have optical objectives. We know that Joe Biden wanted to get out by 9/11. So we could have a celebration that ended up costing lives.
We know that they didn't want it to appear as combat operations. That was one of the first things their press team said no, it's not a combat operation, you know, which is putting people's lives at risk when it's all optics. They're not meeting strategic objectives. And you can't do that if you don't have something that you have to meet.
We're going to make - we're going to eliminate the Taliban. We're going to eliminate Al Qaeda. We're going to eliminate ISI we're going to make sure that our southern - but if you're not meeting those, then there is no point.
INGRAHAM: 20 years, Congressman Green 20 years and they're trying to still spin this, as we know we got them on their heels or the Taliban are going to help us or we're going to get everyone out by you know, exit. I mean, they're continuing to spin this today to listen to this the General in charge of our Central Command. I as a civilian was horrified today. I was horrified today by what I heard.
GREEN: I was really upset at the tone. I mean, it was almost --
INGRAHAM: It was like --
GREEN: I mean, yes, especially from the CENTCOM Commander, I was very disappointed in that. Now, I will tell you, I think the president is interjecting himself way too much in the military decision making here. And I pin most of the blame of this on him. But that press conference today was embarrassing for the military leadership.
INGRAHAM: Oh my God!
GREEN: And they were so tone deaf. I mean, we're talking 13 dead Americans, and they acted like it was some kind of a statistical data crunch infuriated.
INGRAHAM: I have to say that as and - that's actually that's actually a very clinical way of describing it. But that's how it came off to me. And, of course, Joe Biden son suffered and reading the Bible, and we don't - we need to hear solutions. We don't need to hear a walk down memory lane by Joe Biden. I mean, that we need solutions. Yes, final thought very quickly.
MAST: These have probably been the easiest press conferences for Joe Biden, anytime because all he has to do is say the opposite of what's going on in Afghanistan or in the world. That's what they're telling. Just say the opposite of what's actually happening.
GREEN: Great.
INGRAHAM: This can't be our country, but it is and it's time for Congress to step up. And I hope all of you continue to have an oversight role and demand replace this military leadership, our soldiers and our airmen our reservists, our Navy, everyone suffering as a result. Gentlemen, thank you.
And it's Biden setting the stage for a massive hostage crisis by giving the names of these Americans to the Taliban. Well, someone who is the recipient of the Medal of Honor for a daring rescue mission in Afghanistan weighs in next stay there.
(COMMERCIAL BAREAK)
INGRAHAM: He's Retired Navy SEAL Master Chief Edward Byers. He's the recipient of the Congressional Medal of Honor for that rescue of an American doctor from the Taliban back in 2012 and Ed joins me now. Ed first of all, thank you for your service for being here tonight. Your take on this situation just as you're witnessing this unfold, especially when we know as there are still hundreds of Americans on the ground in Afghanistan?
EDWARD BYERS, MEDAL OF HONOR RECIPIENT: Yes, thanks. Thanks a lot. You know, first and foremost, you know, the nation is in mourning. Today pierced the heart of our country. And large part because this year is an important year anniversaries were the eve of the 20th anniversary of 9/11. We just came off the 10 year anniversary of capturing and killing the modern.
And just a few weeks ago, we came off the 10 year anniversary of the downturn of extortion 17, which was the single biggest loss of life in Special Operations' history. 30 Americans in a military working dog were killed on that helicopter on August 6, 2011. And 10 years later, we now have 13 brave service men 12 Marines, one corpsman. And this was tragic and completely avoidable. I think as Americans --
INGRAHAM: Explain how Edward? Edward if you don't mind, I'm sorry to interrupt. But how specifically, could this have been avoided? And then assuming our troops are going to be asked under this leadership to go in and try to pull these Americans out? How dangerous would that be?
BYERS: I think we've been at this for too long. And we know this environment far too well. You know, we have units designed to tackle this exact problem set. You have the 82nd Airborne out of Fort Bragg and you have the Ranger Regiment. You know the 82nd Airborne is designed to handle contingencies prices around the world within 18 hours.
There could be multiple C-17s going over there right now, with those units and securing this airfield. If we look back in history, we look back to 1983 in Grenada and operation urgent fury. Were SEAL team for the first Ranger Bat out of Savannah, Georgia went in and take for Salinas Airport with Ranger battalions - Ranger regiments are designed to do exactly this type of thing.
We bring people in, they secured these airfields, they start pushing out rings of security. And then we start bringing back people, the way we know how? We use force, overwhelming violence of action. And that's how we take this back and show that we are Americans. And we have the greatest fighting force in the history of the world.
INGRAHAM: Are you confident Ed under this military leadership that that is possible given what we've seen just in the past 10 days at that airport, and what our troops have been asked to do in the 10 days with, right now, even the Cent Com general says oh, this is going to keep happening, the attacks on the airport are going to keep happening?
BYERS: Well, what I know for a fact if given the ability to go do the job that we know how to do, we wouldn't be in this situation to begin with. We would have been over with this war a long time ago. But the military has always been hamstrung by politicians. We've always been trying to play pattycake in an environment where you have to abide by different rules. War is brutal, it's violent, and if the military was just given the authority to go do their job, there are a tremendous amount of resources that can be brought to bear that for sure could execute and complete this mission.
INGRAHAM: Ed, finally, you've obviously seen the Taliban up close and personal. You dealt with them. Rescuing that American doctor, the main reason you were the recipient of the medal of honor as a Navy Seal. Should we be relying on them for safe passage of Americans in Afghanistan?
BYERS: I think it's absolutely ridiculous that we would be relying on people that we have been fighting against for the past 20 years to provide a safe passage. What we should be doing is showing our force of who we are, definitely not relying on them to provide safe passage to Americans. We see where it got us, right here. The Haqqani Network is providing security right now. He was a mentor to bin Laden. So, we are relying on people that provided security for our forces that literally mentored bin Laden. It's absolute insanity.
INGRAHAM: Right before the anniversary, Ed, of 9/11. This is unbelievable.
BYERS: Exactly.
INGRAHAM: Ed, I can think of fewer people that I would rather have spoken to tonight. Thank you so much, and we'll check back with you next week.
And now, I want to bring in retired Brigadier General Don Bolduc, who has been involved in hostage rescues. He's also running in the Senate -- as a Republican in New Hampshire for the Senate. General, what needs to happen right now? You just heard from you former Navy Seal, he said we are capable of doing this. But the idea that we are giving lists of names to the Taliban? And the media, by the way, didn't get around to asking that question until about four questions in today.
BRIG. GEN. DON BOLDUC (RET), SERVED IN AFGHANISTAN: No. Well, thank you, Laura, for having me on, and thanks for all that you do. First of all, this is a complete -- the only word that comes to mind is "incompetence," from start to right now. I came out last week saying what we needed to do. We needed to go in there with overwhelming force, secure all the airfields in Afghanistan, and shorten the lines operation, open up the corridors, have special operation forces ready to go in, have our aircraft above, our predators above. You can't work with the Taliban. You certainly can't give them lists. And this is malfeasance, and this is complete incompetence at the highest levels. And it's just not on the political side. It's on the military side, as well.
And it has been done wrong. It needs to be done right. And I submit to you that we can't let this stand. We have to go back in there. I have been part of beating the Afghan -- the Taliban and Al Qaeda twice, and we can do it again. And that's what we need to do. We cannot let this stand. And you can't do business with the Taliban, you can't do business with ISIS, you can't do business with Al Qaeda. It is just the wrong thing to do. That's one thing we have learned, and all these generals should know that. And this has been a disappointment --
INGRAHAM: I just -- I do not believe, after what I saw from the Cent Com commander, what I've seen from Austin, what I've seen from Milley, what I've seen from Obama himself, I do not trust these people to direct those complicated missions. I just don't.
And so, right now, I want to bring in Kash Patel, former Defense Department chief of staff. Trump brought him in to run the Afghan withdrawal. Kash, your reaction to all of this? People are like Laura, you seem flabbergasted. I'm infuriated. As an American citizen, I see the suffering of these men and women in uniform, and they are suffering. They are suffering for 20 years, for this unending war that keeps going on, they are suffering. And today, I'm infuriated. Kash?
KASH PATEL, FORMER DOD CHIEF OF STAFF UNDER TRUMP: No, and I can understand your fury. And look, you had Ed Byers on, my brother who I served with and a dear friend of mine, and he hit it on the head. He basically said you cannot have and unleash the fury of the American Defense Department if it is hamstrung by your political leadership.
And Laura, I'm glad you're the only person finally talking about Cent Com leadership. A little bit about that. Central Command is responsible for the Afghan theater of war, and the four star general in charge right now, McKenzie, just gave a press conference that led to an abject failure in the confidence of American military leadership. He was one of the least favorite generals we had serving under President Trump. His credibility cratered then because of his handling of a situations in the Middle East.
And now he is running to the podium to try to gain political favor with the media and to try to brush over his failures -- and they are his failures, he is the commanding general for Afghanistan. And on top of him sits Chairman Milley and Secretary Austin, and all they want to talk about are deflections and other blame, when we under President Trump had a methodical plan that led to no casualties and a successful withdrawal because we removed the political apparatus from the Department of Defense and let them do their job.
INGRAHAM: Our allies respected us, grudgingly, and our enemies feared us, as they should. Kash and General Bolduc, thank you.
Now, it's time for Pelosi and Schumer to do what's right for the country, demand accountability, accountability from the president. Newt Gingrich walks us through it needs to happen next in this rapidly deteriorating situation. Stay there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: Where's Congress? I think it's time for Congress -- I don't care if you are a Republican or Democrat -- to start demanding accountability for what's been happening in Afghanistan. They have to get the Biden administration to clean house, get it all together, pick a new national security team, a consensus team, and just present it to Joe Biden. Say, Joe, this is what you're going to do now. Something has got to change here. This dynamic cannot continue. It puts our men and women needlessly in harm's way.
Joining me now is Newt Gingrich, FOX News contributor, former Speaker of the House. Newt, putting American interests first, both our national security interests and avoiding another needless loss of Americans' lives, as we saw today, what role should Congress play here, given what's unfolding?
NEWT GINGRICH, FORMER SPEAKER OF THE HOUSE: Well, this is an unusual circumstance. We have not seen a president this incompetent, we haven't seen a president surrender to an enemy in a way that Joe Biden has, and he has allowed a seventh century tribal group to defeat the most powerful country in the 21st century. It's an astonishing outcome.
So I think the Congress, if they actually cared about America and wanted to put America first rather than partisan politics, both the House and Senate would go into special sessions, one, to hold hearings and really try to get at the truth, two, I think, to insist on firing an entire group of people. You can't, as a practical matter, fire the president, but the national security advisor, the secretary of state, secretary of defense, chairman of the joint chiefs, commander of the Central Command. We've learned the system has failed. And it's failed in a way which is humiliating America around the world. It's failed in a way which has gotten some courageous young Marines killed and other people killed, with a likelihood to continue to have this going on.
The comments by central command, commander, oh, there will be more attacks like this -- what nonsense. The whole point is you bring in enough troops that you block the attacks. You bring enough intelligence assets, enough overhead things like predators, you do what you have to do to your people. And I think this is the most pathetic, ignorant, and wrongheaded act of national security, I think, certainly in my lifetime, and maybe in the history of the country. This is an astonishing --
INGRAHAM: I agree with you.
GINGRICH: -- self-imposed defeat.
INGRAHAM: People are talking about JFK and the Bay of Pigs. At least at some point he made changes. But I don't see anything on the horizon, Newt, you hit the nail on the head.
GINGRICH: First of all, the Bay of Pigs, they had an operational plan, they changed the plan. It ended up not working. Kennedy took responsibility for it. But he didn't go and surrender to Castro. He didn't turn over American equipment to the Cuban communists. You look at what Biden has been doing, and I found it very chilling today when he shifted to we are going to get as many people out as we can. Boy, that is one thing Congress ought to insist on. Every American and every Afghan ally gets out, or we don't leave. We don't listen to the Taliban. We tell the Taliban. And if that means putting B-52s and B-2s over Afghanistan again, and if it means using predators and doing, frankly, to the senior leadership exactly what we did to Soleimani. The thing that Trump had done is he had really scared them, because he wasn't going to go after their riflemen. He was going to specifically target the leaders of the Taliban. And they had seen enough of that with Baghdadi and with others.
INGRAHAM: Newt, Newt, you mentioned -- Newt, you mentioned General McKenzie of Cent Com. A lot of our viewers aren't all that familiar with him, but I think we have to play this one soundbite, which think speaks volumes about how we are relying, again, on the Taliban for security. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GEN. KENNETH MCKENZIE, U.S. CENTRAL COMMAND: We also use the Taliban as a tool to protect us as much as possible. But we share a common purpose. As long as we kept that common purpose aligned, they have been useful to work with. They have cut some of our security concerns down. The Taliban operate with varying degrees of competence. Some of those guys are very scrupulously good. Some of them are not.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Scrupulously good, Newt. He should be fired just for that comment.
GINGRICH: I listened to the veterans earlier who get it, who understand the Taliban. We have been killing these people for 20 years. They are not going to be happy with us. They are, in fact, going to be quite cheerful of us stepping to one side. One of the questions that has to be asked is, if we released 5,000 prisoners when we closed Bagram, how many of those prisoners were involved in today's attack? How many will be involved in tomorrow's attack?
INGRAHAM: All right.
GINGRICH: This whole thing is a nightmare, and it was totally unnecessary.
INGRAHAM: Self-inflicted wounds and deaths. Newt, thank you for that perspective tonight.
I want to get back to Kash Patel. Kash, this is what Biden said earlier today about Donald Trump.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
JOE BIDEN, (D) PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: The reason why there were no attacks on Americans, as you said, from the date until I came into office, was because the commitment was made by President Trump, I will be out by May 1st. In the meantime, you agree not to attack any Americans. That was the deal. That is why no American was attacked.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
INGRAHAM: Your reaction to that? That, though, is an admission, is it not, that he just needlessly endangered the Americans by not just sticking to Trump's original plan?
PATEL: Well, that's just it, he doesn't have a plan. Look, President Trump's plan secured the safe withdrawal of Americans and our military, and what President Biden just did was admit to that. That's right, we had no casualties under President Trump's conditions-based withdrawal, and he comes in and now we have more casualties than we have had in a decade.
So I think this is a glaring admission by the president of his failures in leadership. And the fact he keeps deflecting over two President Trump. No, President Biden, you are the commander in chief. You are in charge of our armed forces. You are the one who surrendered Bagram Air Force Base. What are you doing to safeguard American citizens in country besides having your press secretary have Americans be texted and phone called and emailed? No, send it our forces operators to go rescue American citizens in Afghanistan. That's what our military does.
INGRAHAM: Kash, you know what I was thinking?
PATEL: -- Cent Com commander baffled with English.
INGRAHAM: He's got to go. This guy has got to go. I don't trust him to do anything that keeps our troops out of harm's way. I think whatever he does, whatever he touches here, is not going to go well. So I'm just going to say that until I am blue in the face.
Kash, you know what I was thinking about as I was driving it tonight. We have spent the better part of, what, seven months -- still today, articles in the "L.A. Times," where I am -- "The New York Times," about January 6th. The Democrats have obsessed singularly on the insurrection as a real insurrection is unfolding in Afghanistan against our people, who are trying to have some type of orderly process under terrible command. But imagine if they had spent all that energy and time doing their oversight work of this executive branch, and this group of buffoons, whose actions are ending up getting our guys killed. January 6th and Critical Race Theory, what these idiots have been focused on, it's an embarrassment.
PATEL: You are absolutely right. That is a stark juxtaposition that no one else is making. January 6th in Afghanistan. January 6th is the height of the politicization of the national security apparatus of the United States, and it has continued into Afghanistan. But the oversight people in Congress want to focus on his narrative because it hurts President Trump.
Stop blaming the past and start taking charge of the now so no more servicemembers are killed. Do your oversight responsibility. Call President Biden and tell him to lead, and unleash our military, and stop micromanaging this war like LBJ did to Vietnam.
INGRAHAM: Kash, thank you.
And Americans overwhelmingly, as we think about all of this, they want to get out of Afghanistan. And I'm right there with them, but this is not how they wanted it to happen. And Biden is suffering at the polls as we see for his incompetence, and everything that happened today, a horrible loss of life. "USA Today"-Suffolk University poll this week put Biden's approval rating at just 41 percent, 62 percent of Americans disapproved of his handling of the withdrawal.
Joining us now, Mark Meadows, former Trump chief of staff. Mark, you were in the room where difficult decisions were made, very difficult decisions. The bungling, which doesn't even capture it, of this Afghanistan, it's setting the stage for more suffering for our troops, more national security difficulties. And politically, what does it say?
MARK MEADOWS, FORMER WHITE HOUSE CHIEF OF STAFF: Well, sadly, sinking polls is not the worst thing that has happened here. What we see is with Joe Biden, it's not only a bad press conference today, but we had a tragic loss of American soldiers, Marines, Navy corpsmen, their lives today. And it's not going to be the end.
The decisions that have been made, not just by Joe Biden, but by Chairman Milley, by Secretary Austin, when they gave the best military advice and they said that they were surprised that this would happen, it's not consistent with what I know, it's not consistent with what many in the intel community knows, and quite frankly, it's just not the truth. This was 100 percent avoidable. Heads need to roll. You know why -- Joe Biden was knocking on wood. President Trump was knocking heads. And that's what they feared. And quite frankly, they don't fear the American military tonight. And that is a sad commentary.
INGRAHAM: Mark, it seems to me that if this was an emergency -- and it is - - why isn't the Senate back in session? Why is Nancy Pelosi today talking about the women's vote, or whatever the hell she was talking about? Not in Afghanistan, in the United States, I believe. Kamala was going to go campaign for Gavin Newsom in California, I guess they've called that back. But they have no clue as to how serious this is on Capitol Hill.
MEADOWS: Well, they don't --
INGRAHAM: The democrats I'm talking about, and leadership.
MEADOWS: Right, Speaker Pelosi called back in Congress so she could pass a $3.5 trillion budget, and her favorite voting rights act, and it was all a political show. And yet, when it comes to really making a difference, she needs to call them back in, they need to hold it accountable. Here we've got over $730 billion a year that is spent on our military, and we just got schooled because of decisions that have been made by the top brass in our military and by those in the White House. It's a sad, sad day.
INGRAHAM: Mark Meadows, former Trump chief of staff. Mark, thank you for your perspective.
This is an incredibly difficult day for our troops, for their families, and for America, all of us. We are watching this unfold. When we come back, I have some final thoughts. Stay there.
(COMMERCIAL BREAK)
INGRAHAM: We have to get our Americans out, but most of us don't trust the current military leadership to direct any mission in Afghanistan given the fact that they're working with the Taliban for safe passage. This has been an incredibly trying day for Americans who want to believe the best about our leadership. It's time for Democrats and Republicans to demand a clean slate, new leadership running our military and national security apparatus, and State Department for good measure. We'll continue to pray for our country and our troops. Shannon Bream is next, and I'll be watching.
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