Rep. Brian Babin told Newsmax Tuesday he's not buying National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan's excuses for the military leaving U.S.-made Black Hawk military helicopters and other vital equipment behind for the Taliban to seize as it swept across Afghanistan.
"As a veteran, myself of the Army and the Air Force, I can tell you the this is the result of not having a plan," the Texas Republican said on Newsmax's "American Agenda." "This is a result of no preplanning. Our troops were leaving the country before they were ready to go...the bottom line here is that the Biden administration did not have a plan a viable plan whatsoever."
Sullivan said during Tuesday's White House briefing that the capture of the helicopters, which has been shown on the Taliban's social media, underscored difficult choices President Joe Biden had to make about helping the former government of Afghanistan.
"Those Black Hawks were not given to the Taliban," Sullivan said. "They were given to the Afghan National Security Forces to be able to defend themselves at the specific request of (Afghan) President (Ashraf) Ghani, who came to the Oval Office and asked for additional air capability, among other things.”
He added that if Biden had not provided the helicopters, the Taliban's position would have been strengthened against the Afghan military.
Babin, though, said Biden wanted "optics" and should have made the choice to leave troops in Afghanistan until they could have vetted the "tens of thousands of interpreters, of people who have helped us over the years."
But now, "we're saddled" with bringing in everyone and vetting them later, said Babin, which adds to the risk of terrorists entering the United States.
"The bottom line here is that that the Biden administration did not have a plan, a viable plan, whatsoever and they wanted optics and sure you have a choice to make, and that choice should have been made weeks ago rather than evacuating our troops and now having to bring them back in and creating a monster over there again, like we saw before 9-11 where you've got a hotbed of terrorism."
Further, nobody can trust the Taliban, said Babin, and those who do are "going to be in for a very unpleasant surprise, and it's just it's really a disgrace. It's probably one of the largest foreign policy national security failures in 20 years at least."