Rep. Steve Scalise, R-La., on Sunday called the frantic evacuation of the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, Afghanistan President Joe Biden’s “Saigon moment.”
In an interview on CBS News’ “Face The Nation,” Scalise called the devastating finale to a lightning fast Taliban sweep of the country “very predictable.”
Taliban insurgents entered Afghanistan's capital Kabul early on Sunday, as the United States evacuated diplomats from its embassy by helicopter.
“You just had President Biden a few days ago saying you wouldn't see helicopters evacuating the embassy like Saigon,”
Scalise said. “And yet here we are. This is President Biden's Saigon moment. And unfortunately, it was very predictable.”
“It seems like many in President Biden's intelligence community got this devastatingly wrong,” Scalise said. “And I think a lot of questions will be asked later about why.”
According to Scalise, Biden has to stop blaming the Trump administration and “take ownership” of the unrestricted Taliban takeover.
“The buck stops here on the president's desk, and he wants to blame everybody else,” Scalise charged. “But look, [former] President [Donald] Trump had an agreement in place that was conditions based and those conditions were not met. In fact, many of the conditions included that the Taliban wouldn't overtake the cities that they have now overtaken under President Biden's leadership.
“President Biden didn't follow through on the conditions that were in place,” he continued. “He just let them come and run roughshod in there.”
According to Scalise, America’s withdrawal approach will have repercussions around the world.
“This sends in a more concerning message to our allies around the world — really sends a concerning message to our enemies around the world who are watching this,” he warned.
“China is very involved in what's happening right now in Afghanistan as our other adversaries,” he explained. “And so they're seeing just how easy it was to overtake these areas.”
“It’s an epic failure on President Biden's foreign policy,” Scalise declared. “He needs to take ownership of it and take other steps to make sure this doesn't happen again.”