Rep. Scott Fitzgerald Wednesday accused President Joe Biden of "trying to reframe" what has happened in Afghanistan over the past two weeks, telling Newsmax that it was "disturbing" to hear the president's defiant stance.
"It's just disappointing to hear, you know, the president kind of shoot from the hip like he did for so many years as a U.S. senator, and it's disturbing," the Wisconsin Republican said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "This is this stuff is too serious for that."
His comments came after Biden's address to the nation Tuesday when the president called the U.S. military evacuation of more than 120,000 Americans and Afghans a "success" and defended his decision to end the 20-year-war.
Fitzgerald said that there is a "high level of frustration not only amongst the veterans that served in Afghanistan but in the rank and file members of our own conference."
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy has reached out to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and asked to meet, "in a bipartisan fashion" to determine what Congress could do "because clearly things are being bungled again by the Biden administration," said Fitzgerald.
"We have a speaker that was more than willing to drag every member of Congress back the week before to try and tackle one of their huge fiscal packages," said Fitzgerald, but she wouldn't call Congress in to discuss Afghanistan.
Pelosi also refused a motion to allow members of the House to have a moment of silence for the 13 military members who died in last week's terrorist attack at the Kabul airport, said Fitzgerald.
"This hardly seems like something that should be negotiated," he said. "It seems just unbelievable that they would reject it. But that was the case. They banged the gavel and literally walked out of the chamber. So it's puzzling to me."
Meanwhile, all congressional offices are being swamped with phone calls and contacts asking for help to get people out of Afghanistan, said Fitzgerald, leading him to doubt the administration's numbers when it comes to Americans still being there after the war's end.
"These numbers that they're tossing around about how many people have been left behind, you know, multiply that by probably three because there's a lot of families that are still over there as well," he commented.
Fitzgerald acknowledged that he's stunned by the events of the past few weeks, and said he finds the situation "just disheartening."
"It's been a very difficult two weeks for those Gold Star families and you know, we're on the end of trying to make some good at this," said Fitzgerald.
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Sandy Fitzgerald ✉
Sandy Fitzgerald has more than three decades in journalism and serves as a general assignment writer for Newsmax covering news, media, and politics.
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