Former CIA analyst Matt Zeller said Wednesday on CNN’s “Newsroom” that the Trump Administration shut down the visa program for Afghans so “they’re as complicit” just as the Taliban were in the deaths of those trying to flee.
Anchor Alisyn Camerota said, “It was so interesting to hear former senior advisor to President Trump, Stephen Miller, last night say the U.S. doesn’t owe these people anything. Listen to him.”
In a video from Fox News, Miller said, “The United States of America never, ever made a promise written or unwritten to the people of Afghanistan that if after 20 years they were unable to secure their own country that we would take them to ours.”
Zeller said, “As far as I’m concerned, he personally is as complicit as the Taliban in these people’s deaths. He should be held accountable for war crimes. He spent the entirety of the Trump administration purposely trying to prevent these people from coming here.”
Hs continued, “Stephen Miller is wrong. We made them a promise. People like him have been spending the last four years of the Trump Administration purposely trying to prevent these people from getting here.”
Zeller added, “I want to go on one more point about this. This is critical. The reason why all these people are stuck in Afghanistan right now is because the visa program that was created to get them here, it was purposely shut down by the Trump and administration for the last four years. Now, the Obama administration has plenty to blame on that. They were not an effective processor for the first four years that they held office. But the latter four years of the Obama administration, its second term, they actually got the program functioning pretty well. The Trump administration came in and purposely destroyed it. The reason why all of these Afghans were stuck in Afghanistan for as long as they were in the first place is because those people made sure they couldn’t get out. As I said before, they’re as complicit as the Taliban are in these people’s deaths.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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