Wednesday on FNC’s “Special Report,” Rep. Peter Meijer (R-MI), fresh off of what has been labeled an unauthorized trip with Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA) to Afghanistan, explained why he and his Democrat colleague determined such a trip was warranted.
Meijer was dismissive of the edicts from the Biden administration and said he and Moulton were on their own fact-finding mission.
“Both Seth and myself have been actively engaged on what’s called the Special Immigrant Visa issue,” he said. “Those were visas in a program for individuals who had loyally served the United States in places like Iraq and Afghanistan. There had been a tremendous backlog of these cases.”
“And in April, when President Biden announced that he was continuing the initial plan for withdrawal that started under President Trump, we urged the administration to address this backlog,” Meijer added. “We had to know what was going on, on the ground in Kabul. And we have not had the information we need from the administration and realized that we were being lied to up and down, and we needed to see for ourselves.”
The Michigan Republican said it was his and Moulton’s intention not to use any government resources on the trip. He also accused the Biden administration of lacking a grasp of reality and transparency about this situation in Afghanistan.
“We were not planning to go there and be dependent on the U.S. military,” Meijer stated. “Our plan was entirely independent of that. We did make ourselves known on arrival for situational awareness of the individuals who were there. But this — the opprobrium from the Defense Department, from the White House, from the State Department is, frankly, laughable. Right now, they have done everything they can to obstruct the situation, to deny this reality and, frankly, to hide facts from the American people.”
“I will be honest,” he continued. “I did not support the decision to end our operations on August 31 before I went. After talking with commanders on the ground, I trusted their judgment. And I believed it. That is what I want to take back to my fellow members of Congress. Those are the stories that I want to tell that aren’t being told of the individuals on the ground who are committing some of the most heroic acts I have seen in my life.”
Meijer was very complimentary of the service personnel that evacuated on such short notice.
He said, “You have individuals there in Kabul who evacuated the U.S. Embassy with a moment’s notice. I know soldiers who left behind their boots. They’re wearing tennis shoes right now. Others who are in the same uniform they had when they evacuated the embassy two weeks ago because they didn’t have time to grab their rucksack.”
“They went right into Kabul Airport, into chaos and pandemonium and tens of thousands overrunning the runway, and then pivoted to not only negotiating and having to deal with the Taliban as, frankly, a security partner, rather than adversary, but also execute one of the most complicated logistical feats and probably the largest airlift in human history,” Meijer continued.
“These people are heroes,” he added. “Their stories need to be told. And I am so damn proud to be an American from what I saw on the ground in Kabul.”
Follow Jeff Poor on Twitter @jeff_poor
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