Senator Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation” that the chances of a terrorist attack like on Sept. 11, 2001 “just went through the roof” because of the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Partial transcript as follows:
ED O’KEEFE: We turn now to Republican Senator Lindsey Graham. He’s in Clemson, South Carolina, this morning. Senator, thank you for joining us. I know you are no fan of how the president is conducting this withdrawal but give us a specific sense of what you would have done differently.
GRAHAM: Well, number one, I wouldn’t have withdrawn. I would have kept the counterterrorism forces on the ground. Your reporter indicated that when we have people on the ground working with indigenous forces, that’s the best insurance policy against another 9/11. I would have held the Taliban to the conditions set out in the agreement with Trump. But let me tell you where I think we’re at. This is a catalyst. It just a fair beyond my ability to describe it. It’s been a very emotional couple of days for all of us. The parade of horribles are about to unfold. We’re leaving thousands of Afghan allies behind who fought bravely with us. We’re going to leave hundreds of American citizens behind. The chance of another 9/11 just went through the roof. These drone attacks will not degrade ISIS. The number of ISIS fighters have doubled. We’ve turned our back on our allies who’s going to help us in our- in the future. And we set the conditions for another 9/11. I’ve never been more worried about an attack on our homeland than I am right now. And we did not end this war. President Biden said that he wanted to take this- Afghanistan off the plate for future presidents. He’s done the exact opposite. For the next 20 years, American presidents will be dealing with this catastrophe in Afghanistan. This war has not ended. We’ve entered into a new deadly chapter. Terrorists are now in charge of Afghanistan.
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN
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