Barrasso: State Dept. Saying Using ‘Every Lever’ on Mazar-E-Sharif Flights Hasn’t Worked Shows We Don’t Have Leverage over Taliban

On Thursday’s broadcast of Fox News Radio’s “Brian Kilmeade Show,” Senate Republican Conference Chair John Barrasso (R-WY) reacted to State Department Spokesperson Ned Price asserting that the government has “used every lever” to get charter flights to leave Mazar-e-Sharif by pointing out that the Biden administration has claimed they have leverage over the Taliban and the situation in Mazar-e-Sharif undercuts that assertion.

Barrasso said, “They’re trying to blame President Trump. Look, they’ve reversed a number of very successful President Trump policies, like the Remain in Mexico policy. They reversed and went back into the World Health Organization, which we know is complicit with China when it came to coronavirus. They’ve caused inflation in gas prices by basically killing the Keystone XL Pipeline. … They’re back in the Paris climate agreement. So, they could have, very wisely, said, look, let us think about this whole plan and the timeline. Blinken told us, no he was on this timeline. We still don’t know how many people are trapped behind enemy lines in Afghanistan. We can’t get a straight answer from this White House.”

Barrasso then turned to the people stuck at the Mazar-e-Sharif airport and stated, “And what did the spokesman yesterday from the White House [say]? ‘[W]e’ve used every lever’ wait, aren’t these the same guys who said they had leverage over the Taliban?”

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