Rep. Justin Amash (I-Mich.) on Sunday denounced President Trump for inviting Taliban leaders to Camp David for peace talks just days before the anniversary of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks.
“How about we end the war without inviting the Taliban to dinner on the week of 9/11?” Amash, an Independent who left the GOP earlier this year, said on Twitter after Trump announced that he’d canceled secret meetings with leaders of the Taliban and Afghanistan’s president.
The president said on Twitter on Saturday that he was expecting to meet with leaders of the Taliban for what he described as “very important peace talks” at Camp David. But he said he canceled the meeting and peace negotiations with the insurgent group after learning that its leadership had claimed credit for a deadly attack in Kabul.
{mosads}What kind of people would kill so many in order to seemingly strengthen their bargaining position?” he asked in a series of tweets. “They only made it worse! If they cannot agree to a ceasefire during these very important peace talks, and would even kill 12 innocent people, then they probably don’t have the power to negotiate a meaningful agreement anyway. How many more decades are they willing to fight?”
The White House has not offered specific details about Trump’s plans to talk with a Taliban representative. The administration has been engaged in talks with the group for months despite the Taliban’s refusal to directly communicate with the Afghan government.
Secretary of State Mike Pompeo on Sunday defended the president’s plans, saying that the administration had “an obligation to do everything we can.”
“The president believed we could further that, further American national interest, with people that have the capacity to actually deliver,” Pompeo said on CNN’s “State of the Union.”
Democratic and Republican lawmakers have ripped Trump over the planned meeting, with many expressing dismay over the timing. The 18th anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks is on Wednesday.
“Never should leaders of a terrorist organization that hasn’t renounced 9/11 and continue in evil be allowed in our great country. NEVER. Full stop,” Rep. Adam Kinzinger (R-Ill.) tweeted.
Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-Minn.), a 2020 presidential candidate, called it another example of Trump “treating foreign policy like some kind of game show.”