Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) on Sunday said President Biden is “gonna have blood on his hands” over his decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan as the Taliban encroaches on the country’s capital of Kabul.
“This is gonna be a stain on this president and his presidency. And I think he’s gonna have blood on his hands from what they did,” McCaul said while appearing on CNN’s “State of the Union” to discuss the rapidly deteriorating situation in Afghanistan.
“They totally blew this one. They completely underestimated the strength of the Taliban,” McCaul, the top-ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, added.
Numerous GOP lawmakers, including Rep. Liz Cheney (Wyo.) and Sen. Ben Sasse (Neb.), have pinned the blame for the current situation on both the Trump and Biden administrations. “State of the Union” host Jake Tapper asked if McCaul shared this view.
The Texas representative argued that, regardless of what the prior administration did, the current situation is taking place while Biden is president and therefore falls on his shoulders.
“[Biden] owns this. Absolutely, 100 percent, he owns it. He made the decision, and what’s worse, Jake, is when you and I started to get engaged on this, once he made the decision, he could have done certain things. He could have planned for it. He could have had a strategy for this, but instead they had no strategy,” McCaul said.
Tapper noted that the Trump administration had signaled that it was somewhat receptive to the Taliban and discussed inviting the insurgent group to Camp David at one point.
“Well, I think their strategy was … they knew that a transitional government would have to necessarily include the Taliban,” McCaul said. “I don’t think anybody likes the Taliban.”
“The consequences from a national security standpoint are severe because now they can say they defeated the United States in Afghanistan, the infidel, just like they defeated the Soviet Union. This will have long-term ramifications,” McCaul said.