GOP Sen. Ben Sasse blasts Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal, says 'we have a hostage situation developing'

Oma Seddiq
更新時間： ·3 分鐘 (閱讀時間)
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Sen. Ben Sasse blasted President Joe Biden's handling of the US' exit from Afghanistan, warning that the lives of thousands of Americans in the country could end up in the Taliban's hands.

"They've put us in a situation where we have a hostage situation developing," the Nebraska Republican told Fox News Sunday's Chris Wallace in an interview.

Sasse went on to criticize the US' withdrawal from Bagram, the biggest airfield in Afghanistan that Americans controlled for the past 20 years. Afghan military officials said they learned of Americans' departure from the airbase on July 2, more than two hours after they left. Taliban forces captured the airbase last Sunday and released thousands of prisoners, many of whom belonged to the militant group.

"They abandoned Bagram Air Force Base in one of the stupidest military blunders in all of US history," Sasse said. "And now we're left on a situation where we're relying on a civilian airport ... that has only one runway.

"I don't think the American people fully appreciate the danger and the peril into which the president has put us," he added. "One RPG taking down a plane onto that runway means we're stranded."

GOP Rep. Liz Cheney of Wyoming expressed a similar sentiment on Sunday, telling NBC News that Americans "are probably being held hostage" by the Taliban.

"The fact that we're now somehow relying on the Taliban to protect Americans and the White House is denying what we know is happening on the ground, which is that Americans are being beaten, they're being prevented from getting to the gates of the airport, and they are probably being held hostage," Cheney said.

Both Republicans and Democrats have heavily attacked the Biden administration over what they view as a bungled withdrawal from Afghanistan, which Taliban forces seized control of a week ago, triggering a collapse of the US-backed Afghan government. The rapid escalation of events sent Kabul into chaos, with Afghans rushing to the city's airport in a desperate attempt to flee the country. Harrowing photos showed some clinging to a jet plane and falling to their death.

Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin said on Friday that Americans trying to leave the country are being beaten by Taliban forces, which Biden denied earlier.

Biden has repeatedly defended his decision to leave the country, set up through a deal under the Trump administration. In response to the ongoing frenzied evacuation of Americans and Afghan allies, the president claimed there was no way to exit the nation "without chaos ensuing."

Austin on Sunday called for the activation of the Civil Reserve Air Fleet, which would use 18 commercial planes to help evacuate American citizens and Afghan refugees from the country.

"We're going to try our very best to get everybody - every American citizen - who wants to get out, out," Austin told ABC News.

Read the original article on Business Insider