Trump says, ‘There has never been a war — win, lose or draw — and you bring everybody into your country’
Former President Trump, in an exclusive interview with Fox News Digital, stated that terrorists “absolutely” were airlifted from Afghanistan as part of the United States withdrawal attempt from Kabul last month, questioning the Biden administration’s vetting measures.
The former president, in the interview, called the Biden administration’s work to relocate Afghan allies “incredible.”
“There has never been a war — win, lose or draw — and you bring everybody into your country,” Trump said. “That’s a lot of people, and at a tremendous cost already—they’re talking about billions and billions of dollars.”
The Biden administration, last month ahead of its August 31th deadline to evacuate all military assets from Afghanistan, airlifted more than 124,000 individuals from Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. Biden administration officials said that had around 6,000 Americans.
Since the evacuation, the Biden administration has said its goal has moved from a military mission to a “diplomatic” one and it is dedicated to continuing to withdraw Americans that were abandoned, as well as Afghan allies, some with pending Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs), who helped the United States military in the war.
But Trump warned that the peoplethat the Biden administration are relocating in the United States could be a threat to national security.
“The people they are resettling — it’s the worst. There was no vetting,” Trump said. “And it is probably a tough group of people, because they were able to get on the plane, so they were aggressive.”
“What does that mean? Does that mean you have terrorists there?” Trump asked. “Absolutely you do.”
At this point, the Department of Homeland Security has flagged 44 Afghan evacuees as possible national security risks to the U.S., as stated by a report by the Washington Post in the past week.
Also in the past week, senior United States officials told Fox News that Camp Bondsteel, a United States military base in Kosovo, will briefly lodge Afghan refugees who do not pass the first round of vetting.
Those officials told Fox News that some of refugees have already been sent to that base but said it was uncertain what the next steps would be for those who did not pass the first security screening — including whether they will have to go back to the now-Taliban-controlled Afghanistan.
The White House said intelligence and counterterrorism officials were working hard to vet all Afghans before permitting them to enter the U.S.
The White House said those with SIVs and vulnerable Afghans were taken to third countries in Europe and Asia that had decided to “serve as transit hubs” before undergoing “robust security screening and flying to the U.S.”
“You took some very bad people onto those planes and distributed them all over the world — with all of them coming to the United States, because the rest of the world is not going to take them,” Trump continued. “The rest of the world is going to deliver them to the United States and ask for a lot of money for helping us out, but, you know, its a never-ending thing.”
The former president said it was a “tough situation” but stated that “no war has ever taken the people of a country where there was the war, and moved them into their country.”
Also, in addition to security issues, the White House declared Friday that it has briefly suspended flights taking Afghan refugees into the country because of a measles worry.
“‘Operation Allies Welcome’ flights into the United States have been temporarily paused at the request of the [Centers for Disease Control] and out of an abundance of caution because of four diagnosed cases of measles among Afghans who recently arrived in the United States,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki told reporters.
She said that people are being quarantined and that the CDC has started full contact tracing.
Also, all arriving Afghans are to have a mandatory measles vaccination as a requirement of coming into the United States.
The Associated Press before reported that health concerns had stopped flights out of Qatar and Germany. There are around 10,000 evacuees at the United States military base located in Ramstein, Germany.
As of last week, DHS said approximately 60,000 Afghans have entered the United States since mid-August.