U.S. Rep. Mike Rogers (R-Saks) on Monday joined Fox News Channel’s “America Reports” for an interview during which the congressman ramped up his criticism of President Joe Biden over the ongoing crisis in Afghanistan.
Rogers, ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), suggested Biden doesn’t fully understand the magnitude of the situation.
“I’m absolutely concerned about it,” said Rogers. “Clearly he’s senile or just in denial about what’s going on.”
He said there was bipartisan consensus on the committee that disagreed with the president’s withdrawal strategy.
He added, “I can say the members of the House Armed Services Committee, Democrat and Republican, vigorously opposed this decision when it was announced. We met with the administration in classified settings on two occasions and I can tell you the Democrat members were just as vigorous as the Republican members in opposing this and trying to get the administration to not go forward with it.”
Rogers claimed that Biden misled the public when the president claimed he was not consulted by military leadership to forgo his exit plans.
“I can say that the president, when he spoke to George Stephanopoulos in his interview and said that he was not advised by his military leaders to not do this, is lying,” he asserted. “I know for a fact that some of his senior military leaders advised against the withdrawal.”
Rogers continued, “So, we’re disturbed by this, we knew this would happen the way it’s happened, not as fast as it did – I actually thought it may take about 30 days – but we all knew this was going to fall apart and we urged the president, at a minimum, to keep Bagram Air Force base and to go slower if he was determined to withdraw. But he wouldn’t listen to anybody.”
The congressman went on to suggest Biden is naïve to the Taliban’s true intentions in Afghanistan.
“The fact is that we shouldn’t be asking the Taliban to do anything,” Rogers advised. “We should be telling the Taliban what we’re going to do and what we’re not going to do, and they should be taking our orders or else. I just don’t understand where he’s coming from when he thinks that we can dialogue with people that are basically barbaric butchers.”
Dylan Smith is a staff writer for Yellowhammer News. You can follow him on Twitter @DylanSmithAL
