DES MOINES, Iowa – During his weekly Capitol Hill Report on Tuesday, U.S. Senator Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, said President Joe Biden “screwed up” the United States’ exit from Afghanistan.
“It’s quite obvious that Biden screwed up by not listening to the warnings from his intelligence community and his leaders in the Defense Department. Because they were warning him that this takeover by the Taliban could have could happen the way it now has happened. They didn’t know for sure, but what they were warning was a possibility turned out to be true,” Grassley said, responding to a question by Brian Fancher with KLMJ Radio in Hampton, Iowa.
He noted that all the United States can currently do is to get American citizens and Afghan allies out as quickly as possible.
Grassley is concerned that the Taliban will reverse all of the gains for women and children in Afghanistan, and he did not hold out much hope that they wouldn’t.
“After the Taliban take over, pray that there’ll be a little bit different than they were before, which isn’t much to hope for. But do everything we can through the U.N. and the international community to make sure that they don’t do what we expect they’re going to do (which) is hurt the human rights of women and children, all the gains that have been made over the last two decades for women and children in that country,” he added.
“It looks like (the) Taliban, for religious reasons, have a different view of how women and children should be treated. Can you imagine child marriages as an example? Can you imagine women not going outside without their male partner with them, etc.? It’s just kind of a sad commentary, but I don’t expect that there’s much we can do, except just through international pressure. And I’m not sure how effective that’s going to be, only time will tell,” Grassley said.
Aaron Summers with the Pocahontas Record Democrat asked Iowa’s senior U.S. Senator what Biden could have done differently.
“If he had followed the advice of his generals and admirals, he probably would have had a slower removal of American troops. And he would have started to exit, particularly the people, the Afghans that have helped us that their life is now in jeopardy because they were working with the Americans and NATO groups. And those are the steps he could have taken. But if he had taken those steps, he probably would have saved a lot of people that maybe won’t be saved now,” Grassley said.
Listen to the full segment below:
