During an appearance Sunday on ABC’s “This Week,” Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) was asked by host Martha Raddatz about whether she and her Senate Republican colleagues would welcome those fleeing Taliban rule, as several countries around the world won’t accept them or they are running out of room to house them.
Sen. Ernst replied, “Afghans being evacuated from their country amid a Taliban takeover would be welcomed into the U.S., so long as they were fully vetted. That is extremely important that we make sure they are vetted before they touch down on American soil. And that is why it is so important that we continue working with these third country nations, providing them whatever support we can within those countries. And this is where President Biden, unfortunately, has really — he has messed it up.”
Sen. Ernst placed the blame squarely on Biden for the chaos that has ensued over the last week in which he ordered some U.S. troops be sent back to Afghanistan to assist in the evacuation of U.S. citizens and Afghan allies.
“This whole thing has been a debacle. It falls right on President Biden’s shoulders, no matter how many fingers he’s pointing at other agencies and other administrations, this fall directly on his shoulders, haphazard planning, no real plan to evacuate American citizens, now we’ve had to go in and more than double the number of troops that we had in just a few months ago in order to safely get Americans out. We know that they’re in jeopardy. We want to see them safely back with their families here in the United States,” Ernst stated.
Ernst also said she believes the U.S. government and military should be doing “everything possible” to get Americans safely to the airport for evacuation. Being the first female combat veteran to the upper chamber of Congress said, “The U.S. should absolutely send military convoys to help evacuate Americans from the Kabul airport in Afghanistan.”
She added, “We are the strongest military on the face of this planet and we should be exercising those authorities to make sure we are flexing our military muscle, especially when it comes to evacuating Americans.”
