Several former United States Navy SEALs who are currently running for Congress ripped President Joe Biden’s administration over its disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in late August.
During an appearance on Fox News, the retired SEALs — Ryan Zinke, Eli Crane, Morgan Luttrell, Brady Duke, and Derrick Van Orden — blasted Biden for sounding the “retreat” from the Middle East.
“I think it’s really sad to see the leadership at this point seeming to be careless about taking responsibility for what was a botched withdrawal,” said Brady Duke, who served as a sniper during his deployment in Afghanistan. “And I think withdrawal is going too far. I think it’s really just a retreat, you know, you can’t say that it’s a success when you turn your back to the enemy on the battlefield.”
Brady noted that there are “Americans that we must, we must rescue from this country.”
“You know, I think that we have to, we have to understand that this was a failure, that this was a failure,” he added. “And we cannot continue this way. It was deeply un-American.”
Former Secretary of Interior Ryan Zinke took the criticism a step further and called for congressional investigations into the withdrawal to determine the precise number of people that Biden abandoned in Afghanistan.
“This is a Biden-created crisis, that we’ve left our family members, we’ve left our allies hanging in the winds, and not only has our government not been helpful of getting our people out, they have been, in many cases, the obstacles,” Zinke said.
“Now, I’m contacted every day by individuals that have interpreters, family members that need to get out of that country,” Zinke continued. “And in many cases, our State Department, under this administration, has not only been not helpful, they are the chief obstacle of getting our people out. We should have investigations and get to the truth about what’s going on.”
Former SEAL and Texas congressional candidate Morgan Luttrell questioned why the Biden administration – who claims to be very concerned about public health – hasn’t done more to rescue Americans abandoned in Afghanistan.
“If the Biden administration is so concerned about saving American lives with these mandates, these mask mandates and so on so forth, why don’t they mandate we rescue our citizens and save their lives as well over in Afghanistan?” Luttrell asked.
In the weeks following the withdrawal and evacuation, Luttrell said he met an “interpreter that served with us overseas for so long” and who still had family in Afghanistan.
“And he pleaded with us, he begged us, he’s like, ‘Who do I need to get to help me get my family over?'” Luttrell said.
“Let’s mandate this; task Milley, task Austin, and go get our people,” the veteran continued. “It’s, if they, if they’re pumping that much, if big pharma is pumping that much money into the DNC that all you’re hearing on the news is about mandates and vaccines, why don’t we get some people to say the same thing about our citizens overseas and bring them home?”
