OPINION:
Historically, a special session of Congress is called to deal with national emergencies that require immediate attention. But incredibly, when Speaker Nancy Pelosi convened a special session of Congress last week, she ignored the searing images on television of Afghanistan in chaos in favor of Senator Bernie Sanders’ socialist wish list.
Just one day before 13 heroic members of the U.S. military were killed and 18 were wounded in a terrorist attack outside the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, Mrs. Pelosi had other priorities. She summoned the U.S. House of Representatives members back to Washington for a late summer session not to address the ongoing foreign policy crisis Joe Biden created but rather to vote on a Washington takeover of our election system and her inflation-causing $3.5 trillion budget resolution.
The behavior of these out-of-touch career left-wing politicians continues to be breathtakingly irresponsible, arrogant, and tone-deaf - which is the unholy trinity that describes today’s unhinged Democratic Party.
As Americans observed their fellow countrymen and women stuck in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan along with the grotesque incompetence of President Biden and his foreign policy team, Ms. Pelosi continued her abuse of power as if none of it was happening. The irrational Speaker even dusted off her old “Deem and Pass” swamp tactic to ram through unpopular and controversial legislation on a party-line vote while thousands of Americans wonder if they’ll ever get out of the hell on Earth that Joe Biden caused with his botched withdrawal. This abomination alone should cause the Democrats their majority in the U.S. House and U.S. Senate next November.
Before Mrs. Pelosi moved forward with her reckless agenda, Mr. Biden had an opportunity to tell congressional Democrats to focus on the Afghanistan emergency and nothing else - but he chose to side with Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and the socialist squad - yet again. It was far-left radicals that drove Mr. Biden to make his politically inspired pull out of Afghanistan a reality, and it’s radicals who are advising him to prioritize their irresponsible legislation over saving American citizens on the ground in Afghanistan.
In his remarks Wednesday - billed as an important update on the Afghanistan debacle - Mr. Biden inexplicably chose to start with a briefing on how his multi-trillion-dollar socialist buffet was progressing in Congress instead. And when Mr. Biden finally got around to talking about our stranded citizens - a national security disaster - he refused to extend his arbitrary August 31st deadline to leave Afghanistan for good - the date when he’s apparently preparing to leave Americans and allies behind.
Congressman Brian Mast, a Bronze Star recipient who lost both his legs in Afghanistan fighting for American freedom, was exactly right when he voiced urgent concern about Mr. Biden and Mrs. Pelosi’s tone-deaf decisions. Congressman Mast stated, “when something’s going on here like working on a bill that has to do with altering voting or infrastructure, you need to ask the question, what the hell are you doing, get our Americans home.” Brian Mast is one hundred percent right, and they’re wrong. Americans in Afghanistan are under attack and must not be left behind. When will President Biden start giving Afghanistan his undivided attention?
As America remains mired in Mr. Biden’s crises - Afghanistan, the border, new mask mandates, a crime wave, inflation - it’s important to remember that this president could have just come into the office and kept his core promises to unite America and defeat COVID-19. Instead, Mr. Biden refused to accept political reality and his lack of a mandate, caved to the radical leftists, and caused many massive problems that will take new leadership to fix.
Remember when Joe Biden campaigned on the idea that electing him and his team was a vote to let the adults back in the room? Well, that was a bald-faced lie. One thing’s for sure; the disgraceful episode unfolding in Afghanistan will once and for all dispel the notion that Mr. Biden is a foreign policy expert. Not even an entry-level State Department bureaucrat would pull troops out of a dangerous country before innocent civilians or think it’s a good idea to put trust in Taliban terrorists. Former Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’ assessment that Mr. Biden has been wrong on just about every foreign policy decision over the past four decades has turned out to be spot on.
Additionally, the decision to allow Vice President Kamala Harris to skip off to Vietnam after the Taliban overthrew the Afghan government was another gaffe that mustn’t be overlooked. Acting like a crisis isn’t happening doesn’t make it go away. Joe Biden’s deceitful attempt to minimize what’s happening in Afghanistan is deplorable. Harris said she was the last person in the room when Mr. Biden decided to withdrawal from Afghanistan, so why she would remove herself from the task at hand now is a dereliction of duty.
Elections do have consequences. What Americans are witnessing from the Biden administration is what happens when the radical left is allowed into positions of power and starts making consequential decisions that adversely affect our country with no check from the mainstream media. As reflected in President Biden’s shrinking 41 percent approval rating, the American people are more than ready to hold Joe Biden and the Democrats accountable for the horrible mess they’ve made of things in the past seven months.
• David N. Bossie is president of Citizens United and he served as deputy campaign manager for Donald J. Trump for President.
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