Imagine the Reaction If Trump Did This

During conversations between President Biden and Vladimir Putin, which is normal between heads of state, a very unusual and disconcerting discussion took place over the feasibility and viability of having our military work out of Russian military bases for counterterrorism in Afghanistan since the United States gave up Bagram Air Base. Then, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Milley was instructed to speak with his Russian counterpart to discuss the logistics.

Why in the world would we put our most sensitive information and assets on a Russian military base?

ACLJ Senior Advisor for National Security and former Acting Director of National Intelligence Ric Grenell discussed the Biden Administration potentially joining forces with Russia:

"Look, I don’t care what the details would have been about joining forces with the Russians. It doesn’t matter what we asked and what they agreed to. This would never have been an option in the Trump Administration. . . . Let me be clear, we wouldn’t have even tried to have a conversation with the Russians about joining them on their base with the U.S. military to do something in Afghanistan. . . . It is an admission that we didn’t know it would be so bad. The U.S. military leadership, the political leadership, did not know it would be so chaotic closing Bagram that they were scrambling to figure out, okay who is still there and who can we join. It’s just a signal that the political leadership at the Pentagon and the White House have really messed this up, and they are scrambling to cover their tracks."

In the Senate hearing today, General Milley tried to cover his tracks regarding the Taliban:

"We must remember that the Taliban was and remains a terrorist organization. And they still have not broken ties with al-Qaeda. I have no illusions who we are dealing with."

Ric countered Gen. Milley’s statement:

"The Milley admission that the Taliban is still a terrorist organization really is a troubling point when you see that this is the group of people that handed them over a list of American names to help. That should be illegal, if they are admitting that they are still a terrorist organization and then handing over a list of Americans."

Not only did the Biden Administration hand over a list of Americans to the Taliban, they also revealed their deadline to withdraw U.S troops. Senator Tom Cotton asked General Milley when the recommendation of whether we should keep military presence beyond the August 31st deadline to President Biden was made. Gen. Milley responded:

"On August 25th, I was asked for my best military assessment as to whether we should keep military forces past the 31st."

Well, Kabul fell on August 15th, and the Taliban took over. So, was General Milley not even consulted before Kabul fell? Why did it take the Biden Administration 10 days to ask if this strategy was correct? Why didn’t the Biden Administration take action to protect Americans on August 15th?

ACLJ Senior Military Analyst Wes Smith asked what the Biden Administration was thinking by this move:

"Well, what they were thinking is Joe Biden was not interested in the advice of his military commanders. . . . Kabul falls on the 15th of August and then on the 25th Biden asks for his General’s best military advice of keeping troops there. . . . He was not interested in the military advice. He had already made a decision. That train had left the station. This was absolutely meaningless at that point."

ACLJ Director of Government Affairs Thann Bennett summarized what we’ve learned from the Senate hearing so far today:

"We know now that the military knew that the Taliban was this big of a threat, and that they might take over this quickly, and that they told the President of the U.S. that, and he made that decision anyway. We know that the generals thought that the draw down this quickly was a mistake and that they told the President that. And Senator Kaine is insisting that he get a direct answer from the generals of their best assessment of how many Americans are left in Afghanistan."

We have filed a Freedom of Information Act (FOIA) request on Afghanistan to find out more information on how these decisions were made. We will continue to monitor these hearings and provide updates as they come.

Today’s full Sekulow broadcast is complete with even more analysis of the Senate hearing with military officials over the Afghanistan withdrawal and President Biden offering to use Russian military bases for counterterrorism.