This week, Rep. Nancy Mace (R-SC) lambasted Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, calling it “botched” and claiming it was executed in “reverse order” for pulling troops prior to evacuating citizens and allies and demolishing equipment.
In an interview on Fox News with commentator Stuart Varney, Mace discussed Biden’s competency to spearhead the evacuations from Afghanistan, how the exit strategy has plummeted from “chaos to catastrophe,” and if Biden is solely responsible for the outcome of the withdrawal.
“The exit strategy today has gone from chaos to catastrophe at this moment,” Mace said in the segment. “Our No.1 priority right now is that we do not evacuate, we do not leave Afghanistan ‘til every single American has been evacuated and that’s what our focus should be right now. There’s plenty of time to point fingers and look at the last 20 years in fact - 4 administrations, 2 Republican and 2 Democrat.”
Mace continued, saying that she thinks we should be out of Afghanistan, but the way our pullout was planned was done hastily and out-of-order.
“The way that I believe – and I believe America agrees – we should be out of Afghanistan. But, the first step is to get our citizens out, and then allies that are on the ground. Next, the second step, should be to demolish or remove our equipment and our munitions. Third, then, our military evacuates,” Mace described. “We did it in reverse order, and we completely missed the second step. There’s no doubt that this has been botched.”
At this point, Varney pressed Mace on her opinion of Biden, asking point blank if she believes Biden is “up for the job” of leading the evacuations from Afghanistan.
“I do believe his competency should be brought into question at this juncture,” Mace answered. “He refuses to take questions, both from the press when he has these press conferences or even from members of Congress, for that matter. But, we’ve got time to deal with that once we get through this crisis right now. There’s nothing we can do about it right now other than put our focus on American citizens and getting them the heck out of Afghanistan.”
Before wrapping up, Varney took it a step further, asking Mace if she thinks Biden will take questions from the press about the situation in Afghanistan in the future. In Biden’s recent announcement, he promptly exited the podium after he addressed the nation regarding COVID-19 and mask mandates – no mention of Afghanistan.
“He has a habit of walking away from the podium. Quite frankly, I’ve been surprised, but also am glad to see that members of the mainstream media are taking him and his administration to task over the way that we are exiting Afghanistan,” Mace stated. “I hope that we can get all of the reporters to ask questions in the coming days and weeks and months. And there’ll be time, trust me, there’ll be time for hearings – there will be Congressional hearings on this months from now as there should be. It should be fully investigated.”
Our focus needs to be getting Americans the heck out of Afghanistan. We cannot leave Afghanistan until every single American has been evacuated safely. pic.twitter.com/mJpAjJqSoC
— Rep. Nancy Mace (@RepNancyMace) August 24, 2021