Republican Reps. Wesley Hunt (Texas) and Byron Donalds (Fla.) detailed some of President Joe Biden’s domestic and international failings on the Tuesday episode of the “Sage Steele Podcast.”
Donalds noted, for instance, that under Biden’s watch, “we have had to
evacuate seven United States embassies. That has never happened in American history. Never. That is how weak we are on the world stage. That’s how bad it is.”
According to the Daily Signal’s
accounting, the reality is far worse.
The Signal indicated that as of March, the Biden administration had overseen the evacuation of 11 embassies, more than any other administration to date. President Barack Obama reportedly presided over the second-most embassy evacuations with a total of eight.
The Biden State Department has, however, come up with a
different set of numbers concerning ordered or authorized evacuations under both the current and previous administrations.
“When you’re weak and our adversaries know you’re weak, they push you,” continued Donalds. “It’s no different than the bully in the school yard. If you’re timid and the bully knows he can get away with it, what happens? He comes for your lunch money every single week, every single day … until you punch back.”
After the congressmen emphasized that America’s adversaries perceive the U.S. as weak under Biden, Rep. Hunt shared a tale illustrating a better way of doing things — a tale that has ostensibly morphed slightly with each retelling.
‘If you harm a hair on a single American, I’m going to kill you.’
“I’m going to give you my favorite President Trump story,” said Hunt. “It’s my number one favorite of all time.”
“When we were negotiating with the Taliban while President Trump was still the president, President Trump wanted to get out of Afghanistan but he wanted a conditions-based withdrawal meaning that you [the Taliban] do what we tell you to do and then we start pulling troops back slowly as long as you abide by our rules,” said Hunt.
The congressman suggested that Trump and former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo met with the Taliban leadership to discuss the withdrawal with a single translator in the room.
“President Trump looked at the Taliban leader and said this: ‘I want to leave Afghanistan. But it’s going to be a conditions-based withdrawal,’ and the translator translated,” said Hunt. “And [Trump] said, ‘If you harm a hair on a single American, I’m going to kill you.'”
Hunt claimed that the translator sat back in silence, reluctant to communicate Trump’s death threat.
“And Trump goes, ‘Tell him. Tell him what I said.’ [He] reached in his pocket, pulled out a satellite photo of the leader of the Taliban’s home, and handed it to him,” said Hunt.
Steele interjected with “shut up!”
“Got up and walked out the room,” continued Hunt.
Trump
told Fox News in 2022 that he had sent Taliban co-founder Abdul Ghani Baradar a photo of his house, and said, “‘If you do anything, we’re going to hit you harder than any country has ever been hit.'”
A year earlier, Trump
told talk radio host Hugh Hewitt that he had threatened Baradar along these lines:
If you do anything bad to the United States of America, if you do anything bad to any of our civilians, to any American citizen, or if you do anything out of the normal, you know, they’ve been fighting for a thousand years, but out of the normal, because you’ve had your wars, and if you do anything out of the normal, but anything bad to America or any American citizens, I will hit you harder than anybody has ever been hit in world history. You will be hit harder than any country and any person has ever been hit in world history. And we will start with the exact location and the exact town, and it’s right here. And I believe I repeated the name of his town. That will be the first place that we start.
Former White House chief of staff Mark Meadows
reportedly noted in his book “The Chief’s Chief” that Trump vowed in a phone call to flatten Baradar’s village in early 2020 if the Islamist group threatened Americans or American interests.
According to Meadows, Trump said, “And your village, Mullah? We know where it is. We know it’s the Weetmak village. If you dare lay hands on a single American, that will be the first thing that I destroy. I will not hesitate.”
While Hunt’s favorite Trump story appears to have morphed over time, the core suggestion that has gone unchanged is that Trump was willing to back American safety with the threat of American vengeance.
“That’s the definition of strength,” continued Hunt. “That’s what I’m talking about. And so you can imagine that kind of sentiment being around the world. If we have an embassy in another country, no one’s going to touch it because they’re going to be fearful that they’re going to get a
MOAB on their head. That’s how President Trump rolls.”
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