Biden Projects Weakness in Speech to Nation

This is Logan Sekulowpe.

Joe Biden, the President, projects maybe the weakest moment in his speech to our nation. Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulowpe. We want to hear from you.

Share and post your comments or call 1-800-684-3110. And now your host, Logan Sekulowpe. This is Logan Sekulowpe. I'm joined by everyone in the studio right now. My dad, Jay Sekulowpe, is here. Colonel West, Smith, Harry Hutchinson.

We have them in DC and later on the show, Dr. Omar Hamada. And we are going to discuss all that's happening in Afghanistan, but obviously now the infamous speech that happened from President Biden yesterday. One of the more embarrassing, emotionally infuriating moments maybe I've gone through as someone who's been following politics as an adult.

It's sad that it's even political. There are moments that sure were sound biteable and you can go, hey, that was a nice gesture, a nice moment. But overall, specifically in the questions, joking, making light, putting blame to other people, not only other Presidents, but to other places. And always this attitude of, yes, in fact, I take all full responsibility and then quickly deflecting. But the real reason is, as I listen to my chiefs and the real reason is, is because, you know, Trump did this in May and you don't say this. You know, Trump said, hey, if you don't kill anyone, we're not going to do anything to you.

So how about you don't do it? And that's somehow a bad thing. We're going to have a lot to discuss here. We're going to discuss it. Also, just what it's like on the ground in Afghanistan for people who have been there.

Phone lines are open 1-800-684-3110. But dad, coming out yesterday, I think there's a lot of people getting text messages continually from people. These are rational, kind, sound people who are just infuriated, don't know what to do, and are, again, American people are compassionate people. They see this imagery coming out. They're seeing bombings. They're seeing murder of our troops. And you feel helpless.

You do feel helpless. And in a sense, because of the nature of a conflict like this in a land far off with limited military capacity right now, 5,800 troops on the ground. A commander in chief that is getting us out of there, he said August 31st period is exactly what Jordan said on the broadcast yesterday. That they're going to, that was even after the bombing and now 13 military, US military dead, I think 75 Afghans were killed in this bombing. And they're also saying they're going to be more on the way. Let me tell you a couple things we're doing. We're trying to help where we can, and where we can is we've been working with families that have tried to get individual, mostly children, out of Afghanistan where they've got sponsors basically in the United States.

It's been very difficult because of the chaos around the airport. We're also going to be giving you in-depth analysis. Today we're going to be joined by a good friend of ours, Dr. Omar Hamada, who is a special operations officer and surgeon in the army and served in Afghanistan. And he's going to give us his perspective on it. And then there's the military situation and of course the policy analysis.

And on Monday, and it's taken us some time to go through and do this right. We're going to be launching through our government accountability project, a Freedom of Information Act demand to the State Department, to the White House, to the Secretary of Defense to find out who decided that this was the right policy. For instance, closing down Bagram, the Air Force base, turning it over to the Afghan troops, which ended up fleeing, letting out Taliban out of prisons. Or this one, which I know we'll talk about more when we come back from the break, giving a list of names and addresses of Americans and people that work with Americans to the Taliban so they could check them off the list.

Now people will say, well, you got to have a list to check people off. But here's the problem. You're giving it to the Taliban, which means maybe the checkpoints should have been controlled by the United States. This was very poorly thought out. And Logan, even the CNNs of the world and the more liberal media are being very hard on the Biden administration on this. I've said this is the one time you can say there's been some unification amongst media for maybe the first time in a decade. Plus, where there are people saying, yes, this is outrageous.

Yes, this is horrible. And at least even if they're caveating it or saying this, we're going to have clips from the President's speech later in the show. But again, coming up in the next few segments, like you said, Dr. Omar Hamada, as well as our whole panel that's here, we're going to discuss this. Look, I know a lot of you are turning to the ACLJ and saying, how can we help?

What can we do? There's a lot of work happening behind the scenes. There's a lot of work on projects that we can't even talk about on air. And we are currently working on major media presence for this entire situation. So why don't you go to ACLJ.org? We've got great comments, great feedback, great blogs and articles. You can also support the work of the ACLJ right there at ACLJ.org.

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A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support.

Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, the play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life.

Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. Giving him the advice to expedite out, get out of Bagram Air Force Base, that this all came from the military and he was just listening to his advisors. Now our senior military advisor, Colonel Wes Smith is here and Colonel, it seems like some of that is just not correct.

Absolutely. I mean, his misrepresentation of facts and sometimes what appears to be out and out lies is pretty amazing. It's obvious that the President really didn't have a plan. He had made a decision without much of a plan, no sense of urgency and not taking responsibility. But concerning Bagram, yeah, he said yesterday that his generals were unanimous and saying, oh, it's of no value, we can close it down. A week before, just last week, and one of the Pentagon briefings, General Mark Milley, who is the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, made the statement that the reason, because they asked him why was Bagram closed? He said, well, the President had indicated as we went through the drawdown, we would have about 700 troops on the ground. We told the President that we could not hold the airport at Kabul and Bagram with that few troops.

The President was insistent. You cannot have any more troops. And so the decision to close Bagram was not based because they thought it was a good idea, but because of the limitation of their troops on the ground and they made the best decision they could. It was really President Biden who calls it to close down. You know, Thanh, one of the things I saw yesterday, and that was within the media and watching the media till late in the evening, that even the more liberal networks, the MSNBCs and the CNNs, were very critical of what is taking place in Afghanistan right now, the chaos that's on the street, especially in the vicinity of the airport, which was A, totally predictable and B, has had dire consequences. I've also saw Democratic members of Congress, some of which were on television last night and had just came back from Afghanistan, saying that this has been a debacle. What is the sense on Capitol Hill about this situation right now? This is the President's. This has been our most significant foreign policy military engagement failure, I would say, in the last probably 10 years.

We'll talk about the helicopter situation 10 years ago, but Thanh, go ahead. Jay, it's pretty stunning, actually, in a D.C. that is just reflexively partisan. I mean, you defend the President of your own party and you oppose the one of an additional party. It's been shocking to me, Jay, to see just how nobody has come to the administration's defense, and it's because there is no defense for this and really everyone knows it.

And I would say it's a reflection of what Logan started the broadcast with. If you were to poll the American people, if you were to poll Joe Biden supporters, Jay, I think what you would find is that they know that this has been a debacle. And look, I actually think the limited amount of discussion about political fallout, I guarantee you it's coming, Jay, but the limited amount that we've seen so far is proof of just how conclusive this is.

It is not up for debate. This has been a debacle. And look, the fact that you would turn over to the Taliban to control the access points to the airport, that should tell you everything you need to know. If you don't control that, Jay, you don't control anything. One of the generals, I can't even remember yesterday, said our Taliban partners.

Who was it? General McKenzie, the commander of CENTCOM, actually referred to them as our partners. Can you believe that? They've been killing Americans for 20 years. And they continue to kill Americans.

Yes, absolutely. By the way, there's reports indicated that this ISIS bomb attack came through a Taliban checkpoint. It's very hard to watch and hear the Taliban referred to over and over and over again as this like friend and weird ally. And in Jen Psaki's press conference following her, her essential thought was saying, well, you have to, they're who we're dealing with.

However, when they, when Joe Biden spoke specifically was blaming President Trump for having any kind of agreement with, with the Taliban, which kept everything at peace and kept everything, or at least virtual peace, not complete peace. But let's hear that. I think we should hear that. And then we discuss that.

That's Biden clip 42, I believe. Here is, you know, I take all blame, but let's divert over here. The reason why, whether my friend will acknowledge it or has reported it, the reason why there were no attacks on Americans, as you said, from the date until I came into office was because the commitment was made by President Trump.

I will be out by May 1st. In the meantime, you agree not to attack any Americans. That was the deal.

That's why no American was attacked. Okay. Exactly. Pretty good.

Pretty good response. Here's what we're going to do Taliban. We're going to start turning, we're getting out of here because it's been a 20 year war, but here's what's going to happen. No American gets hurt.

No Afghan assistance to the Americans get harmed. And then we will make our disengagement. And by the way, he said, but I came into office.

I changed it. Well, he sure did. And by the way, why is that a bad thing, by the way, what the former President did?

It doesn't make any sense. And of course, now he has to stick with stuff that President Trump put in place. You know, they were day one reversals, but this one he had to stick with. Also, you look back on that and say, yeah, why is this a bad thing? You know, we have to talk to people, you know, we have to have these plans. And by the way, that thought process is, and by the way, if you do kill someone, we will bomb you into oblivion. Yeah.

And they knew he would do it. Right. This guy's, you know, look, it's like I said, if there's no fear. No fear. Was it Gates?

Which was the one? Robert Gates. Yeah. Robert Gates said, Joe Biden's been on the wrong side of policy, every policy decision the last 40 years.

If you're watching on social media, we encourage you to share it with your friends. Here's a policy issue though. If you think, what is the US interest in this area?

He said, now we've been there 20 years. By the way, I have reconsidered my initial view. 2,500 troops to be in the region as counterintelligence probably was a good idea. I know most Presidents wanted to get out, so I get it.

But here's the reason, here's the reason you may not want to be out so quick. China has announced that the sanctions on the Taliban are not productive. It's also been shown that they are mining in Afghanistan and are talking about an investment of, from the Chinese government, of $1 trillion.

Now let me say that again. The Chinese government is willing to invest $1 trillion into Afghanistan now and are calling sanctions on the Taliban wrong. Harry, from a policy perspective, I think this is where the, not the only, but a miscalculation clearly took place. Absolutely. And that miscalculation was entirely foreseeable.

Why? Because Joe Biden surrounded himself by advisors who formerly worked for Chinese government-related entities. And so at the end of the day, Biden's incompetence is on full display for the entire world. So here you have Joe Biden.

He reverses virtually every Trump era policy from the border to abortion. But then he wants to give President Trump the blame for his own misconduct with respect to Afghanistan. And I think one of the key issues here is why give up Bagram, not simply because of the security importance of the Bagram airport, but because by doing so, the Afghanis did what? They released 5,000 terrorists into the Afghanistan economy. And in addition to China's investment in Afghanistan, we are likely to see a parade of terrorists flocking to Afghanistan as a launching pad for terror on the rest of the world. So at the end of the day, Biden has to take responsibility. And if he's unwilling to do so, the American people should ensure that he does. When you hear the reports like what's coming on potentially from China, and you go, I can't be.

What about our own financial support potentially of the Taliban? That's not something you necessarily want. I want you to hear this and I want you to give me a call.

1-800-684-31 because I think it's going to fire up. This is from Jen Psaki just immediately following President Biden's speech. She did a press conference because he could only answer two or three questions. And she came out, made some statements. And here's why she thinks we have leverage with the Taliban right now.

This is Jen Psaki, Byte 70. I would say is that we have an enormous amount of leverage. This is our view over time. That includes economic leverage and includes leverage that we will make clear to the Taliban as it relates to coordination, continue to get American citizens and our partners out. Economic leverage with the Taliban.

What does that tell you? Here's the thing. The President has already said, come hell or high water, Tuesday next week, we're out of there. And when was asked about it, and Jen Psaki was asked about it too, what about the Americans who will be stranded there? And there will be Americans left behind.

That was their answer. Well, we have economic leverage. We can go in after all our troops are gone and we can talk the Taliban into giving us these people because of economic leverage. First, that's a very weak plan. And secondly, with a trillion from the Chinese, they don't care about our economic leverage. I'm very concerned about, you know, calling this hostage crisis because we still have troops on the ground. But I will tell you something. If someone lived through the Iranian hostage crisis as a late teenager, early young adult, I'm going to tell you something.

I was in law school during that period. This is going, it sounds like it has all the ramifications of that possibility. The fear that Americans are left behind that want to be removed. They're always putting that comment on Americans that want to leave. And because there may be reasons that some Americans don't want to leave. We understand the family, whatever it might be.

But the fact of the matter is that it seems like we're setting ourselves up now. We've been helping some, trying to help some folks on the ground, especially with kids. Stan, are there any updates?

We're going to a break here. And then by the way, Dr. Omar Hamad is going to join us. Former special operations officer, served in Afghanistan among other hotspots. He's going to take us inside what it was like in a situation when you had an explosion like that.

What is the job of the doctors, of the military? But then really quickly, any update from Ben on that other matter? Yeah, just very simply say, Jay, we remain engaged literally at this moment.

Look, that airfield is a very high value target right now. But I will tell you this. Even if August 31st comes, September 1st comes, and this situation is not resolved, we're going to stay on it. There's unconventional methods and we're going to consider all those options.

You have to. All right, we'll be back in just another minute with Dr. Omar Hamad. If you have heard any of this, I want to give you, give us a call.

1-800-684-3110. I know you have a lot of opinions on this. Also support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org. As Stan said, we will go to unconventional methods if necessary to help people when we can. We'll talk about that.

Again, we're going to have all that content coming up here shortly. We're working on documentaries. We're working on books to keep you informed and engaged, as we say, more than ever at ACLJ.org. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, the play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad. Whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy, and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress, the ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

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A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support. Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family. Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org.

Darrell Bock Hey, welcome back to the broadcast, everyone. We are taking your calls, as Logan said, at 800-684-31. Obviously, we're talking about Afghanistan, so 800-684-3110. A good friend of ours is joining us, and that is Dr. Omar Hamada. Also, I should say, Colonel Omar Hamada. He served as a physician, but he also was a Special Forces officer in charge of medical and had served directly in Afghanistan.

Omar, I want to go to you first here. I think it's first important to understand, what is a Special Operations unit? You have friends in Afghanistan right now that you're talking to and dealing with, but you've been there. What is a Special Operations unit? Omar Hamada Just technically, it's important, I think, to differentiate Special Operations versus Special Forces.

Special Operations is the whole umbrella, including every service. Navy SEALs, Marine Force Recon, Air Force PJs, and Army Special Forces. Darrell Bock Okay, so what's an Air Force PJ? Omar Hamada They jump in and rescue downed pilots behind enemy lines. Darrell Bock Okay, parachute jumpers. Omar Hamada Parachute jumpers, right, or pararescue jumpers.

Special Forces is the Army Special Operations primarily, so the Green Berets. Darrell Bock You went to Afghanistan. You were there actually near the beginning of the engagement. Take us inside what it was like on the ground. Omar Hamada Well, it was scary at the time because there weren't very many troops.

We didn't know what to expect. We knew that it was a very hostile situation. Our orders were to hunt and kill, essentially. So we had CIA, Special Forces, Navy SEALs, Army Rangers, a few other troops, but there weren't many people. Darrell Bock Who was the primary target?

Omar Hamada We thought it was bin Laden, but every time we tried to engage, we were told to stand down at the time. So it was really just seeking and destroying the Taliban and their ability to freely move about the country. Darrell Bock All right, I think it's important to talk about the Taliban because we had General Milley, and Reece phrased exactly what he said yesterday, Wes, Colonel Smith, about the whole situation about Taliban partners. General McKenzie actually referred to them inadvertently as our partners. This is a group that has been killing Americans for 20 years. You were there when they were killing Americans, and yet he calls them our partners now because they're providing perimeter defense for our forces at Kabul Airport.

Darrell Bock Omar, I think for our audience it's important. When we deal with the Taliban, we know they're terrorists. It's more than that, though.

It's a network that's very deep. So we have the checkpoints are being controlled by the Taliban. I asked this to Harry Hutchison. I mean, you're talking about a policy failure. Giving the names and addresses of Americans and people that work with Americans as a policy matter to the Taliban because they're manning the checkpoints might mean maybe the Taliban shouldn't be manning the checkpoints, Harry.

Absolutely, and that's particularly true in two cases. So, for instance, we've given the names, we've given the addresses, we've given the details, but we have no assurance, at least at this particular point, that all Americans and all Afghanis that have helped us will indeed be evacuated in time. They won't. And it's a target list. And number two, currently it's a target list, and some of the Taliban, in my view, are friendly with some of the terrorist groups. Well, no question.

They work together. And so all of these individuals are targets. I just don't understand it. There's still thousands of people, of Americans in country, that will not be able to get out. The White House is being very careful in the way they're saying this, though, and that is they're saying Americans want to leave.

But go ahead, Wes. Well, I was about to mention you, and I know you know this. The Haqqani Network, which is in Afghanistan, actually, the Taliban has delegated the defense perimeter to Haqqani Network outside the Kabul airport.

So, basically, it's like this. The Biden policy is to rely on a terrorist group, the Taliban, who subcontracted to another terrorist group, the Haqqani Network, to protect our people from yet another terrorist group, ISIS. Is that insanity or what? The head of the Haqqani Network, we've got to point this out. The FBI, if you go to the page right now, there's a $5 million bounty on his head.

He is running the security around the airport in Kabul. Then do you think this is a policy failure? Do you think this was a mistake? Do you think this was a disaster, self-created?

Horrible advice coming from this administration. But I want to take people into what we were dealing with yesterday as a surgeon. You have this mass explosion, 13 military are killed, 75 Afghans. That's just our military, yeah.

That's just ours, yeah. What's your role when those kind of things happen as a doctor? Well, you know, so I was attached to a smaller unit, but basically, mass casualties, so triage of who's going to survive, who's going to die, and then paying attention to those people who we can save. But the problem is, you know, we're standing down, Bagram's closed. We don't have the large, mass unit-style hospitals, the surgical suites, et cetera, so our capabilities are significantly reduced.

That's something to think about. I don't think we've even discussed that concept of the fact that we have reduced so much, not just military. It is obviously military involved, military, but medical and the things that we have brought infrastructure to Afghanistan and we're just gone. So maybe then we're depending on NGOs, like Doctors Without Borders or what have you, to support us.

They do great work, but that is a risky operation. I mean, what do you feel like, you're talking to people on the ground right now, so have we. What are you, through Affiliates of ours, what are you hearing? Directly, with somebody who's there on the ground now, that the American troops are drawing down, that the airport is being currently evacuated, that we are going to be completely out of there by Sunday, before the deadline on the 31st.

I think that's what I've heard that, too. And then, do you think it's possible to get out every American that wants to get out by Sunday? No. Impossible. Logistically impossible?

Logistically impossible, because some of these are in all areas of the country, and we don't have people going to get them. The State Department has told them to stand firm and not approach the airport, that we will somehow send teams out. And most of the people that I know that are out there actually rescuing people are not governmentally affiliated. Yeah, that's what we're hearing, Tim, and we've heard from them as well. Yeah, we've heard from plenty, and obviously we're discussing that. You want to make sure that people are doing the right things, that you're talking to reliable sources.

Obviously it's chaotic there, so I know a lot of people have sent me personal messages and text messages, here's what I'm doing here, I'm trying to help. We are trying to parse through a lot of that to see what we can even do with the ACLJ, because obviously everyone wants to help. But money can get into the wrong hands very quickly, and you want to make sure that this is going to the right places. And you brought up the hit list, the kill list. That report, by the way, came out of Politico.

It's not coming out of some hard right thing. Using those words, saying people inside the administration or inside the government, inside the military, are referring it to that. That they hand it over what they refer to as a kill list or a hit list. And they're not denying it.

Yeah, exactly. They brought it up. Do we have that bite?

US officials provided Taliban with names of Americans, Afghan allies to evacuate. We only have a minute. Do we have that bite?

Can we just play it? This is from Joe Biden's press thing yesterday. There are reports that US officials provided the Taliban with names of Americans and Afghan officials to evacuate. Were you aware of that?

Did that happen? There are certain circumstances where we've gotten information, and quite frankly, sometimes from some of you, saying you know of such and such a group of people are trying to get out. They're on a bus. They're moving from other people. And this is their location. And there have been occasions when our military has contacted their military counterparts in the Taliban and said this, for example, this bus is coming through with X number of people on it, made up of the following group of people. We want you to let that bus or that group through. Our military counterparts is what the President of the United States just referred to the Taliban terrorists, because that's what they are, as our military counterparts.

How does that one sit with you? We're going to take your calls and comments on this. Omar is going to stay with us. 1-800-684-3110. 800-684-3110 for your calls and comments. Yeah, and support the work of the ACLJ. Look, a lot of you may not, if you're listening on local radio, you may not get the second half hour of this show. We are live right now, many of you do, but we're live right now on ACLJ.org as well as on our Facebook and our YouTube channel. So find that, search for Jay Sekulow, search for ACLJ.

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We will fight for the right to live in freedom! Keeping you informed and engaged, now more than ever, this is Sekulow. And now your host, Logan Sekulow.

Welcome back to Sekulow. We do have a full panel on today's show. My dad, Jay Sekulow, Dr. Omar Hamada, we have Colonel Wes Smith, Harry Hutchinson, and Than Bennett in Washington, D.C. We're obviously discussing all that's happening in Afghanistan. We do have a bit of a news report, and that is from CNN saying that the death toll from the bombing yesterday, though details have obviously been coming in in parts and there's misinformation and correct information, but currently the death toll has increased to more than 170 people that were killed and more than 200 wounded from Thursday's blast. Obviously, we know that specifically many of those were Americans, but 170 people killed. This was no small bomb. This was no small attack.

And I think it's easy to kind of put your mind in that and think this could have been very localized. But clearly, I mean, there was reports that it was two. It was that big. And then we were saying that on air yesterday.

They were definitive. And now today saying, no, it was just one gigantic explosion. The explosion was so huge. They killed 200 people. Almost 200 people. Almost 200 people.

Probably will rise. You know, I want to go to our special guest is here, Dr. Omar Hamada, who was a surgeon, a good friend of ours, practicing physician, but was also involved in the special forces and understands what is taking place here when you've got this situation, but has also been talking to people on the ground. And Omar, as we start this segment off, and this is a short segment, I thought it'd be helpful for you to lay out for our audience, when you went to Afghanistan, which was really in the beginning of this conflict, that in dealing with the Taliban, I've heard stories from friends of mine that were in the military, that these tribal leaders would have tea with you and be kind, and then the next day use an IED to blow you up. Exactly. So talk about that.

Exactly. And the problem was you didn't know who to trust, and we couldn't really fully trust them. They were happy with us, and they'd support us any time the CIA gave them a bunch of money, but if that money dried up or if they didn't get in on time, then we'd get hit.

So we were always watching our backs. Is there a sense of, with your colleagues in the military, because I know you all stay close, and I want to ask this to you, Wes, too, what's the feeling right now? Because I don't want to blame the military for this.

I think that's a huge mistake. I think that our men and women, the limited number that are there, are doing the best they can with a horrible situation. Yeah, infuriated, angry, felt like kicked in the gut, unbelievable.

I mean, it's just horrible. When I talk to friends that are still in active duty or people who served, they're really demoralized by this. I mean, I've had friends that weep over what's going on over there because it is such a horrible thing, and they are very, very upset. And I guess more than any emotion, what I'm hearing from my friends is anger. They are very angry. I wanted to – go ahead.

No, no, please. I was just questioning for you, as someone who's been in Afghanistan, what do you think is sort of some misconceptions people have of the people? I'm hearing a lot of reports that these are people that don't want to be under – obviously, these are not people that want to be under Taliban rule. These are good people who actually have not had an issue with us being here. Exactly.

That seems to be a big misconception. Beautiful people, kind, hospitable, wanting freedom, wanting to be able to live the way they want to live, not under Taliban rule. Right. And that is something that we watch, and when we see the images on TV, it is hard not to connect that these are not people. These are people who are trying to flee because they know what's coming.

They know how bad it could be and now how bad it is. Especially the Christians there. I mean, there's a huge resurgence of the Christian church who are now being persecuted. Yeah. Over the last 20 years, we've had actual rise in them. Yeah. And one of the things that's troubling and tragic with all of this is that Christians are being targeted as well. And I mean, they've gone – the Taliban has gone house to house.

I want to ask Harry something quickly here. We talked about this yesterday, and that was the ability to have a policy and then pivot when circumstances demand. We've had a major – this was after Joe Biden said just weeks ago, we weren't expecting casualties, and we've had major casualties. And the pivoting of policy, it seems like it's exactly what Jordan said yesterday, that they are not going to move – they're out of there August 31st. If people are left behind, people are left behind. We'll work on special operations afterwards.

Harry? Well, I think the Biden administration has been absolutely too rigid. They haven't been nimble. They haven't thought ahead. And they haven't contingent – haven't put together contingency plans.

And so that's a failure of leadership, and it's a failure of the leadership team. All right. Let me go quickly. Ethan, I've only got 20 seconds here. What is the temperature of this within the Democrats in Washington right now? Honestly, Jay, laser-focused on trying to minimize casualties in the next 48 hours. I think there's going to be political fallout to come, but the focus on the immediate is actually pretty amazing. So – because I saw a Democratic congressman not happy about any of this. All right, Logan.

Yeah, he's got 10 seconds here in this segment. We'll be right back with more on secular again. Support the work of the ACLJ at ACLJ.org.

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Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. All right, welcome back to the broadcast, everyone. We're joined in our studio by our team with also a very good friend of ours, Dr. Omar Hamada, who is a practicing physician but also serves as a colonel in the United States Army. But what was your technical title? So it was Special Forces Battalion Flight Surgeon and Diving Medical Officer. Yeah, so you got into situations where you had to provide medical assistance in the zone. Correct, but it was primarily administrative.

I was able to do clinical work as well, but out in the field with the teams. What happens, okay, so we talked about this, you got no, like you said, mass units. You don't have a hospital. You got this mass explosion. The State Department and the Department of Defense are saying there's going to be more. What should they be doing? I mean, that's, I guess, a legitimate question to ask here is, okay, we've got this horrible situation.

What should be happening? If I was in charge, I'd send in a bunch of Army Rangers, take several large airfields, send in a couple battalions of Special Forces, go rescue these folks, and then get what we can from our equipment back and then exit, supporting the Afghan military as well. Although, is there anything left of the Afghan military? There still is. I mean, they're hiding the scurrying away because we removed air support.

From what I understand, they requested that we wait until after the fighting season was done, so the winner. Why we didn't do that, but anyways, okay. Instead, we just tuck tail and ran.

We removed all air support. We let them topple. And some of the Afghan military have actually fled north for two promises where Masoud's son is now trying to organize a resistance up there as well.

But yeah, the doctor's right. What we should do, and they're not going to do it, is that we need to go in, bring in enough troops to secure Kabul and expand the defensive perimeter with a good covering force. And then, like you said, take Bagram or some other airfields. You can't rely on an airport with one runway in the middle of a city. There's no way to secure that airport. And the roads in Afghanistan are awful.

So, I mean, I would say we need to secure several airfields, not just Bagram and Kabul, but up north, north of the Hindu Kush in Mezil Sharif, and also down south in Kandahar, maybe Herat over in the west. Because Americans are all over the country. They are.

I've got a question here for Than and for Harry because it's related here. And that is the political reality of this, which impacts the policy. So he's got a policy that he's sticking with, and then you've got the politics on the ground.

Let's start with the politics on the ground first, Than. It seems to me that the shifting situation for buying support within his own party is dwindling. It's dwindling fast, Jay, and it's really ironic that it's happening on this issue because this was an issue that there was consensus on across parties just a matter of a couple of weeks ago. I mean, I think there's great frustration actually inside his own party after yesterday's speech because it was just another deflection away from the question that's being asked. Jay, nobody in this town, Republican or Democrat, is actually asking the question about whether or not he should withdraw.

I mean, there's something I would say like 80 to 90 percent support for that inside this town, probably even higher among his own party. But yesterday, they were hoping he would step to the lectern and actually provide answers about what Wes and the doctor were just talking about. Are you going to open another airfield? By the way, Jay, I think the answer to that after this morning's briefing is conclusively no. I think they've decided they're leaving. This is the end of the story, and they'll deal with the fallout later.

All of that distilled down. He's gone from an issue where he had great consensus just a few weeks ago to he has almost no support in the city. So, Harry, from a policy standpoint, it's obviously a policy failure. What's the impact of it, besides obviously the horrible casualties? Yes, there's also a tremendous reduction in American prestige internationally. Basically, Biden has opted to humiliate the United States.

Why? Because he wants to stand by his bad policy advice that he's been getting from Lincoln, from Jake Sullivan, you name it. In addition to humiliating the United States, reducing our prestige abroad, he is also reducing his ability to pass domestic legislation. So, one of the collateral consequences of this miscalculation in Afghanistan is that he's going to be far weaker in the United States and in terms of influencing the policy direction of the United States. But I also think, long term, if you look out 5, 10, 20 years, why would any American ally trust us? Why would they put their men and women in harm's way based on American leadership? Certainly, if I were the Prime Minister of Canada or the President of France, I would not do that.

I would say, what is in the interest of this particular country and I would not be led by the United States. So, at the end of the day, I think NATO may ultimately collapse. You're right, and we've alienated our friends and we've emboldened and empowered every single enemy of the United States. When you talk about the enemies of the United States, we're dealing with the Haqqani Network, ISIS, and the Taliban. And they're all in cahoots.

What did the President say yesterday? The Taliban is the mortal enemy of ISIS, or ISIS-K. You know, I've always said this. I've said this when ISIS first came out, giving them the moniker of a caliphate is very dangerous.

But if you don't think they're just going to set one up right there in Afghanistan, you're kidding yourself. But between the President and the generals calling them our military partners, our colleagues or whatever the phrase he used about their military, this is, we're living in crazy land. And when I say crazy land, it's the consequences of these actions are so significant.

Yeah, and you've seen people like, you've seen France go in, start to work and actually get some of their people out, making the action that feels very American in nature, actually doing the job. But you also have, you know, all of his comments come in that Joe Biden seems like the President seems like a puppet that is not, you know, actually making these decisions. The crazy part about that is that he's admitting that. He's saying, well, it's always placing blame and saying, well, it came to me.

And yeah, I just went with whatever they advised. And when you say that over and over again, your leadership just starts to dwindle. What you're saying is 100 percent, it's on my military experts, 100 percent, whether it's medical, whether whatever, it's always placing blame on somebody else or it's Trump's fault. The waterfall thing is so ridiculous. So I want to play that bite again, because it's so unbelievable that Trump did this and there were no casualties. Then I came in and changed it. And now we have horrible casualties.

It's terrible. Can we get it, please? Yeah, 42 bite, 42. The reason why, whether my friend will acknowledge it or has reported it, the reason why there were no attacks on Americans, as you said, from the date until I came into office was because the commitment was made by President Trump.

I will be out by May 1st. In the meantime, you agree not to attack any Americans. That was the deal. That's why no American was attacked. I want you, please, to listen to what he said, because I'm going to break it down for you right now.

This is what he says. The reason there were no attacks on America, as you said, from the date until I came into office was because the commitment made by President Trump, I will be out by May 1st. In the meantime, you agree not to attack any Americans.

Let me ask you this question. Why don't you have the same agreement, saying I can't do it May 1st, I'm the new President, we'll do it August 31st. But you don't attack. And if you do attack, you're going to have real consequences. As Lamar said during the break, and we're going to destroy all of our weaponry, we're not just going to leave all of these things to be inherited by terrorists. And for the Chinese to take apart and learn what our secrets are. Forget about the tech side.

You think of guns and ships, but really it's a lot more than that. He is blaming Trump for being successful in a disengagement plan. Now, who's making the calls on this? Ultimately, look, the President's responsible. I've been in meetings with Presidents, and the last President, and he'd have four people in the room with four different opinions. And that I thought was good management.

And listen to him out. I don't know what is going on inside this White House. I suspect if it's like the Obama White House, Wes, it's a lot of group think.

I think you're right. And if some of these commanders are actually giving him this advice, as he claims, they need to be relieved of command. If they're not giving him the advice and he's doing it on his own, some of them should resign in protest and say, Mr. President, I can't go along with this.

It's crazy. This is not a withdrawal, Jay. This is a surrender. He does continue to place blame.

Let's hear that bite 22. This can give you a little bit more understanding. Again, this is from Joe Biden yesterday. There has been some criticism, even from people in your party, about the dependence on the Taliban to secure the perimeter of the airport. Do you feel like there was a mistake made in that regard?

No, I don't. Look, I think General McKenzie handled this question very well. The fact is that. We're in a situation we inherited a situation particularly since, as we all know. That the Afghan military collapsed 11 days before in 11 days. That it is in the interest of, as McKenzie said, in the interest of the Taliban. That, in fact, ISIS-K does not metastasize beyond what it is.

I think you have to dive deep in that and go mainly in it. We inherited a situation. We inherited a situation. That's what happens when you're the President. And then when you inherit the situation, you have to respond to the situation. We have 40 seconds here to the last segment.

Let me finish this up. You inherited a situation. So deal with it. But the lack of flexibility here, really quickly, the lack of flexibility in their whole policy maneuvering here is breathtaking.

It is. But I also think part of the problem is Biden came into office with very few principles. And President Trump, whether you like him or not, he put America first. And that was a principle that stood him very, very well over a four-year period.

Biden has zero principles. I think it's fair to say about President Trump, and you can say whatever you want to say, is our enemies feared him. That's what I'd say.

I don't think that's the way it looked last night when President Biden was speaking. All right. We'll be right back.

We'll take your calls. Only when a society can agree that the most vulnerable and voiceless deserve to be protected is there any hope for that culture to survive. And that's exactly what you are saying when you stand with the American Center for Law and Justice to defend the right to life. We've created a free, powerful publication offering a panoramic view of the ACLJ's battle for the unborn.

It's called Mission Life. It will show you how you are personally impacting the pro-life battle through your support. And the publication includes a look at all major ACLJ pro-life cases, how we're fighting for the rights of pro-life activists, the ramifications of Roe v. Wade 40 years later, play on parenthood's role in the abortion industry, and what Obamacare means to the pro-life movement. Discover the many ways your membership with the ACLJ is empowering the right to life. Request your free copy of Mission Life today online at ACLJ.org slash gift. At the American Center for Law and Justice, we're engaged in critical issues at home and abroad, whether it's defending religious freedom, protecting those who are persecuted for their faith, uncovering corruption in the Washington bureaucracy, and fighting to protect life in the courts and in Congress, the ACLJ would not be able to do any of this without your support.

For that, we are grateful. Now there's an opportunity for you to help in a unique way. For a limited time, you can participate in the ACLJ's Matching Challenge. For every dollar you donate, it will be matched. A $10 gift becomes $20.

A $50 gift becomes $100. This is a critical time for the ACLJ. The work we do simply would not occur without your generous support. Take part in our Matching Challenge today. You can make a difference in the work we do, protecting the constitutional and religious freedoms that are most important to you and your family.

Give a gift today online at ACLJ.org. Welcome back to Secula. We're going to take some phone calls.

I did want to say this is probably one of the most asked questions I know. A lot of you have called in with this same question that we're going to go to Daniel in South Dakota in just a second. So Daniel, get ready. But a lot of people have had just frustrations.

They see what's happening in this administration, the Biden administration, and they want not only answers, they want action. But as we've always said, we're very honest with you in what actually can and actually will happen. So let's take this phone call.

I don't want you to get mad at me because you're not going to like the answer. But Daniel in South Dakota, you're speaking for pretty much the whole nation right now. I'd love to hear from you. Go ahead. At least half. I don't know. More than that.

80% probably. Go ahead. Yes.

Thank you for taking my call. I just wanted to know, can we impeach President Biden while removing Kamala Harris and Nancy Pelosi? That's all.

OK. So this is the we're getting a lot of a lot of people come by impeach. Because then, of course, if you impeach the President fully with the removal of office, your President now is Kamala Harris. They don't want that either. So then, well, then if Nancy Pelosi, well, they don't want that either.

So that's what he's talking about. So it's a concern. I will just feel like, what can I do?

What can I do? Because I'm so frustrated, maybe regretting their decisions. OK, so let me let me do this.

I wish we could turn off the comments section on our social media feeds now. It's OK. It's OK. Folks, you need to listen to me as somebody that probably knows more about impeachment than any lawyer in the United States.

OK, let me let me go through the first thing. Number one, elections have consequences when you elect a President of the United States and a Congress. They have authority under our Constitution. We have three branches of government.

Each has a sphere of influence. And the President is our lead on foreign policy. You cannot impeach a President because you disagree with the policy decision he made. Even if that results in, as it did here, in horrible casualties and a bad policy, you cannot. That's not a high crime or misdemeanor, because if you did do that, if you were to say that a policy decision, even one that's awful, which we think this is, and wrong, which we think this is, and has dire consequences, which we think it is. If policy decisions become an impeachable offense, then any President's policy decisions would be subject to impeachment. And that is not what, and I'm talking to you as a lawyer that has done more on impeachment than probably any living lawyer in the United States. And I've been through the impeachment proceeding, which is a political proceeding, so I do not believe that a bad, awful, horrible policy decision is a basis upon which, OK, an impeachment could go forward.

That's number one. Number two, if you were to impeach a President, which you'd have to originate the articles of impeachment in the House, and thank it addresses very quickly. It's now political. It's a political process. There is no way that there are votes for an impeachment of the President.

Not a chance, Jay. Articles could be drafted, they could be introduced. There is no way they're any close to the number of votes needed to move those. So you're not going to get articles of impeachment. You're certainly not going to get a conviction in the United States Senate.

So let me explain one other aspect of this. If you did, hypothetically, which you will not, and I don't think it's constitutionally right. If you were to impeach Joe Biden, Vice President Harris is the vice President, she now becomes the President. And if they were to impeach her, Nancy Pelosi is third in line as the speaker of the House becomes President. And you're not impeaching her. So don't waste your breath. Not now. Not based on what we have. Not on policy decisions.

I'm not even looking because I'm sure the comments, I can't believe Jay's saying that. Do I think this is horrific? Yes. Do I think it's terrible?

Yes. Do I think he should not be in office? I think that if there was an election today, he would lose. But I would encourage our country to follow the Constitution. It has served us well, even when it brings an administration you disagree with.

But look, real Americans, heroes, died yesterday. And the sitting President of the United States said, well, that didn't happen under President Trump because he had a deal. But it happened under Joe Biden because there is no deal. That's not impeachable.

It's ridiculous. So people are asking, well, then how did it happen under President Trump on something we felt? Because they had the votes because it's a political process. An impeachment is political. They made a political move. Now, what happened to President Trump?

We tried the case in the United States Senate and he was acquitted on both charges. So it's not the way to handle this. A lot of even senators, congressmen, are calling for resignations and all that. I think calling for things are fine. It's a free country.

It's a go anywhere is the question. Probably not. But it's a free country. People are frustrated. They're seeing what's happening. They're beyond frustrated. They're upset. They're angry.

And that's a concern that I think everyone has. I don't think that's something to laugh at or to joke about, even if the last impeachment processes maybe were. But beyond that. Well, they trivialized impeachment.

Right. People look at what's happening right now and go, how can one thing, this be something so silly, and then you have actual people dying with intel that we knew. Because both of those, because impeachment in both cases would be wrong. Unless there was a lie and a cover up and all that.

Go ahead, Wes, quickly. I was going to say to you, I appreciate what you said about the Constitution. Every one of those 13 service members that died yesterday took an oath to defend the Constitution of the United States of America, as does everyone in the military. They died defending the principle you just articulated. No question.

Listen, they're heroes. I don't take anything away from him. Was it avoidable? It was avoidable because I think the policy decisions leading up to this were so horrible. Exactly.

And I think you're right. I mean, elections do have consequences. And unfortunately, incompetence is not an impeachable offense.

That's another way of saying it, too. I mean, this is, you know, Harry, I was thinking about this as you and I talk about policy issues all the time. I don't really, like you said, when you're rudderless on principle, it's not going to result in policy. And we're not likely to see a good outcome. And just to piggyback on your comments about impeachment, I think if the House were to impeach President Biden, his standing in the United States would actually rise.

And I make that claim based on going back 20 or so years. If you look at President Clinton, when the Republicans tried to impeach President Clinton, his poll numbers rose and he became actually stronger. So did the impeachment. So I think at the end of the day, impeachment is probably the wrong avenue to go down.

And the American people should vote their conscience as soon as possible. Well, accountability, impeachment and impeachment are not the same thing. They are not the same thing. And I think that's maybe the focus on this.

These are not the same. Impeachment is not just accountability. No, there's political accountability. And the question then will be, and it will be in the midterm elections. Will this issue still resonate a year from now when Congress is up for election? And who knows?

Yeah, who knows? Political momentum lasts for a very short amount of time, but I think it will, Jay. I'll say this, though. In this moment, I'd like the commander in chief to step up, not step down. We need a pivot. We had U.S. service members get killed yesterday. He sent a CIA lead to negotiate. Taliban told him to take a hike and he essentially took that. Jay, look, Taliban wants to blame ISIS. Guess who is running those checkpoints? The Taliban.

So guess what? ISIS may have conducted the bombing. The Taliban is responsible and our commander in chief needs to own it.

Yeah, let me also tell you something else. Taliban, ISIS, accounting network, you know what the difference is? Nothing.

They're awful. They want to kill innocent civilians. You brought up just reminding people, look, it's why we're working on projects. I'm currently working on a real-time documentary and book about this specific issue, what's happening right now. We're covering each and every day and that will be coming out very soon, but also be something that, trust me, we'll be talking about in a year, in two years, in three years, to remind you of what this felt like to live through all of this in real time. I want to thank everybody for joining us today.

Thank you, Dr. Armato, for coming by. Obviously, thanks to our whole panel. Support the work of the ACLJ. You can do that by going to ACLJ.org.

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