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Aug. 30, 2021 - Sean Hannity Show
27:27
Forgotten Americans - August 30th, Hour 2
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All right, 16 days Americans trapped behind enemy lines, and it looks like, well, we're not going to get that many.
Now, the State Department has just put out a, they believe less than 250 Americans still in Afghanistan who want to get out.
Senior State Department official updating that there's still a small number of Americans who remain in Afghanistan are seeking to get out.
Official put the number at below 250, adding some Americans have departed in recent hours.
There are only hours left to depart.
Among the 250 Americans in Afghanistan that still want to leave the country, according to them, is the Kabul evacuation mission was further complicated by the terror attack, blah, blah, blah, blah.
Nearly 5,500 American citizens have been evacuated from Afghanistan since August the 14th.
On August, I believe 18th, Joe Biden was saying somewhere between 10 and 15,000 are there.
We've never gotten ever an exact number of people.
But now that the clock is ticking and we're in the 24-hour range, what is the real number?
Now, we had Congressman Mike McCall on this program last week, and he kept saying that, well, while Tony Blinken was saying under 1,500 Americans still remained, we just came out of a briefing where they said 4,100.
So I don't know who to believe.
Here to help sort it out, maybe shed some light on it.
Congressman Jim Banks of Indiana, he currently serves in the U.S. Navy Reserve as a Supply Corps officer.
In 2014 and 15, he took a leave of absence from the Indiana State Senate.
He deployed to Afghanistan during Operation Enduring Freedom and Freedom Sentinel and Congressman Louis Gohmert, who was a captain in the Army working with people on the ground in Afghanistan to help all of them safely get evacuated.
And if they're left behind by Biden, what contingencies we might be able to put in place?
Welcome both of you, Congressman Banks.
I'll start with you.
I am being told that in behind closed-door meetings, that what congressmen and senators are being told is completely at odds with what the administration is telling the media.
Is that number seem accurate to you?
That there's 250 Americans that would still want to leave the country, and that's the final number.
We can get them out in the next 24 hours.
Well, Sean, I mean, from behind closed doors to public, I mean, you just recounted some of these numbers that they're throwing out there.
It's always different.
Every time they speak, it's a different number because they don't know how many Americans are still behind enemy lines.
It just passed midnight in Afghanistan just a little bit ago.
So we are in the final hours.
It is 31 August, the final day of this deadline set by the Taliban that the president of the United States.
Let me put emphasis on this.
So as of 24 hours from this hour, then every diplomat will be gone.
Every military assistance, all the military assistance will be gone from Afghanistan, correct?
That's right.
Because the President of the United States is doing what the Taliban is telling him to do, which is just, it continues to be shocking to me that the President of the United States would bend over and subject himself to the whims of the Taliban, a terrorist organization.
I served in Afghanistan.
I can't believe if at the bare minimum, it's 250 Americans by the latest estimate by the Secretary of State.
I can't believe that we would leave 250 Americans behind enemy lines.
It just shocks me.
It angers me.
We think it's a lot more than that.
250, their latest estimate by the Secretary of State.
We think it's a lot more Americans who are still there.
What does it mean, Sean, when they say that some Americans are undecided?
They're using this term undecided.
What the heck does that mean?
What does it mean to be undecided about whether or not you want to leave a country that is controlled by a terrorist organization that ISIS K is taking over because the Taliban is letting them?
Every American wants to get out of that country if they can.
And I continue.
I'm sure Louis will tell you this as well.
I continue to hear from Taliban or from Afghanis who are still in the country who can't get past the Taliban checkpoints to the airport a lot of the time.
But that's the point.
Now, by the way, I said Congressman Mike McCall, but it was Congressman Mike Waltz who was on the program.
He was the one that just came out of a meeting, came on the show and said, well, that's funny that they're saying under 1,500 because I just sat in a meeting with the State Department and they told us over 4,000.
Louis Gomert, what are you hearing?
Well, I'm hearing that once the deadline passes tomorrow at midnight in Afghanistan, that there's going to be a lot more than 250 that are stranded there.
They're just going to do like this administration has done to our friends, our allies, and there's a bunch of those Afghans that fought with our people, fought for our people back in 2001 and 2002.
They're being left to be murdered.
Now, they're trying to get up to the Northeast area.
Jim knows it at Pangiers.
But there would, first of all, there'd be no Taliban if it weren't for Pakistan's help because they were defeated.
What was left went into Pakistan in early 2002?
But these people fought with us and for us.
They have been begging the Biden administration, please, we're the ones that fought for you.
Don't leave us here to all be murdered.
But we're fine being the, some of them are saying, look, we're here.
We're going to fight to the death.
But instead of leaving billions of dollars of weapons to the Taliban that killed all those Americans on September 11th, how about bringing us some of those weapons and airdropping them in the valley there at Pangiers?
And we will fight our way back again.
But if you leave all the weapons with the Taliban, we're dead.
They're going to use them to hit you worse than you ever got hit on 9-11.
And then when you come back, there won't be anybody alive here in Afghanistan to help you.
I've met with those people a number of times.
They're our friends.
And that is who Biden is just leaving to be murdered.
Do both of you believe that we're leaving Americans behind and that it's now inevitable?
Jim Banks.
Yes, sadly, I hate to say it, but it's inevitable.
We will leave Americans behind enemy lines, and it is an absolute shame.
This administration is proving, Sean, that we have a man in charge in the White House as a commander-in-chief who will do something that no commander-in-chief in the history of this country has ever done, and that's leave Americans behind behind enemy lines.
That is counter to everything that we believe as Americans, everything that we are as citizens of this country, anyone who served our country to leave them behind enemy lines.
It's un-American.
I can't say it better than that.
It's an absolute shame.
Louis, are you convinced there's going to be Americans left behind, and do you think the number is higher than 250?
Yes, I do, and I think the number is higher than 250.
But let me put a little asterisk to that inevitability.
It's the only reason, Sean, it's inevitable is because Biden is determined to be gone at this arbitrary date and time, midnight tomorrow.
If he just or whoever is by the way, let me give you the exact time.
It will be 3.29 Eastern Time tomorrow, 12.30, 12.29 Pacific Coast time tomorrow.
So the first half hour of this program is the last half hour.
And by that time, our final military presence will be gone.
All diplomatic presence will be gone.
And any American left there will be behind enemy lines.
And unless they can somehow find their way north to where the vice president of Afghanistan, which I interviewed, who I interviewed on Friday night on TV.
Yes, you did.
That was cool.
In the Pangier Valley, the northern part where the resistance is.
Now, you would have thought that if we're going to leave $83 billion in drones and Blackhawk helicopters, 208 aircraft in total, night goggle visions, munitions, guns, etc.
You might think that we would have given it to the resistance in the north that when I asked the now acting president of Afghanistan on Friday whether or not he would ensure the safe passage of any American left behind, his answer was yes, he would.
Yes, he would.
And I've met with him.
I know he would.
And there's others of those leaders that have worked with him, sued Robani.
Those were our allies, and they would help any way possible.
But it is incredible that he is basically given more helicopters, for example, more weapons to the Taliban that brought about the death of 3,000 people, burned some alive, some had to jump to their death to keep burning.
Those murdering thugs, he's left them more weapons than he's been willing to sell to Australia.
That's how bad this is.
Jim Banks, what are the alternatives?
Now, a lot of vets, brave Americans, you know, have been able to raise money on their own.
And while the Brits were doing it, the French were doing it.
The Dutch were doing it.
We didn't do it.
And that is, they went behind enemy lines to get their own citizens out.
Now, the Australians apparently got everybody out, and they accounted for everybody.
The Brits have accounted for everybody but about 150 people, but they felt they no longer have the capacity to get the rest of the people out of there.
They know they're leaving people behind, and it killed Boris Johnson.
I could tell.
I still think you should have stayed.
I still think they should have made the effort.
Now, Americans, we haven't gotten a straight answer on the numbers of people ever.
But what really bewilders me more than anything else in all of this is why you trust the Taliban, Joe.
And two, when the Taliban was on the move in March and April and May and June and July, why didn't they take control of Kabul, expedite the withdrawal, take our equipment with us or destroy it, and make sure that every American got out?
While we had full control, they had numerous opportunities in these months to literally blow the Taliban back into their, you know, back into hiding.
And we didn't take advantage of it.
So that's where this whole thing got botched.
And then giving control of the Taliban, now we're literally beholden to an agreement with the Taliban, and we're putting American lives in jeopardy.
And we're going along with an artificial deadline that guarantees we leave them behind.
History books are going to be devoted to this question.
Yeah, well, don't forget, as they said, oh, it was ISIS-K that killed those Americans that blew things up.
That had to come from somewhere, that bomb, and it was most likely Pakistan.
But remember, during the Obama-Biden administration in Syria, Biden and Obama kept sending billions of dollars of weapons to what they called the moderate rebels, who immediately gave it over to ISIS month after month.
So this is nothing new for Biden giving weapons to our enemies.
And if they were our allies and friends, as he's trying to make out, why are they closing the embassy?
It's because they're not.
They're our enemies, and this administration knows it.
And it is absolutely, I got to say, it's treasonous what we're doing here.
This is so wrong.
Is there any option?
I mean, I've never, I never ever thought in my life, Louie Gomert, that we'd get here.
I honestly don't.
I don't even know what to say anymore, but we got to run.
I'm just looking at my clock here.
I want to thank you both.
We'll keep updating you.
So at 3:29 Eastern tomorrow, 1229 on the West Coast, the deadline will have been reached during this radio show tomorrow.
That's how little time we have left.
And we still don't have an exact number.
Well, we think it's under 250.
Well, we think it's under 1,500.
Well, but it's behind closed doors.
It's 4,100.
I can't think of a bigger foreign policy disaster than this.
An unmitigated disaster just hours away, leaving Americans trapped behind enemy lines and leaving allies to certain death.
Joe Biden, a debacle, one of the worst foreign policy debacles in the history of this country.
There's no other way to spin it.
It just isn't any.
Our thoughts and prayers too go out to our friends in Louisiana, New Orleans, all the areas hit by Hurricane Ida.
There's a few million people still without power in Louisiana.
And, you know, the levees held.
Remember, it's below sea level.
We saw the tragedy 15 years ago to the day, which was pretty unbelievable, which was Hurricane Katrina.
I remember going and covering it in the aftermath.
Unlike Brian Williams, I did not see dead bodies floating outside my hotel room, even though the hotel room area was never flooded.
But I did see, I remember being on a highway, and we took the video, and it's like you look on one side of the highway, the other side of the highway, seemingly for miles and miles.
Just every home is wrecked and lives upturned, you know, turned upside down.
And, you know, for all the people that have damage and they have to rebuild their entire lives, it's hard.
It's difficult.
Hopes and dreams get shattered in moments like this for people.
And anyway, our support, our love, and prayers are with all of you.
I read to you earlier the reaction of the military parents.
They're apoplectic.
Nothing that we see unfolding, and it's not done yet, and leaving Americans behind.
And then it'll trickle in, and then it might be worse.
Now that now, by the way, they're trying to take airplanes taking off out of Karzai International Airport out of the sky.
I mentioned that, but I mean, this is it.
We're now hours away, and it's over.
Everybody, it'll be gone.
We're told to trust the Taliban that they'll do the right thing.
Why would you ever trust the Taliban?
Makes zero sense.
Storm is in Alabama.
What's up, Storm?
How are you?
Glad you called.
Oh, hi, dear.
Hey, thanks for taking my call, Sean.
You know, I'm a mom.
Excuse me, I do have a cold.
I'm a mother of a medic, 82nd Airborne in the Army.
He was deployed twice to Iraq.
This is the first go-around.
So this is not a Democrat or Republican thing.
This is just a long, long war.
And as a mom whose son is just really hurting, my son is having a very difficult time, even after all this time having been back.
And then to have those soldiers really, really just use this pawn and this little game that's going on.
We've been around long enough, we parents, to know that there's something going on that doesn't have to do with any particular war.
It's all this goofy stuff.
So I know I'm just kind of all over the map here, but we're panicking, we're crying, we're sorry for all these families.
And my son is still talking about maybe going and getting some help from the VA because he's got panic issues.
And he's just the smartest, most wonderful guy.
So anyway, let's just get to the bottom of what the real thing is because it's not just Joe Biden being stupid.
There's something big going on here.
I can't possibly know what motivation is.
There's a right way and a wrong way to do something like this.
And every possible wrong thing was done here.
I played the time-delayed map of the rise in the Taliban on the march.
Let me just say a few things.
People like your son were asked to do a difficult task.
These guys, we sent them over for way too many tours of duty.
PTSD is real.
I've met many people coming back from these conflicts and many suicidal even.
The first thing I would like to say to your son is thank you.
The next thing I want to say is please get the help that you deserve.
It's a sign of strength to acknowledge that you probably could use a little help.
Living under the circumstances he lived under, most people would probably need it.
So please tell him from me that we love him, we pray for him, we appreciate his service, and I want him to get any help that he can get.
And there's no shame.
I know we all have big egos.
No, there's not, admitting you have a problem is the first step to getting better.
That's the most important thing.
Admitting that there's residual conflict within you and then watching this as a trigger for it is totally, completely understandable to me.
And if you can't get the help that you're looking for, call us back and I'll get on it and we'll help him find the help he needs, okay?
Thank you.
Thank you so much.
Thank you for really feeling things right now.
Thank you.
If you, you know, I can't tell you how many times I have called on, you know, people like Oliver North and others to call people that are really struggling.
And we find groups that they can be a part of.
I took part of a group called Rivers of Recovery out in Wyoming.
Dick Cheney was a part of it at the time.
And went out there with those guys.
They take these guys.
There's no professionals, but they're people that have severe injuries or PTSD.
And they just go out with guides and they go fly fishing in the day.
They build fires and they eat and they talk.
And it's cathartic to realize you're not the only one feeling what you're feeling.
Yes.
Wow.
Thank you so much.
And that's hang in there.
Thank you.
Thank you, Sean.
You're welcome.
And our best to your son.
Tell him if we can help him in any way, we'd love to, okay?
Thank you so much.
I will tell him.
I will.
Thank you.
All right.
Thank you.
We overdeployed these kids.
It's too much.
And now they got to watch the surrender.
Everything that they fought for.
And many of them with severe injuries, they're asking themselves, what the hell?
Why?
And the parents are apoplectic because they could have safely done this in April when we had control of Kabul, May, June, July, easily, simply, safely, securely, and taken our equipment with us or the minimum, destroy it.
I wouldn't have destroyed it.
I would have taken it home.
Tim in Idaho.
Tim, you're on the Sean Hannity show.
Glad you called.
Hi, Sean.
So you've reported that dozens, maybe hundreds of Afghan evacuees have failed the vetting process and have been brought to the U.S. Some even on the terrorist watch list.
Nobody's addressing what's going to be done with these people.
You can't very well take them back to Afghanistan, and I can't imagine a third-party country is going to want them.
Look, I mean, with Biden open borders, I guess he would absorb, you know, all of this population, but I don't think it's the United States' obligation to do so.
Our promise to our Afghan allies was that if this day ever came, we'd get them the hell out of there.
Well, we didn't get them out of there because now for almost a week, the Taliban that Lincoln and Joe Biden are putting all their faith in, we won't have any diplomatic presence on the ground 24 hours from now.
We won't have any presence on the ground militarily 24 hours from now.
Anybody who's left behind is behind enemy lines with radical terrorists, and they're going to be hunted down one by one.
And when they are discovered, if they are Afghans that supported us, remember, we left the biometric so that they're going to say, look into this camera.
And if there's a match, you will die.
Then they're going to look at the database.
And if it matches, you're going to die.
And if you're an American, you'll be a hostage.
So I'm all for supporting the Afghanis that helped us and risked their lives with us, but I'm concerned about the ones that they've already brought here who were vetting en route on the airplane, but nobody's talking about what they're going to do with these people that have failed vetting and are on terrorist watch lists even that are already on U.S. soil.
I'd send them back if you want my honest opinion.
Yeah, right off the back of a C-17 at 30,000.
If you're on a terror watch list, an unknown terrorist, sorry.
And the vetting better be better than just, oh, jump on the airplane.
We'll vet you on the way over to the U.S. and let you out.
It better be better than that.
But I hate to tell you this.
We haven't gotten enough answers to these very important questions you're asking.
We haven't gotten the answers to those.
Absolutely.
And I can't imagine it getting even worse, but it probably will, knowing who's in charge of the State Department.
Who's in charge of the government?
Joe is out to lunch.
I see him today.
He's out to lunch.
He's out to lunch yesterday.
He's looking at his watch yesterday.
A lot of the parents are so disgusted that lost their loved ones and our national treasure, they wouldn't even meet with them.
They wanted nothing to do with them because they know, as I know, all of it's preventable.
And they know that Susan Rice and Ron Clain.
I don't even know who's in charge at this point.
Nobody does.
That's even scarier.
Thanks, Tim.
Appreciate it.
800-941.
Sean, if you want to be a part of the program, let's say hi to Cindy's in California.
Cindy, I assume you're voting yes to recall Newsom on September the 14th.
Absolutely, Sean.
And Sean, thank you so much for taking the time and for giving me a voice.
Very quickly, my family is 80% military.
And while our military deploys overseas to protect, you know, our rights and our homeland, who protects their loved ones in their country?
And I guess, Sean, my question today is, well, all eyes are focused.
I don't understand why these reporters that are on right now are not taking advantage of these unfortunate policies with our White House, Pentaclines, Pentagon, whomever to connect the docs from Afghanistan to our borders.
We all saw how one one suicide bomber, the damage, the horrific things that that happened.
And we need to focus, you know, on the next big disaster, which is our borders.
Now, who's asking the questions while we can't, Sean?
You know, they're trying.
I don't even think they're asking the right questions.
No one's asked, why do you trust the Taliban?
Tell us why.
What gives you so much faith that you feel confident in your diplomatic and economic power that you're going to be able to do this with the Taliban?
So, you know, that is an answer.
The second question is, why didn't you do it?
If you're going to withdraw, why didn't you withdraw when you had full control and power over Kabul?
If you're going to withdraw and part of the deal was that the Taliban even offered you to keep Kabul and you didn't take it.
Why didn't you keep it?
I mean, there's a lot of questions we're going to be asking afterwards.
But my main concern right now, to be honest, you know, is what happens to our fellow Americans left behind Brits?
They the British know they left 150 people behind, but they felt they could no longer stay because they were risking everybody else's life in the process.
What what what's going to happen to them now that we they've gotten the database of every Afghan ally we've had?
They're all going to die because we know what the Taliban is already doing.
They're already killing them.
They're going to kill them all.
If you're discovered, you will be killed.
Life for women will change.
It will go right back to the way it was, you know, back to, you know, the Flintstones era, Barney Rubble and Bam Bam and Fred Flintstone and women will won't be allowed to leave their house, work, go to school.
The must dress a certain way.
Young girls will be taken, quote, as sex slaves for Taliban fighters.
It's all happening already.
And this is this this is, you know, the woke Joe Biden crowd.
I don't want to hear lectures from any of them.
General Milley should go.
Secretary Blinken should go.
The defense secretary should go.
National Security Advisor.
This guy, Jake, is just an idiot.
They're all idiots.
And frankly, Joe Biden's just not up to the job.
You know, I stopped joking about Joe a while back and I said it's too serious at this point.
I can't joke about it anymore.
This guy is not cognitively there.
I mean, these press conferences, it's an unmitigated train wreck.
It's not funny.
I mean, I guess if you're Putin or President Chi or now Kim Jong-un is activating one of his nuclear reactors, I guess it's fine for them because they're on the march.
But our allies are aghast at what's happened, as are, you know, our enemies are emboldened.
Hostile regimes are emboldened.
The world is less safe with a weak United States president.
And maybe those mean old tweets of Donald Trump don't seem so bad anymore, do they?
They don't seem so relevant anymore, the way the media would make them out to be and Democrats would make them out to be.
Thanks for the call.
We appreciate you being with us.
Quick break right back to the phones, 800-941-Sean, our number.
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