(breitbart) – Wednesday on FNC’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight,” host Tucker Carlson walked through past statements made by Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC), who at one time was a vocal proponent of U.S. involvement abroad.
Carlson said an invitation to Graham to appear on his program remained open.
Partial transcript as follows:
CARLSON: Well, it’s hard to overstate the damage the Biden administration has done to the United States over the past couple of weeks. They abandoned hundreds of American citizens in Afghanistan including school children, even as they imported thousands of unvetted Afghan tribesmen into the United States.
And then on the way out, as one final insult, they armed the Taliban, which is now the best-equipped army of its size in the world. It’s all beyond belief. Most people are stunned by it.
We’ve got to be honest and tell you that the Biden administration didn’t do this alone, they’ve had a lot of help over a very long time from the reckless neoconservatives who run our foreign policy establishment.
The main reason Americans were so shocked by the fall of Kabul last week is that for years, people in Washington have been lying to them about it and telling them everything in Afghanistan is just fine. It’s improving, forever improving. Our sacrifice is well worth it. Our strategy is successful. Just keep sending us money and young soldiers, we will make the world safe for America.
For decades that’s what they’ve told us. One of the main mouthpieces for these lies has been Senator Lindsey Graham of South Carolina. Graham identifies as a Republican, but his views in real life are indistinguishable from say Tony Blinken’s or Mark Milley’s.
Graham’s real constituents are in permanent Washington, not in South Carolina.
We’ve pulled together tonight three representative soundbites that tell you the story of Lindsey Graham’s personal responsibility for the debacle now on display in Afghanistan. Here is the first of them. This is from 12 years ago.
In it, Graham explains that as an Obama super fan, he is totally in favor of sending 35,000 more troops to fight a pointless war despite the fact he knows perfectly well that many of them will die. Watch.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
SEN. LINDSEY GRAHAM (R-SC): when it comes to Afghanistan, I am completely supportive of the President-elect’s decision to send 35,000 troops into Afghanistan. They are needed.
I would like every American to know that not only are the troops needed, unfortunately, casualties are likely to increase, but we have a game plan in Afghanistan that I think justifies the expenditures of blood and treasure that’s about to come.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: Nuzzling with Obama, telling us that unfortunately, casualties will increase, but we have a game plan in Afghanistan that I think justifies the expenditures of blood and treasure. So, now is the moment to ask, really, Lindsey Graham? What exactly was that quote “game plan”? And at what point did you realize that it wasn’t working?
Well, if Graham ever knew that his plans were failing, somehow he forgot to mention it to the rest of the country. So here he is, two years later telling us that we’re really, really close to winning in Afghanistan and not just in Afghanistan, but also in Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, and Yemen.
This clip is hard to watch, but please make yourself.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRAHAM: We’re on the verge, in my view, of turning this thing around. I see Afghanistan, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen as incredible opportunities to change the world for the better.
If we as Congress accelerate the withdrawal schedule because it’s popular at home, we will undercut all the gains we have made.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: So the beauty of videotape is it lives forever. That was 10 years ago. Afghanistan, Tunisia, Egypt, Libya, Syria, Yemen — Lindsey Graham described them all as little laboratories to test his theories.
All those places still exist, they are still countries. The question is, how are they now? Has any one of those countries been improved by Lindsey Graham’s game plan? That’s a good question. You have to ask the people who live in those countries, many of whom have since fled as refugees to Germany and Sacramento, California.
Lindsey Graham himself has not weighed in on the results of his game plan. He doesn’t like to look backward. Reflection suggests accountability.
If there’s one thing Lindsey Graham is strongly opposed to, it’s that.
Instead by this spring, Lindsey Graham had dropped the talk of winning the war against terrorism or bringing democracy to the great unwashed. Those were yesterday’s goals.
The new justification for keeping troops in Afghanistan was the fight for global feminism. We’ve sent Marines to Kabul to tear down the patriarchy, Lindsey Graham told us.
Keep in mind that Lindsey Graham said this with a straight face right into the camera.
(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)
GRAHAM: And here’s the saddest of all news, as difficult as Afghanistan has been and will be, things have changed. I went over right after the fall of the Taliban. Today, there are over six million women who’ve been educated. Kabul is a very commerce-driven area.
People can sing and dance and live their lives without the oppression that the Taliban brought on them.
(END VIDEO CLIP)
CARLSON: He’s been going there for 20 years. We’re sad to tell you tonight that Lindsey Graham’s dream has died. The last Gender Studies class in Afghanistan has shuttered its doors. Everyone in that country is now thoroughly binary.
So the question is, was the whole experiment worth it? We’d love to know what Lindsey Graham thinks about that. You see him on television quite a bit all the time on his never-ending fundraising tour. “I’m a conservative. Send me money.”
It’s political televangelism, but weirdly, Lindsey Graham won’t come on this show and that’s a shame because it would be a worthwhile conversation for everyone. The invitation remains open.
breitbart.com/clips/2021/09/02/watch-fncs-carlson-slams-reckless-neoconservative-lindsey-graham/
