Pompeo sounds alarm over Biden leaving billions of US military equipment in Afghanistan: 'Horrific'
House GOP leading committee hearings holding Biden admin accountable for Afghan withdrawal
Biden’s ‘deeply political decision’ to withdrawal from Afghanistan led to new ‘strategic challenges’: Mike Pompeo
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo unpacks the China threat, the aftermath of the Afghanistan withdrawal, addresses speculation around a 2024 presidential bid and discusses fiscal policies ahead of Biden’s budget announcement.
As one of President Biden’s most "horrific" military decisions is brought back to the spotlight, former U.S. Secretary of State and Fox News contributor Mike Pompeo warned Biden has given an advantage to terrorists.
"It was a horrific decision President Biden made," Pompeo said on "Mornings with Maria" Thursday. "And the fact that that equipment is now in the hands of our adversaries, the Taliban, who have every intention of continuing to kill and take on the United States of America, make no mistake, that is bad."
This week, the House Foreign Affairs Committee has been holding hearings relating to Biden’s withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan in August 2021. Not only did defense damage take place with America leaving behind nearly $7 billion worth of military equipment, but so did emotional damage with the loss of 13 soldiers killed by a suicide bomber.
On Tuesday, Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews, a U.S. Marine who survived the attack, was moved to tears retelling the events to lawmakers.
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"I'm thrown 12 feet onto the ground but instantly knew what happened. I opened my eyes to Marines dead or unconscious and lying around me. A crowd of hundreds immediately vanished in front of me and my body was catastrophically wounded with 100 to 150 ball bearings now in it," Vargas-Andrews told the committee.
Former U.S. Secretary of State Mike Pompeo called Biden's military withdrawal from Afghanistan a "horrific decision" on "Mornings with Maria" Thursday. (AP Newsroom)
Not only did Biden orchestrate "something that the United States has never done before," Pompeo argued, but created a "dangerous" and "tragic" precedent by leaving military weapons in Taliban hands.
"We had the loss of life, we had the loss of American power around the world, but it's also the case now [that] the Taliban has tools and equipment. They'll struggle to maintain it, they'll have problems, but make no mistake about it, that was part and parcel of the mistake that President Biden made," Pompeo said.
"The fact that that equipment is now in the hands of our adversaries, the Taliban, who have every intention of continuing to kill and take on the United States of America, make no mistake, that is bad."
"President Trump, we wanted out as well," Pompeo continued, "but we were prepared to do it in a way that would have respected not only our American service members and the service they gave in Afghanistan for two decades, but we would have made sure the Taliban never got the equipment that they have their hands on today."
One silver lining, Pompeo pointed out, is that America’s adversaries will likely have difficulty in trying to perform the necessary software updates required by the left-behind military equipment.
Taliban member holds his son on the first anniversary of the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan. | Reuters Photos
"It doesn't mean we won't have a bad day. It doesn't mean they won't figure out how to use one of them, that the Russians won't help them, that the Chinese won't help them. All of those things are possible," Pompeo said. "And while they have the very real ability to use that equipment in the medium and near-term, the chance of them being able to develop a force around that over the 10, 15, 20-year time frame is very low."
The biggest challenge facing the Biden administration today, the 70th Secretary of State noted, is the impression it left on the world stage after the Afghanistan withdrawal.
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"The whole world saw that. Vladimir Putin saw it, he invaded Ukraine. Xi Jinping is watching it, and he's thinking about Taiwan," he said. "Those are the strategic challenges that face our nation today as a result of what the president did."
The ongoing hearings are the first on the subject since Republicans took control of Congress earlier this year, with Rep. Cory Mills, R-Fla., telling Fox News Digital Tuesday that the proceedings will be aimed at providing the "transparency and accountability the American people deserve."
Fox News’ Michael Lee contributed to this report.