Today, House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Representative Brad Wenstrup (R-Ohio) held a press conference with Republican Members of Congress who served in Afghanistan to discuss the crisis President Biden created by withdrawing U.S. troops without an adequate plan in place to prevent the Taliban from taking over the country. In addition, Whip Scalise criticized the Biden Administration for not answering how many Americans are trapped in Afghanistan and prioritizing working the phones to pressure Democrats to vote for trillions in tax and spending increases rather than working to get Americans trapped behind enemy lines safely home.  

Click here or on the image above to view Whip Scalise’s remarks.

  Whip Scalise's remarks:    "I want to thank everybody for coming out this morning. Standing behind me [are] many of my House colleagues and especially a number of Members of Congress who served in Afghanistan. And the first thing we want to say to all of those men and women who served our great country is thank you for your service. And to those Americans who are still abandoned behind enemy lines, we want to let you know [that] you are our top priority. Our number priority here as House Republicans [are] to make sure every single American who has been stranded behind enemy lines is safely returned home to the United States. That should be all of our focus this week. "It's really disgraceful that Speaker Pelosi, this week, brought us back to raise taxes on Americans here at home rather than to help come up with a strategy to rescue Americans that President Biden abandoned in Afghanistan. That's what we should be doing here. In fact, some of my colleagues have legislation to help aid and expedite the ability to get Americans back.   "We've been asking President Biden how many Americans were abandoned behind enemy lines? [The Biden Administration] won't even give us that basic answer. We've also asked what is their plan to help all of our allies, the interpreters will help so many of our military stay safe during that conflict? Another question that's been asked a lot is who has an accounting of the American equipment and technology that are now in the hands of the Taliban to use against us? This is a terrorist organization, the Taliban. And they now have control of a country because of President Biden's failed policy.   "We still have an open southern border. Many of us have been down to that border. What we see is alarming. Our Border Patrol agents tell us that it's a wide-open border. In fact, the drug cartels in Mexico have more control of the southern border, right down, than the Biden Administration. We've seen people on the Terrorist Watch List come across our southern border and get into the United States. That's even more of a concern now that a terrorist organization doesn't just have a foothold to train terrorists to come to the United States. They are now in control of a country in Afghanistan.   "And we've been talking to a lot of our allies around the world. They are [disgusted] by what they're seeing in the leadership, here, of President Biden. We've seen it on the floor of the Parliament in England, expressing disgust with this President and how he abandoned our allies. There's a lot of damage to pick up as we look at what's in front of us.   "But what we know right now is we want our focus, and we want President Biden's focus, on rescuing every American who he left behind enemy lines and to give us an accounting of who they are. We are going to continue to press for legislation on the House Floor to confront that this week while Speaker Pelosi is more focused on trying to raise taxes and spend trillions of dollars rather than work with us to answer these questions."