Congressman Gerald Connolly schooled Republicans about Afghanistan. He slammed ‘You Lie’ Congressman Joe Wilson’s attack.
Connolly schooled Republicans on Afghanistan
Before it was time for Rep. Gerald Connolly to speak, Joe Wilson scolded Secretary of State Antony Blinken. Connolly did not take kindly to that.
“I guess I would say to my friend from South Carolina,” Connolly said. “If I were the member of congress who committed one of the most grievous acts in a State of the Union Address when the President of the United States, Mr. Obama was our guest, to shout out ‘You lie,’ I might take more care about enumerating other alleged lies in a hearing with the Secretary of State.”
Connolly then went through many points that Republicans would hope most Americans did not know about how we got into Afghanistan and why we stayed. He went from the Russian invasion of Afghanistan to their exit to America’s invasion to our exit. More importantly, Connolly made the GOP hypocrisy clear.
“I know that we want to give ourselves sort of the pleasure of attacking a political leader of the other party,” Donnolly said. “And so let me engage in that too. I’m going to assert that the events of August 14th had their direct antecedent with a bad decision by President Trump and Secretary Pompeo in 2018 to elevate and legitimize the Taliban in Doha, Qatar, by agreeing to face to face negotiations. That tragedy was compounded exponentially by an unbelievable decision to exclude the government of Afghanistan, ostensibly we were defending, from those very negotiations.”
Blinkin confirmed that Connolly’s statement was correct.
“When those 5,000 people [Afghan prisoners] were released from prison — since the ranking members are concerned and correctly so about two Haqqani members in the current cabinet of the Taliban,” Connolly said. “Were there any known terrorists or declared terrorists by the United States among those 5,000 people released with the consent and negotiated agreement of the Trump administration?”
Blinkin responded in the affirmative.
“I guess our concern about terrorists,” Connolly said. “Is pretty selective and limited to partisanship.”