Scalise on Face the Nation: This is Biden's Saigon Moment

Statement

Today, House Republican Whip Steve Scalise (R-La.) joined CBS' Face the Nation to discuss the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan being forced to evacuate after the Taliban began to advance on Kabul. Whip Scalise slammed President Biden for withdrawing U.S. troops from Afghanistan without having specific conditions or any concrete plans to prevent the Taliban from taking over the country. Additionally, Whip Scalise discussed the importance of encouraging, but not shaming, people to get vaccinated, and implored President Biden to finally appoint a head of the FDA, a position he has left unfilled for over 200 days.

On President Biden's disaster in Afghanistan:

"Well, during the call [Administration officials had with Members of Congress this morning], you actually had events still continuing to unfold. And so, in real-time, we were seeing things on social media that they weren't really talking about on the call. But, it's a very dire situation when you see the United States embassy being evacuated. In fact, you just had President Biden a few days ago saying you wouldn't see helicopters evacuating the embassy like Saigon. And yet, here we are. This is, this is President Biden's Saigon moment. And unfortunately, it was very predictable. It seems like many in President Biden's intelligence community got this devastatingly wrong. And I think a lot of questions will be asked later about why just weeks ago, they were saying something completely different than what we're seeing on the ground today in Afghanistan."

On the Biden White House attempting to blame President Trump for their Afghanistan debacle:

"In fact, you've seen a lot of finger-pointing and blaming. You know, there used to be a saying that "The buck stops here on the President's desk,' and [President Biden] wants to blame everybody else. But President Trump had an agreement in place that was conditions-based, and those conditions were not met. In fact, many of the conditions included that the Taliban wouldn't overtake the cities that they have now overtaken under President Biden's leadership. So, President Biden didn't follow through on the conditions that were in place.

"He just let them come and run rough shot in there, [leaving our embassy officials in the position of] destroying documents, burning documents at the embassy, and trying to get everybody out. Instead of following through on the commitments that were made -- this sends a more concerning message to our allies around the world. [It] really sends a concerning message to our enemies around the world who are watching this. China's very involved in what's happening right now in Afghanistan, as are other adversaries. And so, they're seeing just how easy it was to overtake these areas where the President really said it wouldn't happen, and it did happen.

"So, it's an epic failure of President Biden's foreign policy. He needs to take ownership of it and take other steps to make sure this doesn't happen again. If he's not going to clean house -- he was either widely misled by his own intelligence -- or he was misleading the American people deliberately. But he said very different things just days ago than what we're seeing happen on the ground. He's got to take ownership of that."

On combating the Delta variant in Louisiana:

"Clearly, the hospitals having overloaded capacity are the biggest concern. Just a year ago, New Orleans seemed to be the epicenter when things got really bad [at] the very beginning of the pandemic last year. We're seeing that breakout again with the Delta variant. It's a very widespread disease. We're seeing it in Louisiana, and steps are being taken. And, hopefully, we get to a peak and start seeing it subside. But, it is a concern, and I know the Governor is taking action at the state level, and we're giving them all the help that they need."

On the COVID-19 vaccine's effectiveness:

"Well, first of all, when you look, I mean, you've still got, probably, two-thirds of our state unvaccinated. What we need to do is be encouraging people to get vaccinated, not trying to shame people that are unvaccinated or people that [have gotten] vaccinated. Look, I had antibodies, and so I ultimately made a decision once I saw the Delta variant picking up that I thought it was important to get vaccinated. And I have high confidence in this vaccination. It's safe and effective. And I think we ought to be encouraging more people to do it, but again, not shaming people who haven't. We ought to be getting them information, encouraging people to go talk to their doctors because there's real hesitancy out there. And we ought to be confronting that, not trying to divide people based on who's vaccinated and who's unvaccinated."

On mask mandates:

"Well, again, I don't want mandates at the federal level. I've been very vocal about that. I said those conversations need to be had at the state and local level. You can look at places like Los Angeles, California, [which had] one of the worst outbreaks in the country. They've had a mask mandate for a long time. But in the end, I think what we really need to be focused on is encouraging more people to get vaccinated.

"And I'll tell you this, Nancy, one of the real areas of hesitancy that we're seeing that is a real problem is that people are saying that it's not FDA approved yet -- [it's] in final approval. And yet, we're 200 days into President Biden's administration. He still hasn't appointed a head of the FDA. And that's an epic failure on President Biden's part."

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