Donald Trump's Debate Gift

The GOP just handed Donald Trump a gift that I hope he unwraps on the debate stage tonight for all the world to see. It’s called the Afghanistan Withdrawal Report, and I would encourage President Trump to reference it in both his opening and closing statements… as well as any time military preparedness or foreign affairs is brought up by Ms. Harris or the moderators.

The scathing 3,288-page report written by the Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee is chockful of ammunition for President Trump to use against VP Kamala Harris, who is named in the executive summary a whopping 28 times. Ms. Harris is on record as boasting that she was “the last person in the room” when the disastrous decision was made to prematurely and haphazardly withdrawal from Afghanistan, so make her explain it – and take full ownership for the debacle that left 13 U.S. servicemen and 170 Afghan citizens dead and more than 100,000 Afghan allies to fend for themselves against Taliban reprisals.

Ms. Harris also told an interviewer at the time that she was “proud” of the way the withdrawal occurred, despite the fact that an estimated $7.12 billion worth of arms and ammunition was left behind for the Taliban to confiscate and use.

“This included roughly 600,000 weapons of all calibers, nearly 300 fixed-wing and rotary-wing aircraft, over 80,000 vehicles of several models, communications equipment, and other advanced materiel such as night vision goggles and biometric systems,” according to the U.S. Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR). After the military exit in the summer of 2021, SIGAR quoted a Taliban official as saying, “The group took possession of more than 300,000 light arms, 26,000 heavy weapons, and about 61,000 military vehicles.”

According to Lynne O’Donnell, a columnist at Foreign Policy, “abandoned American assault rifles command a premium: an M4 in good condition can fetch up to $2,400, a status symbol with as much cachet in the Himalayan tribal belt as a luxury handbag in Manhattan.” Meanwhile, a Taliban fighter in Nangarhar province, bordering Pakistan, was quoted as saying that confiscated U.S. night vision items sell for $500 to $1,000.

That means that the Taliban are using what they need and selling the rest to fund their worldwide terrorist campaign, all compliments of the Biden-Harris administration.

The Republican report also claims that the Biden administration prioritized "optics" over safety and misled the American people during the deadly withdrawal of U.S. troops in Afghanistan. “It could have been prevented if the State Department did its job by law and executed the plan of evacuation," Rep. Michael McCaul, who chairs the Republican-led panel, said Sunday on Face the Nation. "They left these 13 service men and women hanging out to dry."

"America’s credibility on the world stage was severely damaged after we abandoned Afghan allies to Taliban reprisal killings – the people of Afghanistan we had promised to protect," the report said. "And the moral injury to America’s veterans and those still serving remains a stain on this administration’s legacy."

The lengthy report also accuses President Biden and his administration of ignoring repeated warnings from military officials, national security advisers and U.S. allies about the risks associated with drawing American forces down to zero because he "prioritized politics and his personal legacy over America's national security interests."

"President Biden appears to have believed his historic position on Afghanistan would ensure his legacy," the report says, adding that Harris "appears to have been working in lockstep" with the president to withdraw all U.S. troops.

If I were President Trump, I would mention Abbey Gate not once, not twice, but so often that viewers will think it is Kamala Harris’ middle name.