Rep. Mike Waltz to Newsmax: Biden Needs to 'Show Some Spine'

President Joe Biden has been exposed for his lack of ''leadership" or "spine" and now must order the Taliban to stand down as we evacuate U.S. citizens and allies from Afghanistan, according to Rep. Michael Waltz, R-Fla., on Newsmax.

"At the end of the day, the mission is not complete until we bring every American home, and not some made-up date out of Joe Biden's head," Waltz told Thursday's "Eric Bolling: The Balance."

"So Biden, by procrastinating, his lack of leadership, his lack of clarity, has us in this unwinnable situation. If he would just show some spine, he could get us out of it if he would take these basic steps."

Among the steps is to retake Bagram Air Base and tell the Taliban that "we're coming to get our citizens and if you stand in our way, we will kill you," Waltz, the first Green Beret elected to Congress and an Iraq War veteran, told guest host Carl Higbie, a former Navy SEAL.

"Kabul international [airport] is not defendable," Waltz said. "We need to retake Bagram; You tell the Taliban, we're coming to get our citizens, or else you unleash our special forces to go do so.

"By the way, they [U.S. special forces] are waiting right now for that order and they're not getting it from the White House."

Waltz spoke just hours after at least 13 U.S. service members were killed in a suicide bombing outside a gate at the airport, saying that "this is a dark day for our country."

While the Taliban are not responsible for this attack, their ultimatums to the Biden administration have fueled terrorist aggression and cost American lives, Waltz said, adding that it would be in the Taliban's interests to help coalition forces complete the withdrawal.

"We can debate how they got there, but they want to preserve their gains, and I think they'd let us go get our citizens, especially when faced with the consequences of American air power, American special operators, if they stand in the way."

Because of the lack of action by the Pentagon and State Department, Waltz lamented that lawmakers have had to act to fill the void of aiding evacuations.

"It's just ridiculous," he said. "Congress has been driving this and leading this from day one. Myself and others began demanding that Biden begin this evacuation back in April. He didn't even stand up the initial State Department task force until June and didn't really take any action until the end of July.

"And so now he's got us in a situation where we're damned if we do and damned if we don't: Either we stay and continue to take these casualties, or we leave, and we leave Americans behind by the thousands."

Waltz stressed that Afghan Special Immigrant Visas should not be challenged by those who support an ''America First'' policy, because these Afghans are not the problem, are extensively vetted as not being connected to terrorism, and have already shown a willingness to "take a bullet" for us, standing "with us against tremendous, tremendous threats."

"On top of that, the average amount of time the State Department takes to vet these folks has been over 300 to 800 days, multiple years," Waltz concluded. "Look, these people are fighters. They were willing to take a bullet standing next to us soldiers, and they didn't just put their lives on the line, they put their entire families' lives on their line.

"I am far more worried about the 5,000 al-Qaida, ISIS and Taliban prisoners that were let go when we just gave up Bagram."

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