Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) on Tuesday launched an attack on President Joe Biden as he suggested his leadership may lead to an incident similar to the tragic 9/11 attacks that claimed the lives of thousands of Americans.
When Graham appeared on Fox News on Tuesday, April 13, he aired his grievances about the Biden administration's deadline to withdraw all American troops from Afghanistan no later than September of this year. Despite criticism, the president has made it clear that he and his administration is committed to this timeline and Graham is not happy about it.
"Our military told President Biden that if you withdraw all of our forces, al Qaeda and ISIS will come roaring back, Afghanistan would disintegrate into civil war, and we can avoid all of that by having 3,000-5,000 American forces making sure that ISIS and al Qaeda never come back to hurt us," the South Carolina senator said. "He rejected that advice. Afghanistan is going to deteriorate pretty rapidly, al Qaeda and ISIS are going to come back, he is paving the way for another 9/11."
In response to Graham's criticism of Biden, Twitter fired back in the president's defense. Many users quickly reminded Graham of how the United States ended up facing its last terrorist attack at the hands of its own people and how he was complicit in the series of events that led to that deadly attack on the U.S. Capitol.
Graham was also reminded that it was former President Donald Trump who initially set the deadline to remove troops from Afghanistan. One user wrote, "Trump paved the way for January 6. Fixed it for ya, Linds."
Another user said, "Remember just a little while ago when republicans were praising Trump for "bringing our troops home" every time he made a terrible decision to withdraw troops?"
The new withdrawal date serves as an extension of Trump's previous May 1 deadline to fully withdraw troops from Afghanistan. Behind closed doors, Graham reportedly lobbied Trump to consider keeping a small number of U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan amid the signing of the peace agreement with the Taliban.