Congressman Banks: America Deserves To Know Why Biden Is ‘Hiding,’ ABC Needs To Release Full Video

HUGH HEWITT, RADIO HOST: I’m joined by Congressman Jim Banks, himself a veteran of the war. Good morning, Congressman. Welcome to the Hugh Hewitt show.

REP. JIM BANKS (R-IN): Hey, good morning, Hugh. Good to be with you.

HEWITT: To ground this, Congressman, would you describe to the audience your experience with the military over the last 15 years?

BANKS: Well, I’m a Navy Reserve officer. I was commissioned through the same program that Pete Buttigieg went through, actually, the Direct Commission Officer program, which is unique in the entire United States Military, a great program to give people an opportunity to serve. I was very proud to serve. I’m a Navy logistics officer in what’s called the Supply Corps. I went through all of my initial training, Hugh, went through the Supply Corps school in Newport, Rhode Island, the greatest, one of the greatest Navy towns in the country that I love. And then immediately, I was, like so many Navy Reservists, I was called up to go to Afghanistan. That was a typical experience over the last couple of decades for a Navy Reservist not to go to sea, but to go to Afghanistan or Iraq. And for…

HEWITT: So where did, go ahead. I was going to ask where and when did you serve in Afghanistan so we know where your specific expertise is, geographically.

BANKS: Yeah, it’s relevant. I was deployed to Afghanistan in 2014 and ’15, and again all of my training, all my background is in Navy logistics. Bu I found myself uniquely in a role in something, doing something called foreign military sales, which is the effort in Afghanistan on the front end and the back end of acquiring American-made equipment, and then transferring that equipment over to the Afghan army and the Afghan police. So you could imagine as this is unfolding, my biggest question is about all of that, all the billions, the tens of billions of dollars of American-made equipment. I’m not just talking about Humvees and round-wheeled vehicles, which is the portfolio that, the commodity that I oversaw during my stint in Afghanistan, but the weapons and ammunition, the night vision, nobody’s talking about the night vision goggles. I mean, we spent hundreds of millions of dollars on night vision goggles and gave them to the Afghan army and the Afghan police that I guarantee you now are in the hands of the Taliban. Medical supplies, I mean, the list goes on and on of the different types of American-made military grade equipment and other things we’ve turned over that are now in the Taliban’s hands.

HEWITT: Were you at Bagram or in Kabul or in Kandahar, Representative Banks?

BANKS: All of the above. I was stationed in the headquarters space just outside the embassy. So I spent a lot of time at the embassy with the embassy staff. But I did spend, a lot of our vehicles would come in and out as they arrived in Afghanistan. We had a couple of, by the way, a couple of parking lots. I led a delegation of congressmen back to Afghanistan a few years ago to show them exactly what I did, which was process these vehicles, justify them on the front end, and then title transfer them over to the Afghans. There were a couple of very large parking lots, and I’ll send you photos of them later, Hugh. They’re baffling when you see them, because just thousands of parked vehicles and storage boxes and other things that sat in these parking lots. And a big part of our effort was securing those parking lots, because that’s where we transferred things to the Afghans. But we did spend a lot of our time, we had tentacles into Bagram base and airfield. And that’s also stunning to me how, why we gave that up on July 1st. When we do get around to having a select committee or a commission on Afghanistan, the question begs itself, deserves to be answers why we gave up Bagram, when that’s exactly what we need in a time like this to get Americans out of the country.

HEWITT: Now I’ve got some quick questions having grounded your experience in that. Ought the United States to be considering, do you think we are considering, some sort of an Inchon option to take back Bagram and in fact rescue Americans and destroy those very dangerous munitions now in the hands of an avowedly terrorist organization with others flooding into the country?

BANKS: If you are going to secure any place in the country of Afghanistan, it would be the Bagram airfield. I mean traditionally, that’s where we flew most of our missions out of for close air support around the country. I mean, to answer your question, yes, it was strategically important. It is kind of in a bowl, though. I mean, it was surrounded by mountains, and there were often Taliban rocket attacks from the mountains onto the base. But it was strategically the biggest, it’s the biggest airstrip that we could have.

HEWITT: But the larger question, Congressman, is, should we be considering, right, and it can take anything. Should we be considering going back in, going on a counteroffensive to get our people out, to expand our footprint, perhaps to route the Taliban out of Kabul to buy some time to clean up what is a catastrophe? Or are we doomed to what has happened?

BANKS: Hugh, I think Americans have a moral duty at this point to clean up the mess that we’ve directly caused and created. First and foremost, we have to get Americans out of the country. And this president and his administration have yet to articulate a plan to the American people about how, or to Congress, even, how are they going to do that. I mean, they, as you’ve seen this administration, this president fumble all over themselves as they have no idea. They obviously didn’t have a plan to begin with, that they have no idea how to get an estimated 12-15,000 Americans out of Afghanistan. And if that takes, if that means we have to take back over a strategic position of Bagram airbase to do that, then we need to do anything that we can, whatever necessary to pull that off.

HEWITT: Now Task Force 58, which General Mattis commanded in 2001, flew 400 nautical miles to set up a Marine Corps camp. It is not impossible. The question is whether or not this president and this foreign policy and national security civilian team, I’m sure the military has the capacity. The question is whether it’s advisable. I don’t know the answer to that. Do you think it’s even being discussed?

BANKS: I don’t know. And that’s the troubling part about all of this. I mean, we don’t know. We don’t know what General Milley, what Secretary Austin, what the commander-in-chief, what are their plans to lead forward? And that’s what’s most shocking to me in this moment. I’m heartbroken for what’s going on in Afghanistan. I know many of these people. I hear from them often. They’re reaching out to me for help. But what’s more shocking to me in this moment is that we have a commander-in-chief who is in hiding. He is missing in action. He is not leading. He is not assuring the American people that there is a plan to move forward, Hugh. The Taliban is not, they’re not the most sophisticated entity. I mean, they’re not, they’re only more powerful now because they have so much of our equipment empowering them further.

HEWITT: Oh, in fact, Congressman, it foreshadows paralysis if China attacks Taiwan that scares the hell out of me. Here, but maybe they’re planning an Inchon moment, and this is part of the deception. I’ll be the first to admit they got me. Yeah. But I don’t think that’s the case, and that brings me to the Stephanopoulos interview. ABC scored a coup. He’s the President’s friend, but the little bits that have been put out suggest he was at least moderately pressing on the President. George has put on Twitter this morning in response to a tweet of mine that they’ll be releasing the transcript this morning. I want to see the entire unedited interview. I think that offer of a transcript ought to be rejected as quickly as President Nixon’s offer of transcripts of the Watergate tapes to be given to Senator Stennis was rejected 50 years ago. Should that entire unedited interview be released?

BANKS: Well, without a doubt. I mean, if ABC was going to agree to an exclusive interview with the President, who refuses to answer questions in any public setting, then ABC owes it to the American people to release the entire video. Obviously, this interview did not go well for the President. The small snippet of it that we’ve seen, Hugh, but like you, I want to see all of it. The American people deserve to see all of it. The American people deserve to know why is this president hiding. What is going on? What is preventing this president from appearing before the American people and assuring us that there is a plan and answering any question, the tough questions, the easy questions, answer any questions about what it’s going to take to solve this catastrophe and lead this country forward. And right now, the President is living up to the worst perceptions about him, and those perceptions are that he is incapable of leading, and the fact that he did a video with George, and whatever that agreement was to appear with George and do this interview, we don’t know what that agreement was. I’m sure it was, they gave the White House some control over what was released. But ABC owes it to the American people to release all of it.

HEWITT: Very quickly, Senator Cotton suggested the President looked shellshocked. Do you have personal concerns about his capacity to make decisions at this moment?

BANKS: You know, I’ve never been one to talk about that, Hugh. I mean, I’ve dismissed that, and I don’t want to talk about any commander-in-chief like that, but at this point, it’s clear this president is, that there’s something larger going on here that prevents this president from leading our country. I mean, it’s just, it’s very clear that, it’s clear to the American people that until he can assure us otherwise, the American people are going to continue to have growing doubts about his ability to lead our country.

HEWITT: Do you fear any imminent terrorist attack? We have 15 seconds, Congressman.

BANKS: Without a doubt. I mean, the rise of ISIS-K, al Qaeda, it’s imminent in Afghanistan at this point, sadly.

HEWITT: Congressman Jim Banks, thank you for joining us.