 And welcome back to news on a former president Donald Trump appearing on Newsmax on the topic of Afghanistan Said quote unfortunately, they gave us some of what I had rebuilt we've rebuilt They gave it to the Taliban and joining us live to discuss this and more is CEO and founder of Stuxwush Melissa Armo a turning in Democratic strategist Ken Altschuler and finally former Obama campaign director and mayoral candidate for Tucker Georgia Robin Byro. Thank you all for joining us. It's a jam-packed panel today. So before I get your response to that I want to play a segment from when you were on the show Robin when we went over the billions of dollars We practically handed over to the Taliban and your response to that question Let's take a look in total the US government has spent an estimated 83 billion dollars of taxpayer money on Weapons vehicles and airplanes for the Afghan military Adding to that list a federal audit found that detailed up to two hundred million dollars worth of drones that just disappeared along with 600,000 infantry weapons 162,000 pieces of communication equipment and 16,000 night vision goggle devices This coming from our news partners at just the news Robin That's a lot It is a lot and unfortunately, that's it happens Unfortunately, it happens, but you said you don't agree with it. Obviously the former president doesn't agree with it Do you still feel that way? Oh? Yes, I look I'm a veteran army ranger. I did two tours in Afghanistan I saw the gross mismanagement of resources and funds Lots and lots of wasted equipment wasted materials wasted supplies things that just went missing Weren't accounted for and written off by the federal government There's a massive amount of waste frankly with the military industrial complex I think we can agree on that across party lines that that there's just not much accounting I will say that since that segment Miranda I have learned that we did as we were trained to do as as soldiers and service members And we tried to destroy as much equipment as we could that we had that had to be left behind I was relieved to hear about that They did follow the protocol and remove key components of that equipment so that it's not be it's not able to be used by the Taliban But we have seen some of those images Ken on social media with them showing off This equipment and the weapons that we've left behind even if we did get some of it still I mean 83 million dollars is not chump change and meanwhile you you know Ken you have the president Going around doing these tours as I mentioned. He's delivering a press briefing talking to labor unions. He's talking about climate change She's talking about COVID and unveiling a new plan They're still talking about the infrastructure bill. They're still talking about this reconciliation package They're still talking about money emergency funds being used to relocate these refugees That's a lot of money. And then when you hear about that, I mean, what where is all this coming from? And is this just a mere distraction? Always had this I remember when we used to argue about seven hundred and fifty dollar hammers at the Fem that the military was buying on routine basis that being said this is part of what happens in a war and I do I'm forced to remind people that Donald Trump had four years to wind down the war to get people from the embassy down Back home to get those weapons out of there. It said he sets a deadline of May 1st, and he released his 5000 prisoners So it's a little disingenuous for Donald Trump to be criticism criticizing Joe Biden Now what I do criticize Joe Biden for is not foreseeing the Taliban strength of taking over the country that he should have seen I think in the intelligence to see it That's on him and I'm not gonna deflect Joe Biden handled this badly But before to for Donald Trump to criticize Joe Biden about this is silly and you're right Miranda It is somewhat of a distraction but I will say again I don't see Afghanistan being a huge issue in the election people in America are tired of it They don't want to hear about it anymore COVID is a much more serious issue Which is why I think Joe Biden is focusing on that as a deflection to Afghanistan But it's a less of a worry to him. I want to get into prisoners in a moment But Melissa you're the number girl on this show probably more so than anybody Considering what you do for a living And as I mentioned that you know before we've had you on to talk about New York And you were and your area was deeply impacted because of Hurricane Ida The president was there yesterday touring New Jersey and New York where he was greeted with the middle finger and and booze So going back to what Kin said He's saying that this is yes a deflection But he thinks in the long run that this is what Americans care about the most Do you agree with that assessment and what do you think about all this big spending? That he's still trying to tell and he's actually using climate change using what happened in your state To try to get more climate change policies passed. I Think that the spending that the government is looking to do is Astronomical in fact the market fell today Because it came out that they're looking Janet Yellen came out and said they have to raise a debt ceiling We're already at 22 trillion. Why not go to 30 trillion? Why not go to 50 trillion these numbers are out of control if they just gave a check up for $40,000 for every household in America that would be the same as passing that 4.5 trillion stimulus plan I said they give everybody a check in the country. This is ridiculous the government is about waste waste waste as far as talking about climate change I don't think that climate change is the reason that we have hurricanes. We have tornadoes. We have storms We're gonna have storms matter. What that's the ecosystem that we live in. That's the planet earth as far as what's going on with Afghanistan and Biden what the Biden administration wanting to turn the page? I don't think Americans are going for it It's already been a week past the date that we've been out We're already past the holiday weekend and people are still talking about it people are upset in fact fighting was booed yesterday When he went to New York because people didn't want to hear About what was going on with a hurricane. They're upset that they left Americans behind I think when you hear the stories about people being still stranded there and that they can't get clearance to take off And they're not getting the clearance from the Secretary of State or whatever whoever is giving the clearance milly whoever it is That's a problem. No one's really digging into it. What are we doing about the people that are left there? Why do we bring all these refugees over there hundreds of thousands of them or whatever the total is now? Not all those people help us over there in Afghanistan. Where are they putting the people? They're gonna spread them out. They're gonna end up covering all the costs for those just adding to the debt We pay for it the taxes are gonna go out once they pass this trillion dollar plan And you know what's gonna pass anyways because they have the Democrats have control They have control in the house. They have control in the Senate. They've got the president I mean, they've got it all and as far as what Ken was saying about Trump Listen, Trump probably thought he was gonna win. Trump probably thought he was gonna win He thought he had time starting January to May to try to wind it down. They were already winding down it though They already got people out in 2020. They were slowly getting more troops out even before the election So I think Trump thought he'd have time to wind it down And I don't know what would have happened if Trump was still president But maybe that some of the terms were not met the Afghanistan the Taliban some of the terms weren't met And I think Biden reacted really quickly and trying to get everybody out there by that deadline or before 9-11 Which which is coming up this Saturday And I think that to say that he did a good job with that to say that Americans are gonna forget that they're just not Particularly since 9-11 is coming up in a few days Yeah, and just a few days Not to mention you talked about resettling them that we talked about the Biden administration is asking Congress to shell out 6.4 billion dollars to resettle them I want to get when we come back from the break Robin I want to get your reaction to what Ken said and what Melissa said about the Americans that are still left behind and that these private entities are Going out these these veterans that you've worked alongside are going out not the Biden administration going out on their own To get these people out and then I also want to go to the the topic that can that you brought up talking about Prisoners because I want to take a look at the new Taliban Government you may recognize a few of those faces when we return and that has some people pretty upset and concerned Again, Melissa. We are just a couple of days From September 11, so we're gonna get all of you to react to that when we come back You're watching news on we're gonna have more about that also the concern that people have when it comes to 9-11 Obviously anyone who is alive then we will never ever forget that day Here's the interesting thing How safe do you feel a new poll shows that that number is dwindling? We're gonna discuss that more with our panel you're watching news on we'll be right back with Ken Melissa and Robin when we return