CNN "The Situation Room" - Transcript: Interview with Michael McCaul

Interview

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BLITZER: All right, Brian, Brian Todd reporting for us. Thank you very much.

Let's dig deeper into all of this. Republican Congressman Michael McCaul of Texas is joining us. He's the ranking member in the House Foreign Affairs Committee. He's a member of the Homeland Security Committee as well. Congressman, thanks so much for joining us.

REP. MICHAEL MCCAUL (R-TX): Thank you, Wolf.

BLITZER: We have lots to discuss. But let's start with President Biden's remarks today, his 18-minute speech. He said the buck stops with him. But did that speech sound like he's taking ownership of this crisis?

MCCAUL: You know, to me, it did not. I mentioned that on your Sunday show yesterday, the buck stops here. He can't blame this on anybody else but his own decision. And that he tends to blame the Afghan military, the prior administration. He made this decision. He owns it. I thought it was poorly executed. I think it is going to taint this presidency to a large degree on national security, particularly.

[18:45:05]

And this is the frustration I had, Wolf -- was that ever decision was made, we were getting intelligence reports about the conditions on the ground deteriorating rapidly.

It was a very grim assessment. And yet they tended to go with this rosy picture at the State Department, the politics in the White House that somehow they were going to pull a deal at the 11th hour. They weren't even talking about this deal just a couple of days ago with Taliban. And not really -- it was sort of devoid of reality.

And so, now, the consequences are we're seeing the Taliban completely take over the country. We were seeing our intelligence capability going dark. Bagram shut down, no ISR capability. Our embassy now being taken over.

And the visual of the Taliban flag being hoisted above our embassy, that's a visual and an image that I think will be very damaging to a lot of Americans and the American people and the Afghan people are the losers. And the winners are Russia, China and Iran.

BLITZER: You were in yesterday's briefing by the defense secretary, the secretary of state, the chairman of the joint chiefs for House members. Did you get any answers on why the U.S. was clearly blindsided by this quick, speedy, hours-only Taliban takeover?

MCCAUL: Not particularly. It was on an open line. But I can tell you without divulging classified information that this was not a surprise. It was not a surprise to me at all. I think it actually went faster than the intelligence community thought so. But they were on pretty much a six-month track through the fall. Then they talked about 90 days out. And the assessment again was very grim and the Afghan sources without

air support from residual force, our light footprint, they didn't have a chance against the ideology of the Taliban.

And I just think it is so sad your piece on women and the veterans and what this means to them, it's just a nightmare unfolding.

BLITZER: The president certainly bears responsibility as the commander in chief. But it was the Trump administration, remember, that made that initial so-called peace deal with the Taliban. The former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo actually sat down with Taliban leaders. We're showing video of that September 2020 in Doha, Qatar.

Clearly many of the administrations share the blame here, don't they?

MCCAUL: Well, you know, I would meet with Special Enjoy Khalilzad, Zal Khalilzad.

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BLITZER: He was the U.S. -- the U.S. special envoy?

MCCAUL: Yeah, precisely. He was the one setting up these peace negotiations with the Taliban. I always thought he was a little bit naive. He's a smart man.

But the idea we could negotiate with the Taliban -- I think the only reason they did sit down is they thought they would necessarily have to be a part of the transitional government. But obviously it didn't work.

And that agreement, Wolf, it's important to point out, was conditional. And the conditions on the ground were such, and they were being violated by the Taliban by not cutting their ties with al Qaeda, by invading the capital province -- cities and, so, I -- you know, we could all hypothetically imagine what happened.

The best evidence I have is talking to former national security advisor Robert O'Brien when he was talking to then President Trump. His comments were, I will not allow another Saigon to happen under my watch.

We could talk about hypotheticals. The fact is this commander in chief made this decision. He owns it. And I think it will put a stain on this presidency.

BLITZER: As all of us remember, back on September 11th, 2001, the Taliban controlled Afghanistan. We know what happened on that day. And now, as we're approaching the 20th anniversary of 9/11 next month, the Taliban again controls Afghanistan.

After all this sacrifice, Congressman, was it worth it?

MCCAUL: That's the question every veteran is asking themselves. And it's so sad that they are saying this. And the idea that the 20th anniversary of 9/11 is coming up, and guess

who the winner is? The Taliban. Now, they are the strongest terrorist organization in the world. And radical Islamic terror will be on the rise.

And don't think for a second that it's not going to be a safe haven again and that we're going to have to deal with it. As you and I, many times on your show, we talk about these external operations to kill Americans in the United States when I was chairman of homeland security. I fear that we're going to go back to that time.

BLITZER: Yeah, thousands of Taliban prisoners have just been released from all these jails inside Afghanistan, including al Qaeda and Taliban terrorists and God only knows what we can all anticipate.

Congressman Mike McCaul, thanks so much for joining us.

MCCAUL: Thanks, Wolf. Thanks for having me.

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