ron klain said, successfully managed? they re suggesting that it s inevitable that this happened the way that it did. that s absolutely false. i know for a fact that the packages presented by dod to the president recommended more troops, temporarily, at bagram air base, 4500 troops, to secure it for a safe withdraw. he rejected that and pulled a number out of the hat. i want you to go down to 600 people. the leadership at the dod said we can t even secure the embassy with 600 people. he said i don t care. go to 600 people. for him this is about political optics. it s not about taking care of people. it never has been for this president. that s why he s not stopping fentanyl coming across the southern border killing americans. he doesn t care. all that matters to him is his, you know, political poll numbers. that s it. laura: congressman, thank you. my next guest s son amy staff
doing this when i was in u.s. special operations, it s a lot easier to do it when you have assets in place in that country. is so if we were to keep a small number of forces, for example, at bagram air base, able to fly intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance aircraft, that would be much easier. and then to strike those targets with limited assets in the country and try to bring them in and get permission to bring them in from the outside. paul: there s been a big debate over what to do with the imprisoned isis fighters who have been caught, captured by our kurdish allies. the kurds don t want to keep them in syria. they want them to go home, but the europeans haven t been willing to take them and try them and contain them there. is that are those likely to be released in syria if the europeans don t take them? i think they certainly are. there are 70,000 or so internally displaced persons at the camp in syria.
or can we do it offshore? i mean, my own experience in doing this when i was in u.s. special operations, it s a lot easier to do it when you have assets in place in that country. is so if we were to keep a small number of forces, for example, at bagram air base, able to fly intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance aircraft, that would be much easier. and then to strike those targets with limited assets in the country and try to bring them in and get permission to bring them in from the outside. paul: there s been a big debate over what to do with the imprisoned isis fighters who have been caught, captured by our kurdish allies. the kurds don t want to keep them in syria. they want them to go home, but the europeans haven t been willing to take them and try them and contain them there. is that are those likely to be released in syria if the europeans don t take them? i think they certainly are. there are 70,000 or so
what spending cuts there are? there has never been enough appetite among republicans. mitch mcconnell for pete sakes is saying they re not going to tackle entitlement reform the next year, that is bananas for him to take it off the table now when they have a whole year before the midterms so they could worken to. look at mitch mcconnell if you want to do something. i want more appetite from him as do many other republicans. we have to take a quick break. we have breaking news we re learning this is cnn breaking news. we re learning that vice president mike pence is in afghanistan on an unannounced visit. and i want to get to jeremy diamond who is on the phone. he is with the vice president at bagram air base in afghanistan. jeremy, tell us about the stop. that s right jake, just about six hours ago, the vice president touched down here in afghanistan on a secret visit. this was a surprise visit that was twofold to meet with top afghan officials here and to rally u.s. troo
the president awaiting a report from v.a. secretary eric shinseki this week on how widespread the problem is. he s trying to keep shinseki on the job though a number of republicans and even some democrats are demanding the secretary step down. the administration says it will allow some vets to get care at private hospitals in an effort to ease the pressure on the v.a. s system which added 2 million vets over the past decade. derek bennett says that s a no-brainer. i think it s going to be extremely helpful, but it s also a step that could have been put in place years ago. the idea of a public-private partnership in providing, you know, veterans or anyone really the access to private health care that is paid for by the government when the capacity isn t there and the v.a. is a no-brainer. reporter: in a statement on saturday secretary shinseki said the v.a. is also enhancing the capacity of some clinics so that veterans can get their care sooner. once again, the president at