allies out of afghanistan. conventional correspondent chad pergram reporting tonight from capitol hill. good evening, chan. shannon, it is a fraud situations, congressional phones ringing off the hook with pleas from constituents about friends and relatives trapped in afghanistan. at least two house members took matters into their own hands. democrat seth moulton and republican pete meyer headed to afghanistan. both seth and myself have been actively engaged on what is called a special immigrant visa issue. both seth and i trying to draw attention to this issue and make sure we are doing everything we can, trying to look for ways in which we can better inform ourselves, our constituents, and our colleagues, in terms of how we can work productively to get individuals out. settled on the conclusion that we had to know what was going on on the ground in kabul. lawmakers usually only travel internationally unofficial business with clearance from congressional leaders. they fly on mil
america won t be able to keep its promise to those who helped the u.s. military for the past 20 years. bret? bret: jennifer griffin live at the pentagon. jennifer, thanks. let s bring in michigan republican representative peter meijer who serves on the house foreign affairs committee. congressman meyer is also an iraq war veteran and just returned from afghanistan. congressman, thank you so much for joining us. i want to talk about how this trip came to be. you traveled there with congressman seth moulton from massachusetts. how did it come to pass? thank you, bret. both seth and myself have been actively engaged on what s called the special immigrant visa issue. those were visas in a program for individuals who had loyally served the united states in places like iraq and afghanistan. there have been tremendous backlog of these cases and in april, when president biden announced that he was continuing the initial plan for withdrawal, that started under president trump. we urged the
of migrants back in 2015. people in desperate straits fleeing death and destruction of war. he s arguing this country should not be accepting legal refugees from a crisis we helped create with 20 years of war, while also dog whistling for the white nationalist great replacement theory which posits that immigrants are shaping to reshape america s very image, that democrats are importing them to replace white people. we know this hard line anti-immigrant stance was miller s near singular focus in the white house. now we re seeing the fall pup out unfold in afghanistan. olivia troye served as a top aide to mike pence where she saw the government s ability to bring afghan translators and other refugees to this country hollowed out under miller s watch. quote, there were cabinet meetings about this where stephen miller would peddle his racist hysteria about afghanistan and iraq. they would undermine anyone who worked on solving the special immigrant visa issue by devastating the system at d
are going to let in. we need to protect and prioritize these iraqis and afghans who aligned with our diplomats and war fighters by providing essential mission support. olivia troye today saying, quote, mattis and others sent memos. we all knew the urgency, but the resources had been depleted. well, what does that mean? why were the resources depleted? well, she has the story. she was there. she says, quote, there were cabinet meetings abouthi during the trump administration where stephen miller would peddle his racist hysteria about iraq and afghanistan. he and his enablers across government would undermine anyone who worked on solving the siv issue, the special immigrant visa issue, by devastating the system at homeland security and state. she says, quote, i tracked this issue personally in my role during my white house tenure. we got nowhere on it because trump and stephen miller had watchdogs in place at the justice department and homeland
from afghanistan. and he would have gotten all the interpreters and translators out safely. that doesn t sound true. but there is someone knowing it s not the case and she was there in the trump administration when the issue came up. elizabeth troy who served. there were cabinet meeting about this during the administration where steven million miller they would undermine anyone working on solving the special immigrant visa issue. pence was fully aware of the problem. we got nowhere because trump and steve. miller had watch dogs at doj, and state. that made it more tralg calking she went ton to say quote the fear of people across the trump administration to counter enablers was palpable.