maria: welcome back. president biden s own defense department issuing a critical report on the president s botched withdrawal from afghanistan last year, summing up that it was a propaganda gift to china. the report goes on to say that china used the hasty exit to convince other world leaders that the u.s. is just not a reliable ally. joining us right now is senator ron johnson, member of the senate homeland security committee. senator, thanks so much for being here. before i get to the pentagon report and what has gone on since the afghanistan botched withdrawal, i want to get your take on the news of the weekend and this data dump by e horn musk indicating elon musk indicating this massive collusion which you pretty much predicted with the media end of it anyway. your thoughts. good morning, maria. how many times have i come on your show here over the last 2 the-3 years and talked about how
citizens around the world. ainsley: let s talk about the defense department s annual report it is saying that biden s fumbled withdrawal from afghanistan was a propaganda gift to china. do you agree with that? no, i do not. and i don t know that that s the pentagon s assessment that it was a propaganda gift to china. if anything, nations like china and russia took a look at what we did in afghanistan. and we have talked about this many, many times over the last year and had to marvel at the speed, the efficiency and the effectiveness. brian: oh, please. very small number of troops, brian, you listen to knee now, hear me out. small number of troops were able to move that many afghans safely out of that country. no other nation in the world can do that. brian: the way you withdrew is the issue admiral. the way our military moved in and out is a separate issue. your defense department claim as part of its annual report to congress on national security developments, suggest that
subpoena joe biden if this is all about joe biden? well, it s complicated to subpoena a president of the united states. our reporters back to discuss. i want to start with marjorie taylor greene in the sense that they think that s a clever line, you know, the united states government is involved in a lot of important things, domestic policy and foreign policy. that is a propaganda gift to vladimir putin, but that wing of the republican party doesn t care. this is one of the things that they are going to have to sort out in congress, what to do with ukraine. this has had significant bipartisan support, you see that support waning on the republican side is becoming an issue for the maga wing of the party. clearly these people have quite a bit of influence over the new incoming republican leadership, assuming kevin mccarthy can get the speakership, but that s what they have to deal with now. do they provide more aid in the lame duck session right now where democrats aren t in contro
not an overreach but actually enjoys support around the world and positions him as a strong leader and strong man which is how he wants to be seen. so this is something that is a propaganda gift to putin. and it s patently absurd. but i think, if we re honest about this, there are elements of the republican party that truly admire vladimir putin. he represents the type of leadership, kind of shameless capacity and will to power that he embodies is something that trump has sought to emulate. and let s be honest, too, the kind of ethnonationalist authoritarian tendencies that putin is the vanguard of and elements rise in the united states. so there s a natural affinity here, that has been, to be, pardon the pun here, the elephant in the room for the republican party since at least 2016. let s talk about some more of where this is going.
with mike pompeo lavishing praise on putin, and that s certainly gonna be the case of trump. that s going to be an important part of vladimir putin trying to convince us public that what he is doing is not a massive overreach, that is bad for russia, but it s actually something that enjoy support from around the world. that positions him as a strong leader and a strong man. which is how he wants to be seen. so this is something that is a propaganda gift to putin. it s also just kind of absurd. but if we re honest about this, there are elements of the republican party that truly a meyer vladimir putin. he represents the kind of leadership, the shameless capacity and bold to power that he embodies is something that trump is sought to emulate. let s be honest to, the sort of f no nationalists authoritarian tendencies that vladimir putin is at the vanguard at, is something that we have seen elements of the republican party adapt in the united states. so there s a kind of mutuality