EXCLUSIVE – As he makes a second run for Congress, former State Department official Matt Mowers told Fox News that the situation in conflictswill be a focal point of his campaign.
“It has to be because what we’ve seen the current administration do in Afghanistan has been nothing short of disastrous. And I don’t take joy in saying that. I really don’t,” thesenate candidate inus-regions 1st house-of-representatives” target=”_blank”>Congressional District<‘s 2016 presidential campaign and served in the State Department during the Trump administration, on Monday filed paperwork setting up his electionsfor the House.
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In his first national interview since becoming a candidate, Mowers joined a growing chorus of criticism from Republicans and some Democrats who’ve taken aim at joe-biden” target=”_blank”>President Biden<
Mowers had already left the State Department and launched his first campaign for Congress when Trump in February of last year struck a deal with the Taliban that called for all U.S. troops to depart Afghanistan by May 2021. Trump, during his watch, reduced U.S. forces to their lowest level in Afghanistan in two decades. And last year the Afghan government released thousands of Taliban prisoners, many of whom likely once again took up arms against the U.S.-backed forces.
Asked if there’s plenty of blame to go around, Mowers noted that “there have been administrations of both parties going back 20 years who’ve made mistakes in Afghanistan. Nobody has gotten this perfect.”
But he argued that the Trump administration “was looking out for the safety and security of American troops and American people on the ground” and that “if the Taliban didn’t hold up their end of the deal in working with the duly elected Afghan government, then America’s posture would change.”
Forty House Republicans and four Senate Republicans have called on Biden to resign, face impeachment, or be removed from office through the 25th Amendment.
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While Mowers called Biden’s handling of Afghanistan “abysmal,” he claimed that the two impeachments of then-President Trump by the Democratic controlled House were “political” and said, “I’m not going to do the same.”
He stressed that “there is room for congressional oversight, especially once everyone is evacuated. We need congressional oversight to figure out what exactly went wrong.”
Mowers said he wants to see what comes from such investigations but that he “wouldn’t rush into calling for impeachment right now.”
Mowers came within five points of upsetting Democratic Rep. Chris Pappas last November, in one of the premier swing congressional districts in the country. National Republicans are once again targeting Pappas, who they view as vulnerable as the two-term lawmaker runs for reelection.
Taking aim at the Democratic incumbent over Afghanistan, Mowers asked “where the heck has Chris Pappas been the past two months….The moment that it was reported that U.S. troops were withdrawing from Bagram Air Base, you knew that this was going in a bad direction.”
Pappas has called the president’s decision to stick with the Aug. 31 deadline to withdraw all U.S. forces from Afghanistan “arbitrary and unrealistic” and urged the Biden administration to remain.
“Given the situation on the ground, we should keep U.S. military and diplomatic personnel in Kabul to ensure a full and safe evacuation. We cannot turn our backs on Afghan partners who fought alongside our service members for two decades, and we absolutely cannot risk leaving any American behind who wishes to leave,” Pappas said in a statement a week ago.
Pappas has also urged that the U.S. grant refugee status for LGBTQ+ Afghans. And in July he filed a bill that would enable federal agencies to begin relocating Afghan Special Immigrant Visa (SIV) applicants and their families, for Afghans who provided critical help and support to the United States.
And following last Thursday’s horrific terrorist attack, he joined the chorus of calls calling on the administration to “hold those responsible for this despicable attack accountable while dedicating every resource to continuing the evacuation of Americans and our allies.”
But Mowers argued that “now that it’s politically convenient to do so, [Pappas] is willing to speak up, but where the heck has he been. The role of Congress should be asking these questions before these decisions lead to disastrous consequences the way they’ve happened.”
And he charged: “I don’t know if Chris Pappas has the experience, the capability, the judgement, and certainly not the willingness to speak his mind to his party leadership, to be able to ask those type of questions.”
Republicans need a net gain of just five seats in the 2022 midterm elections to regain the House majority they lost in 2018. Mowers, who joins four other Republicans in running for his party’s congressional nomination, will officially announce his candidacy next week. He told Fox News he’s “confident Republicans are going to take control of the House next November.”
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And he stressed that “the folks who are part of that new class of Congress have the experience on these issues to make sound judgement that puts America’s interests first and protects our national security.”
