AOC: Trump’s 'Racism' to Blame for Afghanistan Crisis
'It is no secret that the Trump administration carried out extremely xenophobic'
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Socialist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) tried to pin the blame on Donald Trump for Joe Biden's botched Afghanistan withdrawal, which has left many Afghans and American troops dead as the Taliban took control of the country.
Speaking Thursday on MSNBC’s “The ReidOut,” AOC said Trump’s “extremely xenophobic and racist immigration policies” were to blame for the chaos in Afghanistan.
Anchor Joy Reid said:
“We used to have an annual ceiling of 231,000 people under Ronald Reagan. No moderate figure there. George W. Bush 70,000. Under President Obama, it was 85,000."
"Under Trump 15,000. We have had former members of the administration come forward and talk about Stephen Miller, eventual essentially waging a rhetorical war against the idea of Afghans coming here.
"We have seen people on another network call them invaders…So there is another side of this. There is another side that doesn’t want any of them here. So do you think that the politics around bringing more people in are going to be challenged by that xenophobic attitude we are seeing play out?”
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Ocasio-Cortez responded:
“It is no secret that the Trump administration carried out extremely xenophobic and racist immigration policies."
WATCH:
Rep. @AOC: "There are veterans across this country that served valiantly. They want to make sure that the promises that they offered at the very least can be kept... Let's at least help them keep their personal promises." #TheReidOut #reiders pic.twitter.com/zkwWqQ5Dtd
— The ReidOut (@thereidout) August 27, 2021
"When we look at the turmoil of what is happening now, one of the questions we have to ask as well — Afghanistan is a responsibility and that falls upon the shoulders of virtually every president since George W. Bush."
"One of the things we see, what was the Trump administration doing when they were not pre-evacuating out under the SIV program, these Afghan interpreters and nationals and allies?"
"It is because of Stephen Miller and his rhetoric and the xenophobia of the Trump administration that there were many thousands of Afghans we could have worked on evacuating much earlier than even this year.”
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Earlier this week, Ocasio-Cortez demanded Biden to resettle a minimum of 200,000 Afghan refugees in the United States.
AOC touted increasing the number of available Special Immigrant Visas (SIV) to 200,000.
Ocasio-Cortez told The Independent:
"I believe we need to move, and the administration needs to move as quickly as possible and as expansively as possible, ensuring that we are raising the amount of refugee visas to whatever amount is necessary."
"I would say the rock bottom is 200,000, but I think it should be whatever is necessary."
Meanwhile, Biden's freefall in the polls.
A new poll found only 24 percent of registered American voters now believe the President's handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal is going "well."
According to the new Morning Consult/Politico survey, 76 percent of Americans disagree that Biden’s Afghan withdrawal is going “very well” or “somewhat well.
