YouSaid · the spoken record

Raja Krishnamoorthi

lines on the record: 49
first: 2021-08-19
most recent: 2021-08-19
sittings or episodes: 1
sources: podcast

Every line below is reproduced as it was said and linked to the record it came from. Nothing here is summarised or generated. Directory · Search · Corrections

“She already seen this play before, and she knows that she can't say yes to the moderates demand because the progressives will walk and then she can't say no to the moderates demand because the moderates will walk on reconciliation. And so she has, I think she's going to probably propose at least for the time being some kind of compromise measure that would advance both bills procedurally allowing both sides to say face until the outlines of the reconciliation bill can really be fleshed out. And everyone has a chance to really see what's in it before they're made to take a final stand. But I think that we absolutely are going to get an infrastructure bill and I think we'll get a reconciliation bill as well.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Doing nothing is not an option. It reminds me of an Indian wedding, David. It's total chaos, a lot of posturing, but the bride and groom come together, get married and everyone has a piece of cake at the end. And I think here, you know, Speaker Pelosi, who will probably go down as the greatest, if not one of the greatest speakers.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think so. If they don't clean up their act, David, I think there's a lot of concern that basically they have used kind of the lacks, kind of loopholes of the law to essentially allow anything to propagate and claim that they're not a publisher of anything. But I think at this point we've gotten past that. And I think unless they adopt more severe reforms, just take the vaccination lies that are propagating online. They're not willing to take those down to the extent that they should. And it really hurts the public health and it just adds fuel to the momentum behind wanting to regulate them more closely.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so Christopher Ray has made it very clear that the FBI feels that these domestic acts of terrorism are perhaps their number one source of concern right now. And you're right that on social media, big tech, whether it's Facebook or other companies actually drive a lot of traffic based on these algorithms that kind of perpetuate misinformation online and all the other conspiracy theories that go toward the QAnon wing of the American people or to those who believe in other conspiracy theories, white nationalist conspiracy. Theories and so forth. And so I believe that this is going to continue unless and until Facebook and others really are made to police their platforms.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“More, yes, sir. I think that it's one of those things where, you know, Donald Trump kind of stirred up a lot of maybe latent feelings that have now come to the surface, especially about South Asians, brown people, foreigners, immigrants. I seem to check all the boxes on the part of America that some of his followers aren't too fond of, to say the least.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Know, I wasn't frightened like. During the events, but I got to tell you that when I see the video and it's hard for me to watch, I try not to watch it anymore. It brings back some really dark feelings or brings dark feelings. And a lot of my colleagues, I think it's a very personal thing for a lot of them. And some of them had to seek professional counseling and so forth”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“They were panicked. My mother was very, very upset and she just wanted to hear my voice. But basically, I have to say that was a day that where it's just adrenaline, it's just rushing. And it's hard to, I don't remember everything that happened except that all I would be thinking about was, okay, who's outside the door? Is our staff okay? We only had a two staff that day because it's COVID, so it was a very skeletal crew in the office. And just trying to make sure that we're safe.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Would trail me from a car to a plane and a plane to a car, and then a cop shows up at my house a couple times a day at random hours. And we have three school-age kids. And that's, you know, I'm always concerned about them more than anything else.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, what happened was basically the police, the capital police came to my office and basically roused me out of my office. It turns out I didn't know at the time, but a bomb had been planted about 200 feet from my office window because my office is basically right next to the RNC. And so they evacuated me twice and then I ended up in Joaquin Castro's office actually. He and I are law school classmates and so Joaquin's said, why don't you guys come here? I ended up being with him until the evening and then walked out. And you know what happened at that point. But it's definitely cast a long shadow for the first time in my life when I travel on government business. I have a cop that”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Was deeply unsatisfying, and also we had a president who was actively stirring the waters and going after a lot of people who, you know, whether they were foreigners, whether they were Muslims, whether they were people on food stamps that you deeply care about. So you're constantly playing defense. And it was a roller coaster ride that I don't want to go back to.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think it goes back to that mission statement that my parents gave to me at the dinner table, David, just whatever you do, try to make sure this country is there for the next families who need it. And that is kind of stuck with me for a long time. And I didn't know what was going to happen after the loss to Tammy. Four years later, she ended up running for the Senate and I ended up running for her spot and got the support of a lot of her supporters. And here I am. I think someone said to me, you know, Raja, you know, the bad news is you lost twice. The good news is you haven't lost since. And so I just keep that with me.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Was an incredible experience. It's that old joke experience is what you get when you didn't get what you wanted to get. And, you know, I learned it wasn't my time. But I think the one thing that ended up happening is, you know, I ended up, we ended up having a very civil contest and following the primary, I endorsed her, I campaigned for her. raised money. I wanted to make sure that the person that she was running against Joe Walsh, you know, the original Donald Trump of Congress, never went back. And thankfully, he did not”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, that's exactly right. I think we pay lip service to small business a lot in Washington. And I just wanted to do more than that, especially during the pandemic.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I made it very clear I had some authorship with regard to some provisions of PPP that we got to make it as user friendly and easy as possible.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Man, it was tough. I believe that, as I like to say, I signed the front of the check and the back of the check. I turned on the alarm system at night. I disarmed it in the morning. It was a small business. There was only about 70, 60, 70 employees total. But I think that meeting a payroll each month is not easy. kind of something that I take with me to Capitol Hill every day and I hope that we can do a better job in helping small businesses, quite frankly. Just one experience I'll relate to you during the recession of 2008, the Great Recession, so to speak. We were in big trouble. And so I went to the banks and I asked for a loan to help us to kind of cover our expenses. And I was turned down. Left and right didn't get a loan from anybody. And that, you know, later on informed my own thoughts about PPP, which we developed recently.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was devastating loss because the lead went back and forth a few times that evening. But I think that I ended up feeling good about the experience because I ended up just meeting so many people who entrusted me with their resources and of course their votes. But it was tough, man. It's a very public thing to lose an election. And certainly it's one of those things that you, it takes a little while to get over, obviously.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I have to say that was one of the biggest treats of my political life. And then the second is I remember, I don't know if you remember this conversation, but at one point you had asked him to take a position on something. And I'm forgetting the exact subject, but I think it had to do with economic policy. And I don't think that he wanted to. And he said something like I'm not running for president or I'm not going to be president. And I remember just that statement, that emphatic statement loudly even right now. And I just chuckled thinking about it.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's right. I did not see the text the night before either. And I think that it's fair to say he was in the small minority of politicians across the country who took that position. And obviously it was a big marker for him and it helped in all kinds of other ways. I might mention one other two other things about that campaign, if I could, David. One is I really, really got to learn politics from people like you and others. And”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I remember he felt very strongly he had to be there. And I also remember feeling that it was an important decision because as you might recall, Dan Hines and others had taken a much more reticent position on the whole matter. And so you make a decision and you have to live with it. And this is one of those, obviously, he made the absolute right decision, but it was very risky in my opinion.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, so every night I would produce an issues brief pretty much. What was amazing is President Obama read it overnight and came back to me with questions the very next day. Incredibly quick student. And then once we started getting really good at it, then he said, okay, well, let's come up with some new ideas and let's see if we can propose something interesting and different. And so that's what I think allowed him to also kind of, you know, show an even greater understanding and energy associated with his ideas and his intellectual perspective on federal legislation. And as you know, we were about to go to War as well.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It was very simple, which is we had a volunteer team of like 40 to 50 people which produced these briefs, you could say, three to five page briefs on any number of federal topics. As you know, he's incredibly fluent in so many areas of policy, but there's a large landscape of federal legislation and issues that you need to kind of get up to speed on.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Run for Senate. I said, where do I sign up? And anyway, I ended up becoming as issues director for the first winning campaign that I've ever been on.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And he said, he was very honest. He was paying off his credit card bills from the 2000 campaign still. I mean, it was really significant, had a significant toll. But anyway, he said, I have one race left in me. Michelle has said”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Townhouse, exactly, and it was like a hundred degrees in that attic, man. It was just, I asked, President Obama, I asked him then, like, what are you doing here? It's so freaking hot.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“2002, yes. Basically, I think it was his secretary, Jen, if I'm not mistaken. Anyway, she said, you know, can you come over to meet with him in his office? This was at minor Barnhill Gallant. His law firm. I went up to his office and basically it was the attic office of that firm.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“At that time, you know, I honestly was deeply interested in government. I thought maybe I could get an appointment someday somewhere to some position and serve. But I knew that I wanted to pay off my third world debt from law school and obviously come back to Illinois and be closer to family and all that good stuff.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I was on a that was an incredible experience for me, even though it was he didn't end up making it through the primaries, but just having a chance to see what happens behind the scenes.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“There's a funny thing about that. My father in my senior year of high school, he said, you know, Raja, you could do anything you want to do in life. And I said, really. And he said, yes, you could be a civil engineer, a mechanical engineer, an electrical engineer, or a doctor. And so anyway, I ended up getting the BS in mechanical engineering. And some people joke I practice the BS part now.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yeah, yeah. I mean, I always remember, you know, when this is, of course, much later on, but nobody could pronounce my name. It was unpronounceable to most people. I grew up with in Peoria. And later on, just fast forward, I introduced myself to someone in Chicago. I said, hi, my name is Raja Krishna Morthy. And the person looked back at me and said, Roger Christian Murphy. Very nice to me too. He said, I didn't know the Irish”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“No, there started to be more and more Indian origin folks. And just to fast forward, today there's between three and four thousand Indian Americans in Peoria. Basically, during the time I grew up, more and more people ended up migrating there to caterpillar, which was then based in Peoria, as well as the hospitals, and then also people came to teach at Bradley and were students there. So, I think over time maybe people started to maybe notice the differences between me and others a little more. And as we got older, I was a member of a racial, religious, and ethnic minority and an immigrant with 29 letters in my name. It kind of stuck out.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“You know, when we first came, David, there were so few Indian origin people, maybe 10 to 15 families total in Peoria. We really, I have to say, felt somewhat embraced by the community. And at least initially, we did not feel that those negative feelings, but probably the opposite. In fact, every night at the dinner table, I swear something along the lines of my father saying, you know, think of the greatness of this country. And he would say, you know, think of the greatness of this country and whatever the two of you do, just make sure this country's there for the next families who need it. And I think they were like devout Hindus, but they were also devout Americans. And I think it was really shaped by their positive. Experience in the treatment that the peoria community afforded them”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“So, you know, things were going really well until they suddenly kind of went off the rails, the economic rails, in the recession of 1973. My father lost his income. And, you know, really thanks to the generosity and goodwill of the people of the United States, we were allowed to move into public housing and food stamps. So I spent about half of my early childhood in those two programs. And back then you could continue to study and remain. And my father was able to complete his studies and then find an excellent job later on. And of all places, peoria, Illinois, teaching engineering at Bradley University. And so they unfurled the map and loaded up the U-Haul truck and started driving and driving until they reached Peoria. And that's really where. The golden period of our lives began.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“With a lot of pride even today in Congress. But he migrated from the south of India, a place called Tamil Nadu, to Delhi. And by the way, that place, Tamil Nadu and that town, those areas where my family came from, is where Kamala Harris's mother comes from. So her maternal side of the family. Is Tamilian. And so they ended up going to Delhi and my father migrated to Delhi as well. He took a job in the Central Water and Power Commission in New Delhi as his first job out of college. Again, he is one of those post-independence professionals you could say. And most of them ended up working in the government.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Sure. Yeah, so I was born in India, in New Delhi, India, and I came here when I was three months old. And my father came here to study engineering at what's today known as University of Buffalo. My grandparents lived in New Delhi. My grandfather on my maternal side was an accountant for the Department of Defense. At that period of time, right after independence, There's a huge kind of civil servant class. Many of them came up through the British system, and many of them ended up working for the union government. And so he was one of them. He was an accountant at the Department of Defense. And I always remember, David, he had one tie. And he actually, I inherited that one tie from him and I wear it.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Much more transactional ways. They pedal this crappy vaccine around the world and they get a lot of kudos and points for it. And we obviously don't want to let them do that. And so we have to fill the vacuum.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Know who gets it in the world that needs to be noted is the Chinese government. They get it. They go around the world and they exercise this soft power in, I would argue nefarious ways, but they are right now.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Absolutely, especially on this COVID David, we have launched legislation called Novid, which is a play on words no more COVID, and 116 of my colleagues have joined with me in trying to push the Biden administration to set this up because it's not only the right thing to do. I mean, I lost three relatives in India and our extended family to COVID when the Delta variant first appeared on the scene there. But it's also the smart thing to do because if we don't do this, those variants come back here to defeat our vaccines. And that same kind of analogy can be applied elsewhere if you don't use that soft power and help others, you know, it's like the old general said, either do this or buy me more bullets one or the other.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“And I can speak more in detail about that because I believe so passionately about this. But there's so many missed opportunities with regard to our foreign policy and exercising our soft power that sometimes we only think about hard power and military power when it comes to trying to quote unquote get our way or trying to influence the outcome of something.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Who go on to commit gross atrocities and human rights abuses against their country. And we look the other way for various reasons. You can look no further than Haiti, which we've made into a basket case over the years. The other thing that I would say is when we have the chance, we also have to exercise our soft power and help those countries that don't have the institutions that would otherwise be able to take care of their people in the way that we would like. And that could lead to the instability and everything else that we see. And I'm talking about in the specific case of COVID, we have to be at the tip of the spear in helping to set up a program to help vaccinate the rest of the world, just the same way that we did with. PEPFAR for HIV AIDS in Africa.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think that's a great point. And actually, with regard to the Uyghurs, we've pushed legislation on a bipartisan basis to try to mandate that the administration, first the Trump administration, now the Biden administration actually take action with regard to this issue. But you're correct that at the end of the day, there has to be some consistency on it. Can I just mention two other things in this regard? One is we routinely prop up dictators throughout the world.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“That's a great question, David. I do think that Iraq and Afghanistan have powerfully influenced how the majority of Americans, certainly my constituents. And I argue the majority of lawmakers that I interact with think about the use of military force and for what purposes it should be deployed. I think that with regard to human rights violations committed, whether it's by the Chinese Communist Party and the Chinese government or the Russian government, I think we have other tools in our toolkit that we can exert, but it has to be done in concert with our allies. I think that's one very important lesson that we've also learned, which is so long as some of these bad actors play us off against each other, nothing changes. But if we can Work with our allies and exert sanctions in a multilateral fashion. They can have some positive influence.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“The only thing I would say is there's still time to get these people out or as many of these people as possible. We do have some leverage with a presence of six or seven thousand troops at the airport. The Taliban wants us the hell out of there and they hate the presence of those troops. They don't want to get into a skirmish with them. And so we have to maximize that leverage. get our people out, get our friends and SIVs out as much as possible and that could also color how people think about what happens from here.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Totally. I think that Americans have had it with Afghanistan after 20 years and $2 trillion and more than 2,000 troops dead in Afghanistan. They were ready to pull our presence out. But again, I just go back to what we said before, which is the manner in which we depart, the manner in which we treat those who served with us. I think will equally color how people perceive our posture in Afghanistan.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think that that leaves an image that will affect people's impression of whether or not we did the right thing in Afghanistan in terms of our departure. The other thing is the Taliban are a bunch of mendacious thugs. And the fact that we were not able to get an ironclad assurance in Doha and elsewhere that al-Qaeda is not coming back is deeply disturbing as well. And there's already reports of communications between the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. Remember, that was why we went in in the first place. So if they were to return, that would also color how people view Afghanistan.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“I think that the majority of people I speak with and my constituents and others agree with Joe Biden's sentiment that we needed to pull out, but the manner in which we pull out matters as well. And I think that I just have two observations. One is seeing those people clam climb on the plains as they are taxiing down the runways. It just evokes the strongest emotions you could possibly imagine, especially for our veterans as well, David. You know that, the people who went to Afghanistan and served.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“We didn't get much, I think, David. If I had to be very honest with you, I think that we are leaving Doha empty-handed, except perhaps for an assurance of safe passage for our own diplomats and American personnel. But I would note that there hasn't been any similar safe passage being guaranteed for any of those thousands and thousands of people who have worked with us and for us. And that is deeply distressing.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Yes, the intelligence was wrong. I think that it was the impression that I got was that the military and the government would be able to hold out a lot longer, especially in Kabul and some of the larger towns. And it turns out that all along what was happening is that the Taliban was cutting deals with warlords and others all over the country. And we didn't know about it. And that helps to also explain why they completely stalled any movement in the supposed negotiations that were happening in Doha with us and the Afghan government, even as they were changing facts on the ground.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“Haven't handled this situation properly. We've known for months that we needed to evacuate at least 17,000 what are called SIV applicants, special immigration visa applicants. These are our allies and friends. And yet we only managed to evacuate about 2,000 in the last two weeks. And I think that these folks are in deep trouble and will be targeted by the Taliban after we leave.”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source
“It's just a devastating disaster what's unfolding there. I think we drank the Kool-Aid from multiple administrations about the effectiveness of the Afghan military and the government. It turns out that they are almost completely incompetent and corrupt. And on the other hand, we underestimated the Taliban. they are waging a jihad against infidels and it turns out that that is incredibly motivating to them in a way that money for these police and Afghan military are not motivating to them. The one thing I'm just going to say is I think that it's deeply disturbing what's happened with these allies of ours, people who've helped us over the years in Afghanistan and the fact that we just have”
2021-08-19 · The Axe Files with David Axelrod · Ep. 456 — Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi · IDENTIFIED FROM THE TRANSCRIPT · source