Watch: Jim Acosta Likens GOP Figures to an 'American Taliban'
CNN host Jim Acosta on Saturday called some leading conservative Republicans “an American Taliban” for questioning the Biden administration as it resettles Afghan refugees.
The president’s administration has estimated that upward of 50,000 Afghan refugees will be resettled in America and has insisted everyone who came out of the chaos at Kabul airport was fully vetted.
After a tour of Fort McCoy Army base in Wisconsin, where some refugees are being housed, Republican U.S. Rep. Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin said that was not the case, according to Yahoo.
“Does this mean they have ties to the Taliban, ISIS, or al-Qaida? Do they have ties to terror organizations, yet (the State Department) just says we are fully vetting them?” Tiffany said. “I am concerned that they don’t have the information on background to make sure they are fully vetted.”
But Acosta has decided that such questions cannot be allowed. He included Republican Rep. Louie Gohmert of Texas and Fox News host Tucker Carlson among those who needed to be publicly shamed.
“Leading figures on the far right have been sounding the alarm on Afghanistan evacuees all week. ‘The refugees are coming. The refugees are coming,'” Acosta said before showing a clip of Gohmert questioning the administration.
“Over on Fox, human manure spreader Tucker Carlson has floated yet another race-baiting conspiracy theory that tens of thousands of Afghan refugees are being welcomed into this country in order to change the outcome of future elections.”
“It’s the American people who are going to take the brunt of this.”@EliCrane_CEO argues Americans are in more “danger” today than when Biden took office as the Biden administration struggles to explain how Afghan refugees are being vetted.@dagenmcdowell @MariaBartiromo pic.twitter.com/cj5oRj4Y5x
— Mornings with Maria (@MorningsMaria) September 3, 2021
Acosta quickly changed subjects and attacked language used by Republican U.S. Reps. Madison Cawthorn of North Carolina and Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia talking about election integrity.
The clip of Acosta on YouTube then shows him going back to bashing Republicans for questioning the Biden administration’s controls on admitting Afghan refugees as well as holding other positions contrary to Acosta’s beliefs.
“Some members of the far right in this country have apparently decided they will resort to intimidation, and in some cases, even violence, to get what they want,” he said.
“And they could sweep into power faster than the experts thought possible. Sound familiar?
“Sort of like an American Taliban. It is starting to look like a combination of theocracy and thugocracy. The leaders of this MAGA band movement, people like Marjorie, Madison and Tucker, they’re not counting on an intelligence failure or a lack of planning on your part,” Acosta said.
“They’re counting on a lack of courage to stand up for your rights in this country. Does that ring a bell? The anti-immigration, anti- Democratic, anti-women’s rights forces have all sought these kinds of changes for years, even decades, in this country.”
STOP THE INVASION OF AMERICA!
All Afghan refugees must be PROPERLY VETTED!
Demand Action HERE ?https://t.co/Unnkh0MPyq pic.twitter.com/l0DX5Lw0Xo
— ACTforAmerica (@ACTforAmerica) September 1, 2021
Carlson, in comments he reprised in an Op Ed for Fox News, noted that the same administration that bumbled in Afghanistan now has a clear mission.
“What’s so interesting, the contrast that informs us, really, is that over the past week, this same administration has overseen the evacuation of tens of thousands of unvetted Afghan nationals, many of whom will now be moved into neighborhoods around the United States and stay permanently.
“They didn’t seem to encounter any problems in doing this, thanks to meticulous and thoughtful planning. Operation Change America Forever came off precisely according to plan. It worked flawlessly,” Carlson said.
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