The shooting of two National Guard members in Washington this week was absolutely maddening. Now even more so, as the young woman Guard member, Sarah Beckstrom, passed away this evening.
All of this was avoidable, and do you know who warned us? Then Senator JD Vance. In 2021, Vance put out a video message that was largely a response to Senator Ben Sasse, saying that we needed to be careful about bringing unvetted Afghan refugees into the country.
Much like Trump would have said at the time, Vance urged our leaders to focus on getting Americans out of the country first. This was, after all, shortly after Joe Biden’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.
From RedState:
Vance, even during his time as a Senate candidate in Ohio, expressed valid concerns about resettling Afghan refugees. There was no proper vetting process in place, and the botched military withdrawal under former President Biden was expediting the process to unsafe levels.
Vance saw it. He knew this presented a problem.
One of the earlier examples of that involved Vance, who had just entered the political arena, getting into a dustup with then-Sen. Ben Sasse (R-NE), whose oft-squishy views on bringing refugees into the United States had put them at odds with one another.
Sasse, as Biden’s failed withdrawal was heating up, argued that the United States had an obligation to help those who had helped the country, urging the Biden administration to “go faster and save the Americans and Afghan allies behind enemy lines.”
Vance, though, dismissed Sasse’s “ridiculous platitude” and pointed out that America should keep its word, but must prioritize America first.
“Of course, nobody disagrees with that … the question is not whether we honor our word,” he said. “The question is, who we made promises to, who do we owe an obligation toward? And to any leader of this country, the obvious answer should be American citizens. So, let’s focus first on getting them out of Afghanistan before we say another word about the Afghan refugees.”
Watch the video below:
Here is my message to Ben Sasse and other establishment Republicans who seem to care more about bringing 30,000 unvetted Afghan refugees into our country than getting our own people out safely. pic.twitter.com/PSfoc2swdC
— JD Vance (@JDVance) August 23, 2021
This came up again in January of this year. Once again, Vance was warning about unvetted Afghan refugees as Margaret Brennan of CBS News interrupted him and insisted that these people are vetted. Watch:
Vice President @JDVance utterly embarrasses CBS and @margbrennan on the unvetted migrants that Biden allowed into our country ☠️
Margaret Brennan: "These people are vetted!"
VP Vance: "Just like the guy who planned a terrorist attack in Oklahoma a few months ago?" pic.twitter.com/IeA8qsklTR
— Andrew Surabian (@Surabees) January 26, 2025
Perhaps more people in the Democrat party and our media (same difference) should stop scoffing at Vice President Vance and listen to him.
