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- GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert compared Biden's exit from Afghanistan to the US's withdrawal from Vietnam.
- Boebert, who's pushed for the US exit, suggested Biden left Afghan partners in the lurch.
- But Boebert vote against a bill last month that would increase the number of US immigration visas for Afghans.
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Many Republicans, including those who supported ending the US occupation of Afghanistan under former President Donald Trump, were quick to attack the Biden administration's withdrawal from the country as Taliban forces swiftly took control over the weekend.
Rep. Lauren Boebert, a Colorado Republican, slammed the administration's exit in a series of tweets over the weekend and compared the military's evacuation of Americans from the embassy in Kabul to the US's rushed exit from Saigon as the North Vietnamese took over in 1975.
"Joe Biden was in the Senate when America pulled out of Saigon in 1975," Boebert tweeted on Sunday alongside a photo of American military and civilians evacuating from Vietnam. "He didn't learn."
By drawing a comparison with Saigon, Boebert, who's pushed to end the 20-year-long war, suggested that President Joe Biden's rapid exit left US partners in Afghanistan in the lurch. Many others have made a similar comparison, arguing that the US should have done more to help protect and evacuate Afghan civilians who've allied themselves with the US and many of whom are now targets for the Taliban.
But last month, Boebert opposed increasing aid to Afghans who worked with the US military. The congresswoman was one of 16 House Republicans who voted against a bill introduced by her fellow Colorado representative, Democrat Jason Crow, to issue an additional 8,000 immigration visas to Afghans who helped the US military over the last two decades. The bill passed the House with 407 votes in favor and awaits a vote in the Senate.
Crow criticized Boebert in his own tweet on Monday.
"Wait a minute. A few weeks ago you were 1 of only 16 members of Congress who voted against my bill to expand and speed up the visa program to evacuate and save our Afghan partners," he wrote.
He was responding to a tweet in which Boebert wrote: "Joe has a 48 year history of making bad decisions. Add this weekend's foreign policy decisions to the list."
A spokesperson for Boebert didn't immediately respond to Insider's request for comment.
Crow's "ALLIES Act" aims to increase the number of special immigration visas given to Afghans from 11,000 to 19,000 - expanding a program Congress originally created in 2008.
"For 20 years, Afghan interpreters, guides and other partners have served alongside U.S. forces, helping us complete our mission," Crow, an Afghanistan war veteran, told The Denver Post last month. "I may not be here today were it not for the bravery and sacrifice of the Afghan men and women who worked with me during my service."
-andrew kaczynski (@KFILE) August 15, 2021
When the Biden administration announced it would keep US troops in Afghanistan past the May withdrawal deadline the Trump administration established, Boebert suggested the government should exit sooner.
"We've been in Afghanistan for more than half my life," she tweeted. "We need to end the endless wars."
In another tweet, the freshman congresswoman attempted to mock the Biden administration's tagline by claiming, "The Taliban are the only people building back better."
Biden, for his part, supported the US's full withdrawal from Vietnam in the 1975 and criticized "careless military involvement abroad."