Senator Markwayne Mullin didn’t mince words on The Will Cain Show when he described the Afghan evacuation fallout as something the country is still “cleaning up” after President Biden’s catastrophic withdrawal. Mullin, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, told Cain that the evacuation operation in 2021 exposed alarming failures and that any future admissions from Afghanistan must be subject to ironclad vetting and national-security-first policies.
This is not political theater from Mullin — he’s the same lawmaker who put his own safety on the line trying to help Americans and our Afghan partners during the fall of Kabul, and he publicly challenged the narrative that “every American who wanted out got out.” His on-the-ground accounts in 2021, which included frantic calls and attempts to navigate Taliban checkpoints, underscore why he now insists we must scrutinize who we let into this country.
As a senator on the Armed Services Committee, Mullin has pushed for accountability and hasn’t been shy about calling out the institutional failures that left Americans and allies in danger. He has repeatedly demanded answers about who was held responsible for that disastrous withdrawal and has used his platform to press for concrete reforms so history does not repeat itself.
Mullin’s warning about vetting isn’t fearmongering — it’s common-sense national security. With reports and interviews showing how chaotic evacuations were handled, he argues correctly that a country that can’t secure its borders and properly screen arrivals is courting disaster, and that includes ensuring those admitted from conflict zones undergo painstaking checks before they gain entry or benefits here.
Conservative Americans should rally behind leaders who put national security first and refuse to let a narrative of compassion be used as an excuse for incompetence. Mullin’s blunt assessment — that Democrats left a mess and it’s now up to responsible leadership to clean it up while protecting Americans — resonates with hardworking citizens who expect their leaders to keep them safe, not apologize for failures.
The bottom line is simple: we honor the promise to our Afghan allies by getting them out when it matters, but we do not jeopardize the security of the American people in the name of optics or political convenience. Senators like Mullin who demand vetting, accountability, and real solutions deserve our support as they work to restore competence and common-sense security to a broken system.
