John Ratcliffe: Biden administration 'willing to accede' to our adversaries
Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe commented on foreign relations nearly one year after the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Former National Intelligence Director John Ratcliffe looked back at another year of failed foreign policies by the Biden administration on "Sunday Night in America" with host Trey Gowdy.
In August, Ratcliffe referred to the fallout from the Afghanistan withdrawal as "Christmas in August" for America’s adversaries. Almost one year later, his opinion had not changed.
"It did not take Nostradamus to think that our adversaries would watch not just a withdrawal but a surrender and a defeat in Afghanistan that was shocking to all. Our adversaries watching that really saw that this was a different administration," Ratcliffe said.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Director of National Intelligence John Ratcliffe looks on as President Donald Trump presents the Presidential Medal of Freedom to former football coach Lou Holtz, in the Oval Office of the White House, Thursday, Dec. 3, 2020, in Washington. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)
He explained, "And the idea that China and Russia and Iran and all of our adversaries would not test us and test this administration to see whether when they get punched if they would punch back. It was something that unfortunately we thought would happen. If you look around the world, and all of those places with all those adversaries, all of those things are unfortunately happening as we speak."
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Ratcliffe also further criticized the White House’s response to China as a growing threat despite their continued aggression towards Taiwan and their involvement in the coronavirus pandemic.
{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"So you have the perception from President Xi that not only is America in decline but that we see weakness there and we are willing to accede to them. I think that’s why you’re seeing not just their actions ramp up but across the board their aggression in the end of Pacific and around the world," he said.
Afghan people climb atop a plane as they wait at the Kabul airport in Kabul on August 16, 2021, after a stunningly swift end to Afghanistan's 20-year war, as thousands of people mobbed the city's airport trying to flee the group's feared hardline brand of Islamist rule. ((Photo by Wakil Kohsar / AFP) (Photo by WAKIL KOHSAR/AFP via Getty Images))
Ratcliffe closed remarking on the impressive amount of damage the Biden administration has done to the country's foreign standing in less than two years.
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}"What has happened in the last 18 months, the thing that concerns me the most is that we have a national security team and apparatus that lost in Afghanistan, that was too slow and too indecisive to deter Putin and Ukraine, that’s getting bullied around by China, that’s trying to write a blank check to a terrorist regime in Iran," he said.
"They accomplished that in 18 short months. We’ve got 30 more months of this team in charge of our national security and our national security posture," he warned.
FILE - President Joe Biden meets virtually with Chinese President Xi Jinping from the Roosevelt Room of the White House in Washington, on Nov. 15, 2021. ((AP Photo/Susan Walsh, File))
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{{#rendered}} {{/rendered}}Ratcliffe lamented, "Really it’s our own national security team and the people that are making decisions, the damage they have done to our national security posture over the last 18 months really worries me, where we may go in the next 18 months. I hope that the next American president steps in and the United States is still the world’s only superpower."