Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) on Monday blasted President Joe Biden's handling of the situation in Afghanistan, saying the deteriorating situation was "an unmitigated disaster."
"So against everyone's advice, including the current president’s own military, he decided to withdraw and to withdraw rapidly. What we have seen is an unmitigated disaster, a stain on the reputation of the United States of America," McConnell said, according to Fox News.
"Every terrorist around the world, in Syria, in Iraq, in Yemen, in Africa, are cheering the defeat of the United States military by a terrorist organization in Afghanistan," he added.
McConnell said that he had argued against leaving Afghanistan not only to Biden, but to former Presidents Donald Trump and Barack Obama.
"It was pretty obvious to me what was going to happen," McConnell said, noting that he had been part of the briefings on the situation in recent months.
"I hope the president will put in enough troops to get out as many people as possible. Not only all the Americans obviously, but those who worked with us, who depended on us," McConnell said, adding, "Honestly, this administration looks to me like it couldn’t organize a two car funeral."
"It is a sad day for the United States of America," he stated.
McConnell’s comments came after Biden delivered remarks on the situation in Afghanistan, in which he defended his decision to withdraw from the country.
“I stand squarely behind my decision” to withdraw troops from Afghanistan, Biden clarified. He added that the US will “act quickly” against terrorism in Afghanistan “if needed”.
The President asserted that the US gave the Afghan military “every chance” against Taliban but “we couldn't give them the will to fight.”
Earlier on Monday, chaos broke out at Hamid Karzai International Airport as thousands of Afghanis attempted to leave the country on US military aircraft which were evacuating American diplomatic and military personnel.
Video from the airport shows thousands of desperate Afghani citizens chasing after and grabbing onto the aircraft as it moved down the runway and took off.
At least two young men who attempted to hitch a ride on the outside of the plane fell hundreds off feet onto the tarmac seconds after takeoff.
A total of seven people are believed to have been killed in the chaos at the airport.