Secretary of Cosplay Kristi Noem joined Kristen Welker on Meet the Press, and of course, proceeded to blame Joe Biden over the suspect of shooting of two National Guard members because he arrived in the U.S. under Operation Allies Welcome. The Biden-era program resettled thousands of Afghans after Kabul fell to the Taliban in 2021. We're back to the Afghan withdrawal that Trump blamed on Biden, when, in fact, a U.S. review led by the National Security Council of the chaotic 2021 withdrawal broadly lays the blame on Trump, saying President Joe Biden was “severely constrained” by his predecessor's decisions.
Regardless, everything is still Biden's fault, no matter what it is, according to the Trump administration.
"Now, when we vet individuals under this administration, we know who they are, why they are here, and going through that," Noem insisted. "Unfortunately, this individual, that entire process happened under Joe Biden's watch."
Reality: Rahmanullah Lakanwal was also granted asylum earlier this year, a process that would have brought its own scrutiny. And he underwent vetting by counterterrorism authorities before entering the United States, according to The Washington Post.
"Well, but just to be very clear, I want to go back to what happened on the Trump administration's watch," Welker said. "He was extensively vetted in order to serve alongside US service members as a part of the CIA-trained strike force. But in terms of what happened on the Trump administration's watch, just to be very clear, what vetting did the Trump administration do before giving the suspect asylum?"
"The vetting process, Kristen, happens when the person comes into the country, and Joe Biden completely did not vet any of these individuals, did not vet this individual, waited until he got into the United States," Noem falsely said. "And then that application for asylum was opened under the Joe Biden administration when he was the president in the White House, and allowed that to go forward with the information that they provided."
"That's the Biden administration's responsibility," she continued to lie. "This is the consequences of the dangerous situation he put our country in when he allowed those people to infiltrate our country during that abandonment of Afghanistan. And that's why I'm so grateful we have a president now that isn't going to allow it to happen, that he now has put in place measures under his watch at the Department of Homeland Security that we are bringing in new information on vetting, new information to use, such as what do they do on Facebook?"
"What do they do on TikTok and other social media platforms?" she said. "And who are they talking to? Who are their conversations with? And we use their biometric data information now to track, to make sure they are who they say they are and they're here for the right intentions."
"And we are going to talk about some of the steps the president is taking, but I just want to be very clear about this, because his asylum was approved in April of this year on the Trump administration's watch," Welker clarified again. "So just to be very clear, was there a vetting process in place to approve that asylum request?"
"Yeah, the vetting process all happened under Joe Biden's administration," Noem said.
"Was he vetted when he was granted asylum?" Welker shot back. "Are you saying he wasn't vetted when he was granted asylum?"
"Vetting is happening when they come into the country, and that was completely abandoned under Joe Biden's administration," Noem added.
Welp, Noem blamed Biden six times during that short clip for the Trump administration granting Lakanwal asylum just last year.
