McCaul Rips Biden Spox Kirby Comments About Afghan Withdrawal

[#TexasPolitics365]

The GOP chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Thursday blasted the White House for dismissing the idea that the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan was chaotic and shifting blame on the Trump administration for creating unfavorable conditions for the pullout.

Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), whose committee is leading a probe of the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, ripped John Kirby, a White House spokesperson on national security issues, for his comments earlier in the day.

(Full story HERE.)
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West Takes Abbott To Task For Allowing Vax Mandate In TX Nat'l Guard

[#TexasPolitics365]

Republican gubernatorial candidate Lt. Col. Allen West is taking Gov. Greg Abbott to task for not ending a vaccine mandate among National Guardsmen in Texas.

In a press release Tuesday, West, who will face Abbott in next year's Republican primary, said that Abbott,  who is commander of the Texas National Guard, "is allowing vaccine mandates to take effect this October. He is kowtowing to federal overreach and not standing up for liberties of Texans who have stood up to serve the Lone Star State."

"The Governor cannot blame President Biden for this mandate. As Governor of Texas, he is well within his authority to stop the medical overreach from occurring. Since the Texas National Guard is not currently under neither Title 10 nor 32 orders, it is not under federal authority. The buck, instead, stops at the Governor’s office. Blaming the Biden administration for the mandate and wringing one’s hands is not a policy decision that a principled leader would take.

Lt. Col. West went on to say:

“It is highly disturbing that our Texas National Guard members are being ordered — mandated — to take a COVID shot. Unless on active-duty orders, the Commander-in-Chief of the Texas National Guard is the Governor, not Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin."

(Full story here
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Sen. Cornyn Taiwan Twitter Error Causes Diplomatic Embarrassment

[#TexasPolitics365]

US Senator John Cornyn (R-TX) on Tuesday mistakenly listed the U.S. as having 30,000 troops stationed in Taiwan, a country that has not seen an American military presence in over 40 years, leading to widespread criticism on Twitter and from Communist China.

Mainland China claims Taiwan as part of China, and often threatens it with military conquest. Even rumors of a massive US military presence on the island is likely to cause alarm in China.

In the wake of the disastrous collapse of the Afghan government following the rushed withdrawal of U.S. troops from the country, many politicians are arguing that the relatively small force that the U.S. had in place maintained stability in the nation at a comparatively low cost in terms of lives and money.

To illustrate this point, Cornyn took to Twitter on Tuesday to list other current U.S. troop deployments around the world that are much higher than the 2,500 stationed in Afghanistan as recently as two months ago.

Among the countries listed with major troop contingents were South Korea, Germany, Japan, and Taiwan, where he cited 30,000 soldiers in place. However, the U.S. has not stationed troops in Taiwan since 1979, when former President Carter severed diplomatic relations with the country.

Kuomintang, a political party based in Taiwan, responded to Cornyn to dispute the numbers. It posted: "There are not 30,000 US troops in Taiwan! The last U.S. soldier left Taiwan on 3 May 1979."

The erroneous figure was removed from his Twitter feed quickly by Cornyn's team.

(Full story here.)
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Gov. Abbott Denounces "Vetting" Of #Texas National Guard In DC

[#TexasPolitics365] 

Texas Gov. Greg Abbott is criticizing Federal officials over reports that the Department of Defense, assisted by the FBI, is vetting members of the National Guard assigned to provide security during the inauguration this week.

In a tweet Monday evening that included a link to a Paywalled article from The Washington Post, Abbott called the joint effort by the Pentagon and FBI "offensive." 

"This is the most offensive thing I've ever heard. No one should ever question the loyalty or professionalism of the Texas National Guard. @TexasGuard. I authorized more than 1,000 to go to DC. I'll never do it again if they are disrespected like this."

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