Trump (AP photo)
US president Donald Trump on Thursday blasted a reporter who asked why he blamed the Biden administration for Wednesday’s shooting near the White House.“Because they let him in. Are you stupid? Are you a stupid person?” Trump asked, adding, “Because they came in on a plane along with thousands of other people that shouldn’t be here. And you’re just asking questions because you’re a stupid person.”
Trump criticised the vetting process during Biden, saying: “And there’s a law passed that it’s almost impossible not to get them out. You can’t get them out once they come in. And they came in and they were unvetted. They were unchecked. There were many of them. And they came in on big planes. And it was disgraceful.” Trump also spoke about the Afghanistan withdrawal: “And frankly, the whole thing was a mess. The whole Afghanistan situation was a mess. It should have never taken place if we’re going to go out. And we would have gone out because I had everybody ready to go. We were going to go out with strength and dignity and precision.Trump repeated his claim that the US should have kept Bagram, “because of its very close relationship to China and where they make their missiles. But when you let the people come in by the thousands and thousands and thousands, they made a terrible mistake. They were incompetent.”The suspect in Wednesday’s shooting, Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, entered the US on 8 September 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome, a resettlement programme launched after the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. Lakanwal had previously worked with the CIA in Afghanistan.The shooting occurred Wednesday afternoon a few blocks from the White House, near 17th Street NW and I Street NW, close to the Eisenhower Executive Office Building, killing one National Guard member and leaving a second critically injured.
