Rep. Claudia Tenney, R-N.Y., said the weekend deaths of three U.S. service members in Jordan by Iran-backed terrorists were "absolutely preventable" if the Biden administration had not reversed all of former President Donald Trump's "good policies" that projected strength throughout the world.
"Our hearts are broken for these families, but this was not something that I was surprised to see," Tenney said on Newsmax's "Wake Up America." "I've been worrying about this ever since President [Joe] Biden took over and appointed Antony Blinken as the secretary of state; [he is] close friends with Rob Malley, who is the disgraced and removed negotiator for … the Iran nuclear deal [that the White House has tried to resurrect].
"Over the course of just three years, President Biden has reversed all of the good policies that President Trump had in place with Secretary [Mike] Pompeo with a maximum pressure campaign, which actually put Iran on its heels, cut off their ability to sell oil to China. That's about $80-$90 billion in sanctions that have been relieved by the Biden administration."
Three American troops were killed and dozens more were injured in an early morning drone strike Sunday in northeast Jordan near the Syrian border. In a statement, Biden said that the United States "will hold all those responsible to account at a time and in a manner (of) our choosing."
Tenney said the military members' deaths were "absolutely preventable, as was the tragic situation in Afghanistan where 13 service members lost their lives needlessly in this horrible rollout."
The botched Afghanistan withdrawal in 2021 "signaled to our enemies that we were weak and signaled to our allies that were not reliable and that we couldn't stand up for anybody," Tenney said.
Tenney also said that unlike Texas, New York is embracing the illegal immigrants who come across the U.S.-Canadian border.
"Eighty-five percent of the people on the terror watch lists are coming across our northern border, which I represent most of the northern border of New York as it sprawls across northern upstate New York," she said. "This is dangerous. And then, when those people come into New York, they're issued valid driver's licenses regardless of their status. They could be a cartel member. They could be a member of a terrorist group, and we are not allowed to vet them because of laws in New York.
"We're giving them driver's licenses where they can go anywhere in the United States, whether they're cartel members or they're someone that's human trafficked. This is a huge problem. It is a major national security issue, and these people will get across our border and you will see something potentially worse than 9/11."
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Nicole Weatherholtz ✉
Nicole Weatherholtz, a Newsmax general assignment reporter covers news, politics, and culture. She is a National Newspaper Association award-winning journalist.
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