Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., ripped the Biden administration for its delay in countering a drone attack Sunday in Jordan in which three American troops were killed and dozens were injured, and said former President Donald Trump would have reacted immediately.
Mullin made his remarks Tuesday on Newsmax's "Wake Up America."
The terrorist attack came at the U.S. military base, known as Tower 22, in northeastern Jordan. Mullin lamented the Biden administration's policy of "appeasement."
"When you try appeasement through a terrorist organization, it doesn't work," Mullin said. "They only believe in power. It's peace through strength, right? We have ignored them after 153 strikes. They finally escalated by hitting Tower 22, which is the border between Jordan and Syria, and killed three service members.
"We know where the drone was shot [from], and we've known every time they were shot. You may not know where it's going to go. But we know where it was shot from. We could respond immediately within five minutes if we had standing orders like President Trump did when he was in office. If they attack us personally, we will respond immediately.
"The problem is you have a weak administration that wants to ignore [this], and they're more interested in working and appeasing the Iranian regime who is the number one sponsor the war on terror around the world right now, then they are actually being strong and putting them back in their box."
Mullin also said terrorists are crossing the U.S. southern border at an alarming rate.
"We have a national security risk on our southern border with just since Oct. 7th since the Hamas attack in Israel," he said. "We've got 50 known terrorists crossing our southern border. That's a national security risk. What's happening around the Middle East is just compounding it. On top of that, these known terrorists are not coming from Mexico. They're not coming from Central and South America countries.
"They're coming from all over the Middle East. Iran is sponsoring these individuals coming in, and we know this is an escalating issue. They believe by coming after us and us not responding, it shows weakness and a downfall of the United States. Remember, that's the number one goal, to cut off the snake's head, and that is us in America."
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Jeffrey Rodack ✉
Jeffrey Rodack, who has nearly a half century in news as a senior editor and city editor for national and local publications, has covered politics for Newsmax for nearly seven years.
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