july, july 13th, in which own officials in kabul warn him that a taliban takeover was eminent and without u.s. troops there afghan security forces likely would not be ablee to stop it. watch. >> all kinds of cables, all kinds of advice. if you noticed, they ranged from this group saying -- they didn't say fall when it did fall, but saying that it would fall to other, others saying i wouldn't happen for a long time and would be able to sustain through the end of the year. i made the decision. the buck stops with me. i took the consensus opinion. the consensus opinion was that, in fact, it would not occur if it occurred until later in the year. so it was my decision. maria: and according to new york times defense secretary lloyd austin as well as general mark milley also warned biden that this would happen and yet he ignored those warnings. joining me right now former secretary of state mike pompeo. he worked in february 2020 helping president trump negotiate a peace deal with the taliban to withdraw from afghanistan. mr. secretary, pleasure to see you, thank you very much for being here this morning. give us your reaction in terms of the pullout. secretary: maria, thanks for having me, we were determined to get things out. everyone knew that president trump want today get men and young women back home. we always knew that conditions had to be right to achieve that. had to have the administration on the ground right to do that. this administration leaving equipment and civilians behind. 15,000 to 2500 and kept the order that had been there. we didn't have the chaos. all the while we took 12,500 soldiers. when we got to that point, we went back and looked at the conditions. we wanted to get those last numbers out but we never found the conditions right to do so. so we continued to pound the taliban when they violated the agreement, when they moved on checkpoint or moved in a place that they weren't permitted. we used american power and made clear to the taliban that there would be real consequences. what happened here, maria, is you had a leader who was unprepared to do that. when the taliban pushed on the trump administration, we pushed back even harder and imposed real cost and when the biden administration pushed, they withdrew to commercial airport that in no way has capacity to get our people out with speed that needs to happen to keep them safe. this is an incompetent method of getting our folks out and presents real risk. i pray that we get them all home but i'm watching today even now they haven't yet organized in a way to push the american power out in a way to make sure that we can get americans out of the country. maria: and things are getting dangerous and more severe by the minute this morning the washington post is reporting that those people going to the airport are getting beaten up and there were 7 afghan civilians killed outside the kabul airport as biden set to update on evacuations later today. mr. secretary, does joe biden understand what has taken place here. i don't even understand why you would close the bagram air base before getting all of your civilians out? secretary: well, given what he's told america and what we can see happening on the ground and the massive disconnect between the two, it doesn't appear to the -- perhaps less, he's just not that interested. he's more focused on spending 3 and a half trillion dollars and creating diversity inside the military. it's impossible to explain how the president of the united states can go on tv and tell people that not only are people able to travel safely to the airport when we can clear see that that's not the case, but he told the world that our allies weren't concerned about what we were doing. and you need to only go to british parliament or listen to macron and merkel and can't no longer trust america as ally. they can all see with their own eyes to be true. this is dangerous. we are a few months into the administration and american leadership has already walked off the stage. you know, maria, we talked about this before, but president biden talks that america is back. it looks like we are back, it looks like we are back to barack obama, america apologizing, american weakness and our adversaries not fearing us and friends not trusting us. maria: we have to point out that many of the people on biden's team whether it'd be national security or in the state department were, in fact, in the obama white house. how capable are his defense and foreign policy teams in your view including your successor tony blinken? we know that there was a memo emerged revealed this past week indicating that joe biden was warned that this would happen this way and he ignored the warnings. secretary: maria, there's no doubt it's the same thing that was there for 8 years largely. they've all moved up one slot or two slots but it's largely the same cast and characterrers with the world view and that world view that says america is the set and important details. closing bagram, major air flow hub for american forces and american equipment in and out of the country and pulling out the military before the civilians got out and not working with friends and partners to make sure this was coordinated and most importantly not validating that the conditions on the ground were sufficient to actually execute this stage of the withdrawal. those are demonstrably geopolitical errors. they have not move today fix them. it's not only important for americans and civilians and vladimir putin and chairman kim stare and this presents enormous risk to the american people here at home. maria: exactly. and the mixed messages have been incredibly dangerous. last week president biden told the americans in afghanistan to get to the airport so that the u.s. can get them home and then this weekend we were told don't go to the airport. it's too dangerous. they are terrorists right outside the airport. the gates are locked. they are confiscating passports. what's going on? should americans go to the airport or not go to the airport? >> i must say, i don't have accurate situation or knowledge of what's on the ground although i heard from some folks in the region. it certainly sounds like passage to the airport is very dangerous. america needs to work to secure that, to reduce the risk. there are lots of ways to do that. how about this for starting point, make clear that you're not going to beg or implore or you're not going to plea or pay the taliban if americans are harmed. you will go and crush them. you will put real costs on them. this is the model that the trump administration had adopted and each time we did that, each time we did that, we got a tactical response from the taliban that respected the united states of america because they understood that there were things that they would not be permitted to do, most importantly harming americans. remember this, maria from the time we began peace and reconciliation and conversations, from the time we signed the deal in february 2020, not a single american was attacked by the taliban in a serious way and there wasn't a single american killed. that wasn't because the document, we were going to go to court to enforce the document, it was because we demonstrated american resolve and power and when you don't do that, this is the kind -- the chaos that you see in afghanistan is precisely what ensued what america fails to lead. maria: so they've already broken whatever agreement was made in doja. secretary: of course. maria: i'm talking about the taliban. was this a coup? secretary: you know, between the folks in afghanistan, right, president ghani was corrupt himself. the leaders in the other region. we didn't just sign agreement with the taliban, one with the afghan government too. we were talking to folks in the north and the west, this country has been in a mess for a long time. elections have been fraught and politically uncertainty for awfully long time. our mission set was clear, maria, our mission set was to make sure that we were able to get young men and women home and make sure we were never atracked this place again and we worked diligent as we saw the conditions on the ground that we withdrew in a way that provided maximum certainty that we would never be attacked from this place. chaos that you're seeing, maria, this drastically increases the likelihood that some day, some ungoverned space in afghanistan will lead to an attack maybe not on america but america interest somewhere around the world. maria: they have the weaponry now to do it. mr. secretary -- >> secretary: they sure do. maria: i want to get back and come back on something that you touched on and that's the longer-term consequences of all of this and then what actions the u.s. military needs to take now to prevent the taliban from driving afghanistan further into a terrorism state. we will be right back with secretary mike pompeo. that delicious scramble was microwaved? get outta here. everybody's a skeptic. wright brothers? more like, yeah right, brothers! get outta here! it's not crazy. it's a scramble. just crack an egg. maria: welcome back. we are back with former secretary of state mike pompeo, also a fox news contributor. let me point out that we are also following the latest on tropical storm henri. you can look on the side of the screen to get the very latest, we will be doing that all day. mr. secretary, i've got to get your take on the consequences of this cut and run pullout of afghanistan. the historian bernard lewis worried that the greatest danger to global stability is when america comes to be seen as harmless as an enemy and treacherous as a friend. this is something larry lindsey posted last week and i want to bring up this global times treat. this, of course, the global times is the international mouthpiece for the chinese communist party and as soon as we saw the cut and run out of afghanistan, the editor-in-chief of global times treats this. after the fall of the kabul regime, the taiwan authorities must be trembling. don't look forward for u.s. to protect them, tapia need to order when they surrender to liberation army. secretary: well, maria, the global times is propaganda mouthpiece for the communist party. that's just them poking fun at a weak administration in america. but here is the truth of the matter is, this debacle will certain harm with american and allies. you have seen some of it publicly but talk privately can this president and american leadership team can actually deliver. and so my wisdom would be this, so this is an enormous amount of credibility to the united states. you can begin to demonstrate to the world that we are not harmless, indeed, we are powerful. how about this? walk away from negotiations in viena. we are done, we are out. how about this, help the taiwanese close on some trade and trade deals with them and start delivering those weapon systems and emirates, move that forward and demonstrate that we will be good partners to emirates. if you're president salinsky in ukraine, work closer with ukraines from preventing vladimir putin to take another chunk of ukraine. how about announcing today that we will not show up in beijing for the olympics and take them, these are the kind of things that world leaders are looking for. they are lack to go show american resolve and strength. i hope that the biden team has it within them to deliver on the kinds of clear actions, not just words but actions that will convince leaders around the world that we remain a strong force and strong partner and that will tell our adversaries a lot too. it will tell them that it will not challenge the united states. maria: why aren't we doing what the french are doing getting the french out? secretary: it's been a long week, that is nonsense. i'm a veteran. i know the capabilities of our young men and women. we can deliver just the same way the french and the united kingdom are delivering for their people. to say that we don't have the capacity to do that, first of all, it's untrue. what they have not demonstrated is the willing l to do this. i hope that they will find that steel, the resolve. i pray that we get all americans home, we have an obligation, solemn obligation to make sure that we are able to do so. maria: secretary pompeo, before you go, a question none of us want to ask but i must, is joe biden mentally capable to be in this role at this moment in time? secretary: i will tell you, it's been a tough week to watch the president being disconnected from the reality that we can all see. i pray that they get this right. i hope that president biden is up to the task. today he's demonstrated that in afghanistan he's failed. the incompetence of the administration has been tragic, will have long-lasting implications. i hope they are able to ride the ship and get this right. i know that every american wishes that for our own country. maria: of course, and we are all patriots. thank you very much for weighing in this morning. we will talk soon along the lay. former secretary mike pompeo, coming up will president biden's massive blunders in afghanistan blow up his tax and spend economic agenda in washington. nancy pelosi still pushing for passage having called the house of representatives back tomorrow to vote. house minority leader mccarthy is here and weigh in on priorities and dangerous state of affairs right now. stay with us. ♪ ♪ ♪ it's moving day. and while her friends are doing the heavy lifting, jess is busy moving her xfinity internet and tv services. it only takes about a minute. wait, a minute? but what have you been doing for the last two hours? ...delegating? oh, good one. move your xfinity services without breaking a sweat. xfinity makes moving easy. go online to transfer your services in about a minute. get started today. >> this is what happens when you withdraw. some equipment is left there. maria: that was house speaker nancy pelosi dismissing weaponry and seized by the taliban. this stuff, blackhawk helicopters, a29 attack plane all which can be inspected by the taliban and/or chinese party used to take kill civilians or attack u.s. interests as we just heard from mike pompeo. joining me right now house minority leader kevin mccarthy, he's demanding that the gang of 8 receive classified briefing on the biden administration's plan to evacuate american citizens out of afghanistan. congressman, good to see you. thanks very much for being here. have you seen that plan yet? >> no and this is not what happens when you leave. i have heard the taliban has more blackhawk helicopters than australia. can you imagine that? even if the taliban cannot learn to fly those, where would they go? they will go in hands of iran and russia. they have built military. imagine iran will be in there collecting drones and missiles and this has set us back decades and for democrats to bring us back into congress to try to pass another new election law that would ban -- unconstitutional but ban id voting to spend $5 trillion, the only focus of this congress or this administration would be to get every single american out but when you listen to secretary of state and secretary of defense, they will use the term as many as we can. that's not the answer. we have the ability to get it out, we just need the authority from the president to send our troops out to bring those americans home, that's what we owe to the american public. maria: i think that you have made so many important points there and i want to go back and zero in. somebody else mentioned to me that the president keeps saying anybody who wants to leave afghanistan will be able to leave afghanistan, is he playing word games with us? is he going to get to august 31st and say we res knewed anybody who want today leave and those who didn't want to leave are still there, why -- of course, the americans on the ground do not want to be controlled by the taliban. they want out. what is he trying to say there? >> well, remember what he said on friday, that americans will not have difficulty getting to the airport. they are. that al-qaeda is no longer in afghanistan, they are. the foreign leaders are not criticizing america, they are. that the border is secure, it is not. directly after that press conference, we had a conference call for republicans and democrats, pelosi praised the president and the actions. i listened to secretary of state and secretary of defense and i layed into them with the idea, stop saying as many americans. what we want to see is as many americans. why can the french and british go out and get citizens and why can't america? the only thing that is holding back is the will to do it and the authority from this president. how can you get it so wrong or is he just not remembering it. this is an atrocity that will harm this nation for years to come, empower our adversaries and making our allies continue to question. i have heard from ambassadors not knowing where america will be in the future. we've heard from world leaders, even to tony blair and you see what china is trying to do to taiwan and he has empowered iran which will probably have american weapons soon and now we are hearing isis is possible along the airport. why is this president either lying to us or not knowing the truth of what's going on and trying to defend it but only calling on the press that is predetermined? maria: well, on the tony blair comment, i was reading the story tony blair calls this an imbecile move. that was reported earlier. you mentioned the hr1 voting bill and i want to get back to that because i've got to tell you, there are viewers of this program who have lost faith in the republican leadership, lost faith in mitch mcconnell and in you because we do not know if you have your arms around free and fair elections. how come there's no discussion about all of the states that are changing their voting laws right now, how come there's no discussion about the audit going on in arizona right now? what are you going to do? can you prove to the american people that you are in control here and able to ensure that we will have free and fair elections in 2022 and 2024? >> well, first and foremost, maria, you can see it's not in law. the answer is, yes, we can. secondly, if we watch the states, georgia passed an election law that more people are registered to vote than any time before and difficult to ever cheat again. state after state where dem kravitz have left the state. that's where the difficulty lies. now we got them back to texas. we are going exactly what the constitution says, not to make this a national campaign but empower the states to where we are going. we are fighting every single day. we watch the democrats because they could not pass hr1, they are bringing hr4 now while thousands of americans are being held hostage in afghanistan. that's their priority because they know they will lose the election. nancy pelosi is only down to 4 votes and they want to spend another almost $5 trillion to bring the greater inflation. you know, president biden said he's going to bring us back. he brought us back to the 70's being hostage in afghanistan, oil prices the highest we have seen. begging opec to produce more and we are watching they are trying to cheat in elections, inflation, a number that we have not seen. this is jimmy carter on steroids and this is just 8 months into the administration. i will promise you this just as we have done each and every day. we will fight just as we are going to fight this week and we will win and the next century will be the american century because we know how the govern. maria: all right, i like that promise. real quick before you go, you and your colleagues came back early from cay vagues to vote tomorrow, what does this week look like, is joe biden's economic agenda going to get blown up as a result of this massive mistake in afghanistan? congressman: i hope the focus of congress is just on the thousands of americans who are in afghanistan right now to make sure we protect the servicemen and women that bring them home. instead of listening to nancy pelosi saying she's having a conversation with the president about election law, why are they protecting the border from those 5,000 prisoners who have just left afghanistan and have the hope of coming across our borders? maria: yeah, we will see about that. you've been to the border, you've seen it firsthand. house minority leader kevin mccarthy. wonderful to have you, sir, we will be right back. ♪ ♪ ♪ >> tech: every customer has their own safelite story. this couple loves camping adventures and their suv is always there with them. so when their windshield got a chip, they wanted it fixed fast. they drove to safelite autoglass for a guaranteed, same-day, in-shop repair. we repaired the chip before it could crack. and with their insurance, it was no cost to them. >> woman: really? >> tech: that's service you can trust, when you need it most. ♪ pop rock music ♪ >> singers: ♪ safelite repair, safelite replace. ♪ >> we know of no circumstance where american citizens are carrying american passport or trying to get through the airport. we are working on a variety to verify that number, the americans are still on the country as we work on this because we don't have the exact number of countries, americans are there. what interest do we have in afghanistan at this point with al-qaeda gone? maria: just 3 concerning statements made by president biden during his address to the nation on friday. he also promised to bring home any american who wants to come home. contradicting his own defense secretary who said we do not have the capability to rescue large numbers of americans right now. joining me right now is arkansas senator tom cotton, he's an army veteran and served in afghanistan from 2008 to 2009, he sits on the senate judiciary and armed services committee and we are honored to have him this morning. senator, first, thank you so much for your service to our great country. this all must be personal to you. how do you see it? >> thank you, maria. well, for so many veterans who served in afghanistan or their gold star family members, this is tragic, heartbreaking, it's sad but it's also infuriating because it was not just predicted -- predictable, it was predicted that joe biden's ill-con received, ill-plan decision to rush troops out in the middle of the fighting season could lead to this kind of chaos that we see now where we have anywhere from 10 to 15,000 americans stranded behind taliban lines, unable to get to the airport and direct contradiction what joe biden said friday which own secretary defense was contradicting about. my office has been on the phone with hundreds and hundreds of americans and afghans who report taliban gains outside of the airport beating people with sticks and pipes and chains, confiscating passports, confiscating visas. it is in the a free passage situation in kabul right now to the airport and it remains that way today. that's something that joe biden needs to stop today. he needs to commit to getting out every american and stop playing word games saying things like, well, every american who wants to go or as many americans as we can, it needs to be clear, we will get out every american from behind taliban lines. maria: yeah, it certainly has not been clear. is this a hostage situation? senator: yeah, maria, in effect, the americans are hostages to the taliban. they may not be under lock and key in a jail but if the taliban control all of the airports once we leave and they control all of the border crossings, then we are going to be a hostage to fortune to the taliban's good will to the americans. there's been a lot of comparisons in the past week, to sigone 1975, i would say this is much worse than what happened in sigone 1975 but the scenario that troubles me going forward the tehran of 1979. 52 americans hostage and paralyzed america for more than a year. we have 10 to 15,000 americans who are in effect hostages to the taliban right now, joe biden needs to make it clear to the taliban that we are not leaving until everyone is gone and if their injured, we may do exactly what we did in 2001. maria: well, look, it's important to point out the number of troops in afghanistan right now. talk about that and i want to get your take on what the motivation was to close bagram air base first. he closed the air base on julys that had even as he's shutting down the one opportunity to protect people while there are thousands of americans on the ground in afghanistan. first the point about the number of troops in afghanistan today? >> yeah, maria, i think this illustrates very well joe biden's incompetence in handling the withdrawal. we announced the withdrawal in the spring. we had 2500 troops in afghanistan. we now have 7,000 troops in afghanistan, maria, to try to get americans out. so we have almost 3 times as many troops in afghanistan to get out of afghanistan as we had when joe biden announced we were getting out of afghanistan. nothing can probably better indicate the incompetence of joe biden of executing the withdrawal and then when you talk about bagram air base, the chairman of the joint chiefs made it pretty clear the other day that the military was given a maximum troop level that they can have in afghanistan starting july 1 and to control both the embassy and the airport as well as bagram req