CNN "CNN Newsroom" - Transcript: Interview with Brian Mast

Interview

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BROWN: And heartbreaking scenes continue to play out. In some cases parents are passing their babies to total strangers to get them out of an increasingly dire situation. One source tells CNN that much of the U.S. embassy's Afghan staff have been, quote, "screwed over" and remain trapped in Kabul.

For veterans of the war in Afghanistan, all these images and anecdotes are especially painful. They befriended and relied on some of these very people during their tours of duty. Brian Mast worked alongside Afghan citizens as a bomb disposal expert. The last IED he tried to disarm went off and he lost both legs.

Brian Mast, a Purple Heart recipient and now Republican congressman from Florida, joins me now.

Thank you so much for joining us, Congressman. Recently you told the "Wall Street Journal," "People are coming to us in desperation. To let somebody fall through the cracks is a death sentence, it's a death warrant for the crime of helping American."

Congressman, we just heard from President Biden a short time ago. And I'd like you to listen to something he said.

(BEGIN VIDEO CLIP)

JOE BIDEN, PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES: Let me be clear. The evacuation of thousands of people from Kabul is going to be hard and painful no matter when it started, when we began. It would have been true if we had started a month ago or a month from now. There is no way to evacuate this many people without pain and loss of heartbreaking images you see on television. It's just a fact. My heart aches for those people you see.

(END OF VIDEO CLIP)

BROWN: Congressman Mast, as someone who served in Afghanistan, what is your response to Biden claiming a withdrawal was always going to be chaotic like this?

REP. BRIAN MAST (R-FL): I would say flat out it's not a fact. He said it's fact. It's not a fact. I think he's taking his talking points in this way. Look at whatever's going on in Afghanistan or around the world and just say the opposite. I think that's really what his people are telling him right now. Because you look at the situation and you look at what he did just prior to this. You go to another quote from President Biden that said, the Afghans now have the most advanced military weaponry, which we don't have an inventory of, by the way, right now.

Why would they leave the most advanced military weaponry to what they assessed would be a chaotic situation that's playing out that we see right now? It was a total misread of everything going on.

BROWN: The Biden administration has managed to evacuate 33,000 people without a single U.S. life being lost. Does that deserve any credit in your view?

MAST: Our military deserves every bit of credit for putting their lives at risk in a situation that is infinitely more dangerous because unfortunately the biggest program for the administration in my assessment is the optics. They went in there saying over a week ago we're not going to call this a combat mission.

[18:50:02]

That's because they were concerned about the optics of the situation. They weren't pushing out in order to get more of our people inside of that cordoned area because they were concerned about the optics of it. I'm going to give you something that I can only say as Brian Mast's opinion. I think that they rushed out of Afghanistan so quickly because they wanted the optics of getting out before 9/11 to have a rah-rah ceremony on that day.

BROWN: So you clearly have these strong feelings that Joe Biden made a huge mistake in Afghanistan. And again this is personal for you. You served there, you lost two legs, but we can't undo the past couple of week and the decisions that have already been made, so what should we be doing right now to protect as many people as possible from the Taliban?

MAST: Yes, to be clear I lost two legs and a finger as well.

BROWN: And a finger. Thank you.

MAST: But in that, you know, in that point, what we need to be doing is two very specific things. Number one, everything possible to get our Americans and those that helped us out alive, and everything possible, every option on the table to make that happen. I alluded to a point just a moment ago that's so important in this effort. We do not have an inventory of the most sophisticated military weaponry that was left to the Afghans that's now in Taliban control, probably some of it in an Iranian control.

Give you a quick example, how many Raytheon built stinger missiles, those are surface-to-air, shoulder-fired missiles are now in the hands of the Taliban when we're moving thousands of individuals out by aircraft. That's one easy example of the kind of threat that exists on the ground when they have our weaponry, that they are becoming more and more familiar with every minute.

BROWN: Yes. That is certainly a concern among people I have spoken with on both sides of the aisle, that now the Taliban and perhaps potentially other terrorist groups could have the weapons that the U.S. have given to Afghan forces. As all of that is playing out, you have President Biden extending the parameter of the airports, so U.S. troops will now be extending the perimeter. What danger to they face in doing that?

MAST: Infinite amount of danger. Now no more capable groups on the ground that our Marines, than our rangers, to go out there and secure airfields. They know this mission. They train for it year in and year out for decades. It's just the bread and butter of what they do. But again, they have the most sophisticated military weaponry. We saw images of Taliban just the other day, in U.S. garments, in helmets with night vision optics on them, which means your nighttime operations now are infinitely more dangerous with what's going on there because they can see in the dark, whereas before we only had a specific capability to see in the dark in those (INAUDIBLE). Every bit of it is that much more dangerous, not just because of the

equipment, but also because of what you could say is the high ground. We are their hostages in the cordoned off area whereas a couple of weeks ago the Taliban were our hostages. We have the high ground of the most fortified embassy, the most fortified airbase, Bagram Airbase, probably anywhere in the world. We have those high ground positions. We do not those high ground positions in the same way. Those are all reasons that it's infinitely more dangerous.

BROWN: And you have President Biden also saying today that every American will be able to make it home. But at the same time he wouldn't detail how they're getting some of the Americans out and to the airport there. Does that tell you that special forces are going in to rescue them and bringing them to the airport?

MAST: I'm not going to speak to which assets specifically are all on the ground beyond those that have already been mentioned, but I am confident that those that had the capability are standing by ready to go. It's whether the president will unleash those that have the capability to go and get our Americans home.

BROWN: I want to talk about the Afghan allies who were there clamoring to get in and get on a flight and get out of Afghanistan. You strongly believe we owe it to some of the Afghans to get them to safety. Do you think America should give them asylum?

MAST: You look at those that are applying for special immigrant visas, this could have been done in a lot better way, but we need to get to those that helped us, their families, their spouses, their children, we need to get them out of Afghanistan back to the hope that America offers and away from the threat that the Taliban offer in Afghanistan. You know, specifically I would tell you on this front, we believe in that enough that we have been working on this day in and day out for weeks and even months and years on these, but specifically for the past couple of weeks.

There hasn't been a day that's gone by where I haven't received a message, a phone call, an e-mail or something personally saying I'm this U.S. service member. I was contacted by this interpreter or somebody that I worked with, can you help us get the picture, their identification to that cordoned area to help get them through into the Kabul airport, or into this place? Or can they get into Pakistan and get to the embassy there? Or can they get here?

Every single day right up to the point I received a message about this probably about 30 minutes ago, it was the most recent one.

[18:55:03]

I believe in this enough that, you know, you see the images of children being handed over the wall. If the State Department needs a family to send any of those children to, my wife and I will take in those children, as I believe there are probably millions of Americans that would say the exact same thing.

BROWN: Congressman Brian Mast, thank you so much for coming on. Thank you for your service in Afghanistan, all the sacrifices you have made. I think watching our U.S. troops there on the ground surrounding the airport, helping these, you know, babies and others who were just there in desperation is just an inspiration for every American to see. We want thank all of our troops. Thank you, again, Congressman.

MAST: Yes, ma'am.

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