(WASHINGTON, DC)– Congressman Scott DesJarlais (R-TN-04) today questioned Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and ?Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley regarding the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan and Milley’s conversations with Speaker Pelosi and China about President Trump during a House Armed Services Committee hearing.

 

DesJarlais asked Secretary Austin why billions of dollars in United States military equipment was left behind in Afghanistan knowing the Afghan Army would fall following the U.S. troop withdrawal.

 

Austin said that the reason equipment was that America “wanted them to be successful.”

 

Rep. DesJarlais fired back at Austin, “If they’re [the Afghan Army] watching these hearings yesterday and today I’m guessing that they probably feel like they were played as fools because you all just said you knew they were going to fail. So here we have an army we built up we used them until we didn’t need them anymore to accomplish Biden’s objective and Trump’s objective of getting out of Afghanistan it went horribly wrong as we can all probably agree to.”

 

Congressman DesJarlais had Milley on the hot seat when questioning him on comments he made to Speaker Pelosi and China on President Trump’s mental competency.

 

The Tennessee congressman made reference to a “blunt” phone call General Milley had with Speaker Pelosi in January 2021 regarding her fears of President Trump maintaining control of nuclear weapons.

 

“In a transcript obtained from CNN Political, Woodward and Costa quoted Pelosi as saying, and this is to you, What I’m saying to you is that they couldn’t even stop him from an assault on the capitol who even knows what else he may do and is there anybody in charge at the White House who was doing anything but kissing his fat butt all over this.”

 

Milley was asked by Congressman DesJarlais if he recalled this specific conversation. The General responded that he had “not seen the transcript.”

 

“I think that would be firmly imprinted on my mind if the Speaker of the House said that,” said DesJarlais in a fiery exchange.

 

The congressman ended with asking General Milley if he had calls with Speaker Nancy Pelosi or any other foreign leaders about President Biden’s mental capacity or ability to carry out a nuclear order.

 

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Video of DesJarlais’ full questioning can be found here.