Rep. Troy Downing, R-Mont., slammed the Biden administration, telling Newsmax on Friday that officials "flat out lied" to the American people about the vetting of Afghan nationals brought into the United States following the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Downing told Newsmax's "National Report" that Americans were repeatedly assured that those entering the country had undergone full background checks and could be accounted for — claims he now says were misleading and put the nation at risk.
"We were guaranteed that these refugees or these Afghanis coming into the country were fully vetted," Downing said. "Now we're looking at the fact that a lot of them had really no data and no way to follow up whether they were vetted."
Downing's comments come after an Afghan national — admitted under Biden's Operation Allies Welcome — allegedly ambushed two National Guardsmen last month, killing one and seriously wounding the other.
Downing stressed that many Afghan nationals did work alongside U.S. forces honorably and at great personal risk, and that those individuals deserve protection. But he argued that the administration blurred the distinction between trusted partners and individuals whose identities could not be verified.
"But we were sold a false bill of sale here that these refugees coming over were ones that had worked with us, were fully vetted and that we didn't need to worry. And clearly that's not the case," he said.
The congressman said the lack of reliable background information raises serious national-security concerns.
"I'm angered that we were lied to by this administration and that it's so haphazardly put us at risk — put this entire nation at risk," Downing told Newsmax.
He added that the Trump administration's push for stricter scrutiny is "appropriate, given the fact that we don't know who they are," referencing cases where the government "just [doesn't] have the information to be able to say, yes, this is a person of good intent."
Downing said that when uncertainty exists, "we need to default on the protection of the American people."
Downing also weighed in on the break in the years-long investigation into the 2021 DNC and RNC pipe bombs, praising the renewed investigative effort that led to a suspect.
"Kudos to [FBI Director Kash] Patel and [Attorney General Pam] Bondi and the people who work for them for uncovering this," Downing said, noting that the arrest came without any major new evidence, but through persistent reexamination of existing material.
But that success, he argued, exposes deeper failures of federal law enforcement agencies under the Biden administration.
"We're going for almost five years with no new evidence — just actually good old-fashioned police work to figure this out," he said. "So that begs the question: Why was there either no desire or no confidence for being able to do this before?"
He added, "Was that intentional or was that incompetence?"
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