Marjorie Taylor Greene says Americans deserve assault weapons because the Taliban have them

Controversial Republican congresswoman has many thoughts on Afghanistan

Marjorie Taylor Greene claimed the Biden administration was handing over weapons to the Taliban, and bizarrely suggested this should bolster Americans’ Second Amendment rights.

In a conspiracy theory-laden interview with Donald Trump’s former strategist Steve Bannon, Ms Greene laid out her thoughts on the security nightmare unfolding in Afghanistan.

She appeared to suggest that the US had gifted military hardware to the Taliban through its support of the Afghan Government.

“I wouldn’t be surprised at all if [the Biden administration] are paying the Taliban,” Ms Greene said.

“After all, they are paying them with weapons, vehicles, Blackhawk helicopters because the Afghan army is handing them over as fast as possible.”

The Georgia congresswoman said the Democrats had bungled the withdrawal, and that gave Americans the right to resist any effort to restrict ownership of assault weapons.

“Anytime any Democrat ever speaks to America about gun control again, and they want to talk to you about your AR-15, you tell them right now how many weapons and how many semi-automatic weapons did you hand over to terrorists in Afghanistan, to the Taliban, ISIS and possible Al-Qaeda before you ever talk to Americans about gun control,” she told Mr Bannon’s Real America’s Voice podcast.

On this special edition of Steve Bannon's #TheWarRoom, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene says she agrees with Trump that #Biden should resign, and went a step further stating he should be impeached. https://t.co/hqBNMDrnWI pic.twitter.com/zHm4W577Fy

— Real America's Voice (RAV) (@RealAmVoice) August 16, 2021

In its haste to depart, US forces left behind thousands of vehicles, buildings and weapons behind, having spent billions of dollars propping up Afghan forces.

Expectations among US military commanders were that the Afghan forces would use the weaponry to mount a meaningful resistance against the Taliban.

Ms Greene went on to say her team was writing up articles of impeachment to try to remove President Joe Biden from office over his handling of the crisis.

“Because I’m so disgusted with Joe Biden. You know I’ve already filed one set of articles of impeachment. But his failure as a president is unspeakable.

“President Trump right now is more presidential and he’s not even in the White House than Joe Biden can ever be or stand up to in the past seven months,” she said.

Mr Trump also tried to apportion blame for the chaotic Afghan withdrawal on his successor.

The former president claimed the US’s withdrawal was “the most embarrassing military outcome in the history of the United States”.

However, Mr Trump set the terms and timing for the withdrawal in an agreement reached with the Taliban while he was still in office.