Plus: 6 Reasons China, Not Just Taliban, Benefits as US Exits From Afghanistan
August 20 2021
Happy Friday from Washington, where China’s gains in America’s retreat from Afghanistan are becoming painfully clear. Fred Lucas reports on that and on an eyebrow-raising study that puts the number of “unaccounted for” ballots at twice the margin of votes separating Biden and Trump. On the podcast, reassuring data on the effectiveness of COVID-19 vaccines from a Heritage Foundation researcher. Plus: the return of pricey pet projects on Capitol Hill, and individual takes on the chaotic Afghan exit from Cal Thomas, Tom Spoehr, and Ben Shapiro. On this date in 1975, the unmanned U.S. planetary probe Viking 1 lifts off from Cape Canaveral, Florida, on what will be a successful mission to Mars.
“These figures detail how the 2020 push to mail voting needs to be a one-year experiment,” says J. Christian Adams, president of the Public Interest Legal Foundation.
Although Beijing is about 3,400 miles from Kabul, the two countries share a 50-mile border and China is expected to give early diplomatic recognition to a Taliban government in Afghanistan.
“The safety and efficacy of the vaccines was tested [and] we are continuing to see data and there are overall overwhelmingly no serious effects,” says The Heritage Foundation’s Kevin Dayaratna.
Under Democrat leadership, this Congress has seen the return of earmarks, with well over 2,000 having passed the House of Representatives in the last couple months.
President Biden seeks to paint his choices as binary: either withdraw or send thousands more troops to fight the Taliban. But there was a third option, which was already working.
