In September 2021, then U.S. Senate candidate JD Vance warned that Joe Biden’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal and reckless refugee resettlement would “create an opportunity for terrorists.” He blasted the administration for flooding America with “thousands of unvetted people,” a failure he said put Americans at risk. As the nation’s newly sworn vice president in January 2025, Vance doubled down on the warning, telling CBS, “We know that there are cases of people who allegedly were property vetted and then were literally planning terrorist attacks in our country.”
U.S. Senate candidate JD Vance told Breitbart News’s Mathew Boyle in September 2021 that “Afghanistan by itself is a disaster, but you combine it with what’s going on at our southern border, you create an opportunity for all of these terrorists to flow across our country completely unchecked.” He revealed that the Taliban freed thousands of Islamic State prisoners from U.S. air bases abandoned by the Biden administration. “Now they’re all out of prison, and unless we control who’s coming into our own country, you know, eventually they are going to start blowing up our shopping malls, our restaurants, and hurting our people,” he said.
Vance went on to say:
The idea that these people are vetted is a lie, and we need to call out that lie. Now, if we do that of course, what they [leftists] say is “the reason you don’t want these Afghans in your community is because you are a racist.” Well, that’s not true.
I don’t care about the color of their skin. Here’s what I care about — that according to Pew Research, 40 percent of people who live in Afghanistan believe that suicide bombings are an acceptable way to solve a problem. Are we allowed to say that I don’t want 100,000 people unvetted from a country where nearly half the people think suicide bombing is an OK way to solve a problem? Because I don’t want that.
Shortly after being sworn in as vice president in January, Vance squared off against CBS Face the Nation’s Margaret Brennan, who claimed, “These people are vetted!” Vice President Vance responded sharply, saying, “Just like the guy who planned a terrorist attack in Oklahoma a few months ago?”
In October 2024, the Department of Justice announced the arrest of Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi, 27, who had been residing in Oklahoma, had “conspired and attempted to provide material support to ISIS and obtained firearms and ammunition to conduct a violent attack” in the United States, Breitbart’s Elizabeth Weibel reported. He was charged with planning a violent attack in the name of ISIS on Election Day.
“The press release from the DOJ announcing charges against Tawhedi for plotting an ISIS-related terrorist attack to occur on Election Day comes after outlets such as CNN have argued against claims from former President Donald Trump, Sen. JD Vance (R-OH), and Sen. Ron Johnson (R-WI) that Afghanistan refugees fleeing their country in the aftermath of the Taliban’s takeover were not being ‘properly vetted,’ Weibel wrote.
On Wednesday, Breitbart reported the attack on two West Virginia National Guard soldiers deployed by President Donald Trump to Washington, D.C., was allegedly carried out by Rahmanullah Lakanwal, a 29-year-old Afghan national, Breitbart’s Paul Bois reported. Multiple news outlets reported that Lakanwal entered the U.S. in September 2021 under Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome. Fox News’s Bill Melugin reported that his permission to be in the United States expired in September.
Bois wrote, “The New York Times later reported that the shooting occurred near ‘the entrance to the Farragut West Metro Station,’ Secretary of War Pete Hegseth calling the act ‘cowardly,’ adding that it will ‘only stiffen our resolve to ensure that we make Washington D.C. safe and beautiful.’”
In response, President Trump ordered the deployment of 500 additional National Guard soldiers to the DC area, Breitbart’s Nick Bilbertson reported.
Bob Price is the Breitbart Texas-Border team’s associate editor and senior news contributor. He is an original member of the Breitbart Texas team. Price is a regular panelist on Fox 26 Houston’s What’s Your Point? Sunday morning talk show. He also serves as president of Blue Wonder Gun Care Products.
