Must Hear: Afghan Interpreter Begs America for Help

BUCK: We had a caller, if you recall, last week named Josh who was a veteran who served in Afghanistan who said he was in contact with his interpreter that he’s been trying to help get out. Josh joins us now on the phone. Josh, we appreciate your time. Give us an update as to where things are right now.

JOSH: Hi, guys. So, I ended up making contact with the interpreter again. He waited at the airport for four days with his family — little bit — almost no food, no water, and the military ended up kicking him out of the base. And when he went through the base, outside, the Taliban started searching people and started kidnapping people. And he made it through because he hides all of his documents in his wife’s burqa.

So, luckily, they didn’t search his wife. They searched him and his other family members. But he got through, got home, and now he has no idea what to do. He’s stuck there. I filed for SIV for him to get him here two to three months ago, and so Biden’s saying, “Oh, a lot of Afghans don’t want to come here.” That absolutely isn’t true. There’s been a wait list for Afghans to come here for months. It isn’t like a new thing. “Oh, now the Taliban are taking over. Now they want to come here.”

BUCK: Josh, I want to… We actually have… I know that you’re able to be in some contact with your translator. We’re gonna call him “Mike.” It’s not his name, folks. We’re trying to create some operational security baseline here. But “Mike” is the Afghan translator who is on the ground there just dealing with what Josh told us about. This audio… We have a recording, and this is what he had to say.

“MIKE”: I help American people. Right now, I need the help. Someone from America help me! Help me someone, please! Help my life from here. But I go there at the Kabul airports but I don’t have any good documents. You know, I have a, just copy of the paper and it, my badge. I have HR letter from floor company, and I have a signed document from SIV company. He needs a passport from me, American passport. He needs a visa. He needs a green card. But I don’t have any. Please, I need help from American peoples. Help me! Someone, help for me please! I’m going to die here. You know? I’m targeted by the Taliban here. I’m targeted. Maybe, maybe they are kill me.

BUCK: Josh, it’s heartbreaking, man. I know this was your translator. This was somebody that was alongside you over there and trying to help our country and keep our people alive in Afghanistan. What has to happen here for him to be able to get through?

JOSH: I mean, other interpreters have been allowed to fly out. I don’t get why they kicked him out. He told me they’re only allowing Americans or people with visas to leave. But I don’t get that. He has paperwork from me. I’ve sponsored him. He has all that paperwork from the embassy from months ago. It makes no sense why they would kick him out of the base. They’re sending him to his death, almost.

CLAY: Have you, Josh, had any contact with American politicians? I know a lot of different — and maybe we can help you get in touch with American political helpers here because a lot of them who have come on our show and certainly there have been a lot of people active on social media — senators, congressmen — who are able to help get people out. Where are you based, Josh? Where are you located?

JOSH: I’m located in California. I’ve emailed a bunch of senators. I’ve gotten no replies. I emailed a major that helped someone on another radio station, and I’ve gotten no reply from him, either. I’m guessing they’re extremely busy right now. But —

CLAY: All right. Here’s what we’re gonna do. Ali, who is on our staff, has been working hard on this. Ali, we’re gonna put more onto your plate here. I’m betting if we reach out to some of our guests of late, Senator Marsha Blackburn, Senator Haggerty, one of those individuals. I know Senator Tom Cotton has been very active in trying to help people get out there who are “stranded,” despite what Jen Psaki has said.

So we may need to reach out to one of those politicians that has been involved with our show to maybe help this man get out of Afghanistan, Josh. So we’re gonna try to work, and we’ll keep people updated on the show. You called in, for people who are not familiar with this story, to tell us about this man’s story last week, I think it was, or the week before. So thank you, Josh. We’re gonna continue to track this and we’ll try to reach out direct to politicians to see if we can help him get onto a plane and not get killed, frankly, by the Taliban, which you heard his voice yourself. He sounds like he is terrified it’s gonna happen.

JOSH: Yeah, he’s scared, and I’m scared to death for him because I feel like his life is almost in my hands. No one else is helping him, and I’m like a nobody. I got medically retired as an E5. So who am I?

BUCK: Well, you’re on the biggest radio show in the country now telling a lot of people listening about what’s going on here who care about it, Josh —

JOSH: Thank you.

BUCK: — and we’re gonna do what we can to try to get this resolved.

JOSH: Thank you.

BUCK: There’s a lot of folks who are in a similar situation to your “Mike” over there, but we’re gonna try to drill down into this case and see if we can move any levers to help your guy and to help others there, we’ll do so. And we appreciate you, Josh, first of all, for your service and for bringing this to our attention for joining us here on the air. Thank you very much.

JOSH: Thank you guys. You guys have a great day.

BUCK: Clay, it’s heartbreaking man. You could hear in that guy’s voice, that’s just a human being who’s got a wife and kids who’s terrified.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: And here we are now also having to focus on the fact we got thousands of Americans still in harm’s way.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: We gotta get our Americans out first. We want to get as many Afghans out as we can. It just — it defies belief that this could be as badly handled as this. I know that that’s not a helpful line of analysis now, but I do think it’s necessary to just put that out there. How the heck is the Biden administration messing this up so badly?

CLAY: Yeah. I talked about this on Sunday when I was speaking to a large group. We’ve talked a lot about CRT and the failures of America and the people who want to denigrate our country. You hear that voice from that Afghan man, and you see the imagery of people literally falling to their deaths as they were attempting to hang onto airplanes to leave Afghanistan.

And you see how much these people are willing to give up their entire lives to be able to have a scintilla of the freedom that we take for granted every day. And that’s why I know for many of you out there and certainly for Buck and I, we get so fired up at the constant derogation, denigration, attacks that are leveled upon the United States.

When you hear that man’s voice, you have to recognize that we are and have always been the greatest hope for freedom in all of human history. And the fact that the Biden administration could bungle this for tens of thousands of people just like that translator you heard talking to us, is just disgraceful and disgusting at an elemental level. They have fundamentally broken in many ways the compact of American excellence by their futility. It’s just… It’s infuriating.

BUCK: I’m hopeful that we’ll at least get some good news in the days ahead. Hopeful. It’s just like I said with, what was it, get them McCall where he said he feels there’s no way we’re gonna get all the Americans out. And if we’re not getting all the Americans out, Clay, I think it’s very clear we’re also not gonna get out all the Afghans.

CLAY: No doubt.

BUCK: There are Afghans who just want to get out of the country ’cause they hate the Taliban. I’m sympathetic to them. But that’s not the same thing as an Afghan who worked with our military and —

CLAY: Risked their lives.

BUCK: — risked their lives, risked their family’s lives, and was promised that when the time came, they would gut out. If we’re not gonna all the Americans out, we’re not getting them out.

CLAY: Yeah.

BUCK: That’s for sure. So now it’s just a question of how bad it’s gonna be. Folks, this is not gonna be a story with an ending that America is proud of at all. That’s what I see coming here. We’ll continue to follow it. I would be overjoyed if on the first week of September — the first day we do the show in the middle of next week — I can say, “Wow, Clay. Biden really got it together and surprised me. They actually were able to mount up and get this done.” Eating my words on this one being fantastic. I think the chances of that are very slim, and I think you and I both know that.

CLAY: Yeah. I don’t think there’s any doubt.