Lara Loganโs Plea to America: Rise Up Before Itโs Too Late
26 Aug 2021
BUCK: For some additional context on whatโs happening on the ground, war correspondent and Fox Nation host Lara Logan. Lara, thank you for being with us.
LOGAN: (hoarse voice) Thank you for having me โ and I apologize for my voice. Iโve been basically up day and night working with teams and teams of Americans who are trying to rescue Afghans and help them get to safety. And, you know, thereโs no rest, right? Everybodyโs in the same boat. But there is literally โ youโve never seen anything like it. I mean, literally nothing like it. The Americans who are coming back from operations and in-between operations who are going out to rescue people, and their own government is trying to stop them.
CLAY: Lara, youโve covered all sorts of wild scenarios in your career โ and thank you for coming on the show. As we just came in, reports now up on Fox News that at least 10 U.S. service members have been killed today in Kabul. Is there anything in your history as a journalist that reminds you at all of the chaos that is going on in Afghanistan? I know youโre probably too young, like we are, to have remembered what was going on in Saigon in 1975, but certainly thereโs been talk surrounding Benghazi. Where can you even go to to think of a precedent for the situation right now on the ground in Afghanistan?
LOGAN: You canโt. And Iโll tell you why. Because on the beaches of Normandy and even at Pearl Harbor, Americans acted with honor and with dignity and they stood up for what was good and right and just. And that is not the case today for the United States government. It is the case for American soldiers and intelligence operatives within the agencies. Itโs not the case for the State Department, apparently, or for the White House or any of those people who have the power to change everything that you are seeing happen right now.
They can change it all! You canโฆ Literally, the Talibanโs forces are out in full view. You could obliterate their leadership. You could get rid of the Al-Qaeda terrorists that are part of the Taliban and part of their leadership. You could use your diplomatic power to stop Pakistanโs support for your enemies and Qatar, another supposed ally, thatโs also financing this invasion of Afghanistan.
You could support your Afghan allies, the special operations soldiers that you have lied about and discredited. Lloyd Austinโs saying, โCanโt buy willpower.โ You know what you canโt buy, Lloyd Austin? Integrity! Right? And courage. And the truth. Canโt buy it, โcause it either is or it isnโt. So we have never in our lifetimes ever seen anything like this. Americans have always been able to go into the world with the knowledge that they truly represent a great ideal: Freedom as a way of life.
It may not be perfect and we all know itโs not perfect. Goodness, thatโs all we hear about these days is how imperfect it is. Well, thatโs one thing. But now weโve gone to the point where, you know, America is the root of all level, and believing in America, being patriotic is now a crime, and itโs a crime of such significance that people should be in jail for it. Because donโt forget there are a lot of Americans rotting in solitary confinement today for going to the Capitol on January 6th.
And none of them have been convicted of a crime yet. So what youโre looking at right now is literally not just America but the ideals and the ideas for which America stands and for which, by the way, the Afghan government and the country, the nation stood. All of that has been destroyed by our own hand. We did it to ourselves. This wasnโt a forced error. We didnโt have the Chinese or the Russians hacking us and stealing victory from us.
We gave it away. In fact, defeatโฆ You know, surrender is the only the only type of victory that actually has to be given. You canโt take it, and we gave it not just to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda. We gave it to every American enemy all over the world. And what we took from our allies was the certainty that you could count on us, which means it works both ways. We no longer have the certainty that we can count on them, and where does that leave us? Isolated and weak, with no moral authority on the world stage โ and that puts Americans everywhere at risk.
BUCK: Lara, the situation on the ground right nowโฆ We just have gotten the heartbreaking news about at least, theyโre saying, 10 U.S. service members killed in Kabul. This is far from over, as we all know. There is a timeline. There is a clock weโre operating under here. What โ
LOGAN: No, thereโs no timeline.
BUCK: What are you hearing about the security โ
LOGAN: Thereโs no timeline!
BUCK: Iโm sorry?
LOGAN: Thereโs no timeline. That is false. That is the narrative that you have been forced, you know, and manipulated into believing is the case. We are imposing a false timeline because we are pretending that the Taliban calls the shots!
BUCK: Just to be clear, I was referring to the Biden administration timeline. I hear what youโre saying, which is we shouldnโt be operating under a timeline but โ
LOGAN: Even the Biden administrationโs timeline false, because there is no timeline when it comes to what youโre talking about. Youโre gonna let terrorists on the 20th anniversary of 9/11โฆ youโre gonna allow terrorists, the same ones responsible for that attack, for killing almost 3,000 Americans. Youโre gonna allow them to kill more of your people, and youโre gonna do nothing about it. And you know what?
We should have known this because they did exactly the same thing in Benghazi. They allowed Al-Qaeda, on the 10th anniversary of 9/11, to kill Chris Stevens and Ty Woods and Glen Doherty, right? They allowed them to kill Americans in celebration of 9/11, and theyโre doing the same thing here almost on the celebration of the 20th anniversary. And the Obama administration did nothing to prevent that attack.
They did nothing to intervene, and they did very little since. In fact, what they did was spend the next few years apologizing for Islamic terrorists, pretending that Islamic terrorism and extremism didnโt exist, and that anyone who wanted to have that conversation was pushing hate and was Islamophobic. They even created the term Islamophobia!
And then people like the Open Society Foundation came up a step-by-step way that you could establish Islamophobia as a counter to any criticism of Islamic terrorism, and that was in 2,000 documents that were in a WikiLeaks dump from Open Society Foundation records that, oh โ surprise, surprise โ are no longer available online. You canโt find them, right? But these things have been well funded and well organized. You know, itโs so important for Americans to realize that they donโt have toโฆ There is no timeline. Itโs false!
BUCK: Lara, can I ask you, do you think thereโs any chance that the Biden administration could be convinced or is willing to take, from what youโre saying here, blow out this timeline if there are still Americans on the ground, or are your sources telling you, no, the Biden team is pulling everybody out one way or the other by the end of this month?
LOGAN: Look at their actions! The answer lies in their actions. No matter what has happened along the way, even when Afghans were clinging to an Air Force plane and plummeting to their deaths below, right? Six Afghans whose bodies were recoveredโฆ I spoke to people who were part of that. Even when that was happening, the chaotic scenes at the airport, the criticism that the administration has had, the emphasis on the how.
No oneโs saying, โDonโt withdraw.โ No oneโs saying, โYou canโt withdraw.โ Theyโre just saying, โYou donโt do it like this. Donโt deliver this massive defeat and sort of, you know, drench us in the blood of betrayal. That will be a historic shame!โ I mean, Americans will be defined by shame and betrayal for the rest of this โ for eternity! I mean, youโll never come back from this.
Thereโs no saying, โWell, weโre a great ally except for that that blip in Afghanistan. Oops! Sorry. Didnโt mean to do that.โ Thereโs no coming back from something like this, because you know why? โCause itโs about principle. You either are a loyal friend or youโre not. You either are there when someone needs you or youโre not, and when we need you, youโre either there or youโre not. And you know what?
The Afghans were. When we asked them to be with us, they were. When we asked Vladimir Putin, โCan we use your territory and your allies in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan for our planes and our bases?โ he said, โYes,โ in the wake of 9/11. Right? Even our adversaries were more reliable allies than we have been to the Afghan people. So will the Biden administration do anything different?
If you look at their actions, there has been zero indication that they are willing to change the outcome of their policies and their decisions, because theyโve done nothing to do that. The same with the southern border. People say, โOoooh, the Biden administration, you know, theyโre not acting.โ No, they did act. They acted to create the outcome that youโre seeing, and theyโre not acting to change it because they have the outcome that they want.
And unless the American people โ and Americaโs leaders on both sides of the aisle, Democrat and Republican, unless they โ stand up and say, โWe will not be misrepresented by you. We will not betray our allies. We will not be isolated on the world stage. We will not have our national security sacrificed on the altar of Americaโs enemies, both foreign and domesticโฆโ Unless you stand up and do that, you will bear the mark of shame, always, from this moment forward.
CLAY: Laraโฆ By the way, phenomenal. I agree with virtually everything that you have said, and youโve said it so eloquently. What should happen to Joe Biden and his advisers and his military officials in the wake of Afghanistan? What should we do as a country, in your mind, to serve notice that this kind of decision and this kind of behavior is unacceptable?
LOGAN: Americans should be in the streets! They should be protesting. They wanted to take the power of the people away. Thatโs what January 6 was about. Thatโs what all these ridiculous DHS alerts about white supremacy, threats. If you talk about vote fraud, youโre a domestic terror threat. If you question Biden or the reaction to the vaccine or covid or whatever it is, now youโre a terrorist threat.
You know what? Americans have gone along with this for way too long. The truth is that Americans on both sides of the aisle can see that this is absolute tyranny. Right? They know that itโs false. Unfortunately, there are all of the Americans who have been deceived into believing that a bunch of yahoos can go take pictures of themselves in the Capitol and be violent and out of control and behave badly, and that they can really be intending to carry out an insurrection.
What was your plan, that you were gonna delay the vote to the next day? Was that your mark of success? I mean, for goodnessโ sake, right? This is so ridiculous, that people donโt think these policies through, and so what should happenโฆ You know, Iโm not a politician, obviously. Anyone listening to me can tell. But what I can tell you, this is what I know. I know whatโs true and I know whatโs not true.
And I know that the power of the people is the only thing they fear. Thatโs why theyโre branding you a terrorist. Thatโs why they are imprisoning you without trial. Thatโs whey theyโre sending Antifa, their brownshirts, into your neighborhoods to threaten and terrorize you. Thatโs why they go into the churches and burning them down, right? Itโs all based on tyranny and fear.
They want to control you. Donโt give them that victory that they canโt ever win. They cannot ever take it from you. It has to be given. When you surrender and you stay silent and you turn off the TV and you say, โAh, itโs too stressful.โ It is stressful. I agree. Iโm with you. Iโve had my periods where I donโt want to turn on the TV. But the reality is just because youโre not watching and paying attention, doesnโt mean it isnโt taking place.
So you turn around one day when the fighting is at your door, right? When the bombs that are going off in your neighborhood, when itโs pieces of your children that youโre picking up from the rubble just like they did on 9/11, right? When that happens, we cannot say itโs somebody elseโs fault. Because if it is true that this is a government of the people and by the people and for the people โ if those things are true โ then you have to make your voice heard. Demand action from your leaders, Democrats and Republicans. I cannot say it enough. This is not a left-right thing. It is a right and wrong thing. A right and wrong thing.
CLAY: Lara Logan, just absolutely phenomenal, Fox News war correspondent.
LOGAN: Right and wrong. Thatโs all it is.
CLAY: We need to get you on again. Thank you for all the work that you are doing to try to help people in Afghanistan. We will talk to you again soon.
LOGAN: Thank you so much.
Recent Stories

Douglas Murray Describes How Generations Have Been Taught to Hate the West
The brilliant Douglas Murray discusses his new book: "On Democracy and Death Cults."

Stephen Moore Breaks Down Trump's Tariff Strategy to Isolate China
He's worked for Donald Trump. He knows Donald Trump and he knows the strategy Trump's employing.

VIP Video: Trump Effectively Isolates China in Trade War
Watch Clay discuss the Trump tariff pause and strategy that is aimed squarely at China.

Clay Talks Obama Divorce Rumors on Set with Jesse Watters
Miss Clay on Jesse Watters Primetime? Watch it here.

Dr. Art Laffer's Strategy for Winning the Trade War
One of the world's preeminent economists tells Clay & Buck how he thinks the Trump tariffs can lead to an economic boom for America.