Vance’s past warnings reignite after Afghan national named as suspect in DC Guard shooting
Vice President JD Vance has long cautioned about the U.S. refugee vetting process — dating back to the U.S. withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in 2021 and the refugees who...
By Fox News · Fox News
Vice President JD Vance has long cautioned about the U.S. refugee vetting process — dating back to the U.S. withdrawal of troops from Afghanistan in 2021 and the refugees who came afterward. Now, Vance’s previous remarks on the matter are resurfacing after two National Guard troops were shot in Washington Wednesday. Law enforcement officials identified the shooting suspect as Rahmanullah Lakanwal, 29, who entered the U.S. legally in 2021 under the Biden administration's Operation Allies Welcome program that sought to help resettle Afghan refugees in the U.S. In 2021, Vance posted a video to social media in response to then-Sen. Ben Sasse, R-Neb., who argued that the U.S. had an obligation to assist refugees seeking to depart Afghanistan. "Yes, let’s help the Afghans that helped us, but let’s ensure that we’re properly vetting them, so that we don’t get a bunch of people who believe they should blow themselves up at a mall because somebody looked at their wife the wrong way," Vance, a Marine Corps veteran, said in the video clip. ALLEGED DC SHOOTER ENTERED US UNDER AFGHAN RESETTLEMENT PUSH MAYORKAS VOWED WOULD BE DONE ‘SWIFTLY AND SAFELY' Vance also claimed that a Pew Research Center survey found that four in 10 Afghans believe suicide bombing is justified to protect Islam. Fox News Digital could not independently confirm the existence of the poll. However, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty, an American state-funded media organization, reported on the poll in 2013 with the same statistics. Vance’s office did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Fox News Digital. Afghanistan's top religious leaders that make up the Afghan Ulema Council have previously issued Islamic rulings to ban suicide attacks, and have claimed such attacks aren't in alignment with Islamic teachings. More recently, Vance voiced similar concerns in an interview with CBS’s Margaret Brennan in January, where he said that "we have vetting problems with a lot of these refugee programs, w…