Two Republican senators expressed their deep concerns about the possibility that ISIS could soon target Americans after the terror group killed more than 130 people on Saturday at a concert hall in Russia.
On Sunday, Marco Rubio of Florida and Tom Cotton of Arkansas appeared on separate TV news programs to not only say how concerned they were that a future attack could soon target American people, but also to complain about how bad President Joe Biden’s foreign policies have been.
The group that is believed to be responsible for the attack in Moscow over the weekend is ISIS-K, the same terror group that carried out a suicide bombing in 2021 in Kabul, Afganistan, that left more than 170 Afgans and 14 U.S. service members dead.
Cotton, who’s a member of the Intelligence Committee in the Senate, appeared on “Fox News Sunday,” saying:
“It’s deeply regrettable that innocent civilians, women and children were killed in Moscow, but the next attacks can be against an American embassy in Asia or in Europe or against students traveling to Europe on a school bus trip for spring break. Again, this is a very dangerous echo of President Biden’s failed withdrawal from Afghanistan.”
He added that he’s “very worried” about a potential future ISIS attack against Americans, and said the risk is a”grave danger.”
Rubio likewise linked the botched Afghanistan withdrawal to this most recent attack, saying there’s a definite possibility that ISIS-K could look to target the U.S. on American soil.
During an appearance on “This Week” on ABC Sunday, Rubio said:
“[ISIS-K] reconstituted itself, as we warned would happen when we had this disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. One of the reasons why we didn’t want to withdraw precipitously is because you gave them an operating space to reorganize themselves and plan externally, and since that time, they’ve attacked inside of Afghanistan.
“They conducted an attack inside of Iran not too long ago, and now this one in Russia, and they’ll do it here in the homeland.”
Rubio commented that this all ties into U.S. border security as well. One way that terrorists might look to enter America, he said, is through smuggling operations that are going on right now.
As he explained:
“Common sense tells you if they run a trafficking network of people that will most certainly use it to move operatives into the United States. So, I’m not claiming there’s an imminent threat to the U.S., but I am saying that the border situation and the existence of that network is a threat to the United States.
“If they could do what they did in Moscow in the United States, they would do it in a heartbeat. They want to do it.”
On Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin acknowledged that the attack was carried out by Islamic militants, though he did place blame on Ukraine as well.
