Vice President J.D. Vance’s long-standing warnings about the national security risks posed by unvetted Afghan refugees have reentered the spotlight following the shooting of two West Virginia National Guard soldiers in Washington, D.C., allegedly by an Afghan national who entered the United States in 2021.

Vance first raised alarms in September 2021 as a U.S. Senate candidate, following the Biden-Harris administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.

In an interview with Breitbart News’s Matthew Boyle, Vance said the administration “create[d] an opportunity for terrorists” by resettling large numbers of Afghans without proper screening.

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“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 told Boyle.

Vance said the Taliban had freed thousands of Islamic State prisoners from U.S. bases abandoned during the withdrawal.

“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.

He also challenged claims that Afghan evacuees had undergone thorough screening.

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“The idea that these people are vetted is a lie, and we need to call out that lie,” Vance said.

He criticized accusations that opponents of the resettlement effort were motivated by racism.

“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.”

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After being sworn in as vice president in January 2025, Vance repeated his concerns during an interview with CBS.

When “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan asserted, “These people are vetted!,” Vance responded, “Just like the guy who planned a terrorist attack in Oklahoma a few months ago?”

Vance was referring to the October 2024 arrest of 27-year-old Nasir Ahmad Tawhedi.

According to the Department of Justice, Tawhedi “conspired and attempted to provide material support to ISIS and obtained firearms and ammunition to conduct a violent attack” in the United States.

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Breitbart’s Elizabeth Weibel reported that Tawhedi was charged with plotting an ISIS-related attack on Election Day.

The announcement came as outlets including CNN argued against concerns raised by President Donald Trump, Vance, and Sen. Ron Johnson about Afghan refugees not being “properly vetted.”

New scrutiny emerged this week after the attack on two National Guard soldiers deployed to Washington, D.C., under President Trump’s authority.

Breitbart’s Paul Bois reported that the alleged shooter, 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal, is an Afghan national who entered the United States in September 2021 under Biden’s Operation Allies Welcome.

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Fox News correspondent Bill Melugin reported that Lakanwal’s permission to remain in the United States expired in September.

Bois wrote that “The New York Times later reported that the shooting occurred near ‘the entrance to the Farragut West Metro Station,’” and that Secretary of War Pete Hegseth called the attack “cowardly,” adding it would “only stiffen our resolve to ensure that we make Washington D.C. safe and beautiful.”

Following the shooting, President Trump ordered the deployment of an additional 500 National Guard soldiers to the Washington area, according to Breitbart’s Nick Bilbertson.

 

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