Five years after the bombing at Abbey Gate, 13 Gold Star families are still waiting for a real, bipartisan accounting of what happened during the withdrawal from Afghanistan — and of the two decades of war that led to it. Paul Rieckhoff sits down with Connell McShane on News Nation for the weekly Whiskey Tango Foxtrot Wednesday hit and refuses to let the anniversary pass as another partisan food fight. He walks through what he calls the great American betrayal of Afghanistan, the Afghan allies still hung out to dry at home and abroad, and why an honest after-action review matters more than another round of finger-pointing.
From there, the conversation pivots to the story the legacy media keeps missing: independents are now the plurality in sixteen states, roughly 48% of the country, while Republicans and Democrats sit at 27% each. Ten thousand Americans leave the two parties every single week. Paul breaks down the new farm team of independent veteran candidates — Todd Achilles up 5 on Jim Risch in Idaho, Seth Bodnar in Montana, competitive races in Nebraska and South Dakota — and explains why a single independent win in November could break the logjam the way Joe Manchin, Angus King, and Jesse Ventura have shown is possible. This is the map of the movement the MAGA machine and the DNC both want you to ignore.
In this episode
- Abbey Gate at five years: 13 empty seats at 13 family tables, and still no real bipartisan accountability hearing
- Why Paul calls the withdrawal the great American betrayal of Afghanistan — predictable, preventable, and ignored
- Afghan allies left behind, in-country and here at home, and what Trump and Hegseth could actually do about it
- The Pentagon’s mysterious new Abbey Gate documents — and why the country still needs an honest after-action review, not a food fight
- The summer of 2021 as the week Biden lost the independents and the veterans for good
- The real electoral math: 48% independent, 27% Republican, 27% Democrat — and 10,000 Americans leaving the two parties every week
- Todd Achilles up 5 on Jim Risch in Idaho, Seth Bodnar in Montana, plus competitive independent runs in Nebraska and South Dakota
- Why Seth Bodnar — Green Beret, Rhodes Scholar, former university president — represents the new farm team of independent candidates
- Why the movement doesn’t need a third party — it needs candidates who refuse to caucus with either side
- How one independent Senate win becomes the single most powerful vote in Washington
