A pair of experts refuted one of the Trump administration's key deflections about the suspected Washington, D.C., gunman.
Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem and other top administration officials claim the suspect was "unvetted" after coming to the U.S. in 2021 from Afghanistan, where he worked with CIA-backed units, but former State Department official Joel Rubin told MS NOW that claim was absurd.
"This question, you know, the idea that somehow Afghans just show up unvetted in the United States is, is farcical," said Rubin, who served in the State Department during the Obama administration. "That's just not accurate. There are many programs, one, in particular, [the] Special Immigrant Visa program, SIV, which has had strong bipartisan support for years on Capitol Hill.Thousands of people who workedwith American forces in Afghanistan, as well as in Iraq,met conditions through vettingthat enabled them to come tothe United States. That doesn'tmean these are people whoaren't going to ever commit ahorrific, heinous act like wejust saw. But the idea thatthere was no vetting, thatsomehow there was a free forall that people walked in from Afghanistan is is just notaccurate."
"It's politicizingthis, it's unnecessary," Rubin added. "We needfacts before we need thesekinds of statements that thatare based not on what the longterm process has been for years.That was the process, includingduring the Trump team, Trumpterm number one, and so that'sa process that needs scrutiny,clearly, but highly doubtfulthat this person just came inwithout anybody checking hisbackground."
Security analyst Rob D'Amico, a former Marine and FBI agent, agreed with Rubin and highlighted suspect Rahmanullah Lakanwal's work with CIA-backed groups before he came to the U.S. and reportedly was granted asylum in April 2025, during Trump's presidency.
"If you don't think theCIA does background checks whenthey allow people onto theirbases and work with theiroperators and their agents, Imean, that's just that that initself, you're saying the CIAis not doesn't know how to doit," D'Amico said. "I had Afghans working forme as FBI [Legal Attaché)], and all ofthem had very seriousbackground checks, and some ofthem I did sign for the visas, and, again, as I said, they justdon't show up here. I justdon't like that this wholething is being politicized toshow it. Yes, the withdrawalfrom from Afghanistan was hasty.There's a lot of things thatcould have been done better,but people just didn't show up, and a lot of the vets that workwith them really helped thesepeople get in and were the onesbacking them to get in."