VIRGINIA PUBLIC RADIO, BRAD KUTNER

7th District Congresswoman Abigail Spanberger met with business and community leaders in Goochland Tuesday.

But with America’s pullout from Afghanistan leading the headlines, the former CIA officer took time to share her views on the situation.

Spanberger’s 7th District tour highlighting the billions sent to Virginia as part of President Joe Biden’s American Rescue Plan was mostly jovial. But following a roundtable discussion the former CIA counter terrorism specialist and intel officer took a moment to agree with Biden’s assessment of the exit of US troops from Afghanistan and the country’s rapid fall to the Taliban.

“There’s always been very clear indications that at the point and time when the US would leave Afghanistan there would be significant challenges,” Spanberger said. “That’s why we as a nation have invested, frankly billions upon billions of dollars in Afghan forces, working towards a time when the US would leave.”

With American forces left mostly to support evacuations, she’s expressing sorrow for those like herself who invested years of their lives into the region and are now seeing it descend into chaos.

“To watch the Taliban take over is a heartbreaking turn of events for people who have devoted so much to the country and to efforts to strengthen it and to allow the government to function on its own which at this point is not the reality we’re witnessing,” she said.