Fox's Griffin reported that Democrats “stalled” funding on Afghanistan, but not that GOP blocked bill


On the December 4 edition of Fox News' Special Report with Brit Hume, while reporting on the increased levels of violence in Afghanistan, national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin claimed: “The Pentagon has requested $30 billion for the war in Afghanistan, but the funding is currently stalled by Democrats in Congress who are trying to pressure the president to pull troops out of Iraq.” However, Griffin did not note that on November 14, the House passed a $50 billion supplemental spending bill to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and other military operations until February 2008 that would require President Bush to begin pulling troops out of Iraq. Bush -- who had not requested a separate funding bill for Afghanistan but had asked for $196 billion to fund the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and other operations through fiscal year 2008 -- threatened to veto the House bill, and Senate Republicans successfully blocked it on November 16.

Media Matters for America previously noted that on the November 29 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, congressional correspondent Ed Henry reported that President Bush “ripp[ed] into Democrats for dragging their feet” on passing a funding bill for Iraq and Afghanistan, but Henry did not note the bill was passed by the House and blocked by Senate Republicans.

From the December 4 edition of Special Report with Brit Hume:

GRIFFIN: A suicide bomber rammed a NATO convoy shortly after Defense Secretary Robert Gates drove down the same road in Kabul earlier today. Twenty-two Afghans were wounded. The last two years in Afghanistan have been the most violent since the Taliban were overthrown by Coalition forces in 2001.

GATES [video clip]: I have been concerned about the fact that there has been a growing level of violence here in Afghanistan over the last couple of years.

GRIFFIN: Which Gates attributed to the coalition forces' increasingly aggressive pursuit of the Taliban. A new poll showed just over half of all Afghans think the U.S. and NATO can provide them with security, down from 67 percent a year ago. Afghanistan's army chief asked Gates for more forces to train the Afghan army. Right now, the U.S. has sent 70 trainers. The Afghans say they need 2 to 3,000.

GATES [video clip]: There is more that can be done. And we will do our part to do that.

GRIFFIN: The Pentagon has requested $30 billion for the war in Afghanistan, but the funding is currently stalled by Democrats in Congress who are trying to pressure the president to pull troops out of Iraq. Some in Washington are asking whether Afghanistan needs a surge similar to the strategy that's been so successful in Iraq, an extra 30,000 troops to fight a growing insurgency. Those who recommended the Iraq surge to President Bush say it would take probably double that number of surged troops in Afghanistan.