Did no Republicans thank U.S. President Joe Biden for taking out the leader of Al Qaeda? No, that's not true: Several GOP members of Congress publicly acknowledged Biden for the July 31, 2022 drone strike in Kabul, Afghanistan that killed Ayman al-Zawahiri, the leader of Al Qaeda and one of the conspirators behind 9/11.
The claim was shared on a Twitter post (archived here) by Twitter user Dash Dobrofsky on August 1, 2022. It reads:
Not a single Republican has thanked Biden for taking out the leader of Al Qaeda. This means the Republicans side with Al Qaeda over America. They side with Saudi Arabia over America. They side with Russia over America. Yep. Despicable anti-American traitors. Vote them all out.
This is what the post looked like on Twitter at the time of writing:
(Source: Twitter screenshot taken on Wed Sep 21 02:02:13 2022 UTC)
However, public statements from Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C. (archived here), Rep. John Katko, R-NY (archived here) show that Republicans did explicitly thank Biden for ordering the operation.
(Source: Twitter screenshot taken on Mon Sep 19 22:31:23 2022 UTC)
(Source: Facebook screenshot taken on Mon Sep 19 23:02:57 2022 UTC)
The statements from Representative Katko and Senator Graham were posted prior to the tweet from Dash Dobrofsky. They contain no wording to support Dobrofsky's conclusion that a lack of GOP gratitude for the al-Zawahiri strike "means the Republicans side with Al Qaeda over America."
Rep. Liz Cheney, R-WY (archived here), and Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-IL (archived here) also voiced their appreciation.
Representative Liz Cheney's (R-WY) website posted a press release without a time stamp on August 1. On the evening of August 1, after Dobrofsky's tweet, Cheney tweeted her thanks to the Biden Administration and linked to the release.
Representative Kinzinger's press release appeared on August 2.
Nonetheless, on August 4, days after these GOP remarks, Dobrofsky, who hosts a podcast called "Uncovering The Truth," tweeted (archived here) that "I haven't heard any Republicans congratulate Biden for taking out the leader of Al Qaeda."
Additional Lead Stories fact checks related to Al Qaeda can be found here.
