GOP Congressman Urges Blinken to Resign over ‘Indefensible’ Actions in Afghanistan
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Representative Joe Wilson (R., S.C.) called on Secretary of State Antony Blinken to resign on Monday during a hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee over his role in the botched U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan.
While Blinken testified before the committee, Wilson blasted the Biden administration for allowing the Taliban to take control of Afghanistan and turn it into a “safe haven for murderous terrorists.”
The South Carolina Republican also criticized the administration’s handling of the crisis at the U.S.-Mexico border, saying that it allows people on the FBI’s terrorist watchlist “to enter American neighborhoods as lone wolf suicide bombers to murder as many Americans as possible.”
“In American history, American families have never been at a greater risk of attack at home than today,” Wilson said. “The global war on terrorism is not over, it has been moved from abroad to American homes. As the grateful father of an Afghanistan veteran, I especially see your actions as indefensible.”
He told Blinken that the administration’s “bizarre abandoning of Bagram Airfield” on July 1 “led directly to 13 Marines murdered at Kabul” in an attack by a suicide bomber affiliated with ISIS-K outside of the airport on August 26.
“You should resign,” Wilson told Blinken.
Lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have criticized the administration for mishandling the withdrawal. Biden chose to withdraw American forces at the height of fighting season amid a gathering Taliban offensive. The U.S. military left Bagram Airfield without informing its new Afghan commander and before extracting all U.S. civilians and Afghan special immigrant visa applicants, allowing it to be taken by the Taliban on August 15.
Additionally, Afghan forces were left without any substitute for U.S. air support or the American contractors who serviced the planes they were left by the U.S.
Still, Blinken dodged Wilson’s call to resign, instead opting to thank the congressman for “his support for the men and woman of the State Department” at the beginning of his statement.
“I appreciated that part of his statement,” Blinken said of Wilson’s appreciation for the U.S. Foreign Service diplomats that serve under the State Department around the world. “Thank you.”
