Democratic Senator Bob Menendez on Tuesday criticized the Joe Biden administration’s handling of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. Menendez called the end of the military actions “fatally flawed” and threatened to subpoena Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin if he does not agree to testify “in the near future.”
The last: Menendez’s rebuke came as Secretary of State Antony Blinken faced a second day of intense questioning by lawmakers unhappy with the United States’ chaotic exit from Afghanistan.
- Blinken vigorously defended President Joe Biden’s decision to end America’s 20-year war in Afghanistan and the administration’s management during the evacuation.
- Lawmakers from both parties remain deeply frustrated that the State Department did not initiate a massive evacuation earlier, targeting Afghans who worked for the US military.
What do they say? “This commission expects to receive a full explanation of the administration’s decisions on Afghanistan since it took office last January. There has to be accountability, ”said Menéndez, from New Jersey.
- “Even the most pessimistic assessments did not predict that government forces in Kabul would collapse as long as US forces remained,” Blinken said during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing.
- After the disintegration of the Afghan forces, Blinken said, officials from the State Department and the Pentagon orchestrated “an extraordinary effort” to evacuate US citizens and Afghan allies.
Main source of the news: USA Today
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