{"id":749567,"date":"2021-09-13T23:06:16","date_gmt":"2021-09-14T03:06:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=749567"},"modified":"2021-09-13T23:06:23","modified_gmt":"2021-09-14T03:06:23","slug":"blinken-fields-heated-questions-from-house-lawmakers-over-afghan-withdrawal","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/blinken-fields-heated-questions-from-house-lawmakers-over-afghan-withdrawal\/","title":{"rendered":"Blinken fields heated questions from House lawmakers over Afghan withdrawal"},"content":{"rendered":"<aside class=\"mashsb-container mashsb-main mashsb-stretched\"><div class=\"mashsb-box\"><div class=\"mashsb-count mash-medium\" style=\"&quot;\"><div class=\"counts mashsbcount\">20<\/div><span class=\"mashsb-sharetext\">SHARES<\/span><\/div><div class=\"mashsb-buttons\"><a class=\"mashicon-facebook mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/sharer.php?u=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.conservativenewsdaily.net%2Fbreaking-news%2Fblinken-fields-heated-questions-from-house-lawmakers-over-afghan-withdrawal%2F\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Facebook<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-twitter mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/intent\/tweet?text=&amp;url=https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/?p=749567&amp;via=ConservNewsDly\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Twitter<\/span><\/a><a class=\"mashicon-subscribe mash-medium mash-nomargin mashsb-noshadow\" href=\"#\" target=\"_top\" rel=\"nofollow\"><span class=\"icon\"><\/span><span class=\"text\">Subscribe<\/span><\/a><div class=\"onoffswitch2 mash-medium mashsb-noshadow\" style=\"display:none\"><\/div><\/div>\n            <\/div>\n                <div style=\"clear:both\"><\/div><\/aside>\n            <!-- Share buttons by mashshare.net - Version: 4.0.47--><div id=\"attachment_2518546\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\">\n<p id=\"caption-attachment-2518546\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken appears on a television screen as he testifies virtually on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Capitol Hill in Washington, D.C. (Photo by SAUL LOEB\/AFP via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<h5>OAN Newsroom<br \/>UPDATED 8:02 PM PT \u2013 Monday, September 13, 2021<\/h5>\n<p>Secretary of State Antony Blinken made his first of two scheduled appearances before Congress this week over the Afghan withdrawal. Blinken was grilled on Monday by the House Foreign Affairs Committee over the policy and Intelligence failures leading to the deadly pullout from Afghanistan last month.<\/p>\n<p>This has made Blinken the first Biden administration official to testify before Congress on the exit from the country. In his opening statement, ranking Foreign Affairs Committee Republican Rep. Michael McCaul (Texas) criticized the Biden administration over what he called its unconditional surrender to the Taliban after a 20-year war.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThis was an unmitigated disaster of epic proportions,\u201d he asserted. \u201cI never thought in my lifetime that I would see an unconditional surrender to the Taliban.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;This was an unmitigated disaster of epic proportions. I never thought in my lifetime that I would see an unconditional surrender to the Taliban.&#8221; \u2013 <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/RepMcCaul?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">@RepMcCaul<\/a> on President Biden&#8217;s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan <a href=\"https:\/\/t.co\/fc3WIO7wup\">pic.twitter.com\/fc3WIO7wup<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\u2014 House Republicans (@HouseGOP) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HouseGOP\/status\/1437485398352138241?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 13, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>He added this withdrawal has only worked to make our enemies stronger and has been a disgrace to the American people.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cMr. Secretary the American people don\u2019t like to lose, especially not to the terrorists,\u201d he stated. \u201cThat is exactly what has happened.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>During his opening testimony, Blinken attempted to defend the deadly pullout, which led to the death of 13 U.S. service members, by saying Intel assessments did not show the Afghan government would fall as quickly as it did.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cEven the most pessimistic assessments did not predict that government forces in Kabul would collapse while U.S. forces remained,\u201d he explained. \u201cAs General Milley, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, has said, nothing I or anyone else saw indicated a collapse of this army and this government in 11 days.\u201d<\/p>\n<blockquote class=\"twitter-tweet\" data-width=\"550\" data-dnt=\"true\">\n<p lang=\"en\" dir=\"ltr\">&#8220;Two days ago, we commemorated the 20th anniversary of September 11th. While we mourned the loss of almost 3,000 innocent people, the <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/hashtag\/Taliban?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">#Taliban<\/a> at the same time celebrated by raising their flag over the Presidential Palace.<\/p>\n<p>\u2014 House Foreign Affairs GOP (@HouseForeignGOP) <a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/HouseForeignGOP\/status\/1437484549479489539?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw\">September 13, 2021<\/a><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n<p>Republicans also took aim at Blinken over the State Department\u2019s role in evacuating refugees from the country. Blinken sidestepped a question over just how many Afghans who did not qualify for special immigrant visas have been allowed to enter the U.S.<\/p>\n<p><em>Rep. Scott Perry (R-Penn.): \u201cHow many Afghans, not meeting the qualifications of SIV have been brought to the United States?\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n<p><em>Blinken: \u201cWe\u2019re in the process now going through.\u201d <\/em><\/p>\n<p>When asked by New Jersey Rep. Chris Smith (R) whether he could assure that Americans still stuck in Afghanistan haven\u2019t been killed or mistreated by the Taliban, Blinken said he could not.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI have not heard from those people that concern raised,\u201d he stated. \u201cI can\u2019t say whether there are any American citizens who are not in contact with or don\u2019t know of who may have been mistreated in some fashion in Afghanistan.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>The secretary of state is now scheduled to testify before the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday.<\/p>\n<h4>MORE NEWS:&nbsp;<a href=\"https:\/\/www.oann.com\/sept-deadlines-loom-for-congress\/\">Sept. Deadlines Loom For Congress<\/a><\/h4>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken appears on a television screen as he testifies virtually on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan during a House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on Capitol &#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":2315279,"comment_status":"close","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_mo_disable_npp":"","fifu_image_url":"","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-749567","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749567","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=749567"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/749567\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2315279"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=749567"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=749567"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.conservativenewsdaily.net\/breaking-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=749567"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}