When Republicans have nothing with which to criticize the Biden administration, they manufacture something. Here we go again.
WASHINGTON — House Foreign Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul, R-Texas, subpoenaed Secretary of State Antony Blinken on Tuesday to provide further testimony on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, and threatened to hold him in contempt of Congress if he doesn’t. In a letter addressed to Blinken, McCaul noted that in May he had requested that the secretary appear at a September hearing.
McCaul at the time had just announced the GOP-led committee would investigate “the Biden-Harris administration’s deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan.” “The Committee has provided extraordinary accommodation in its multiple requests and communications seeking to finalize a date in line with your schedule,” McCaul wrote to Blinken. “To date, the Department has yet to provide any potential dates for your appearance.”
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller said in a statement Tuesday that Blinken has testified before Congress on Afghanistan more than any other Cabinet member and has provided the Foreign Affairs Committee with tens of thousands of pages’ worth of records.
“The Secretary has testified before the Congress on Afghanistan more than 14 times — more than any other Cabinet-level official,” Miller said. “This includes four times directly before Chairman McCaul’s Committee, including at a previous hearing that focused exclusively on Afghanistan, all while the Department has provided the Committee with nearly 20,000 pages of Department records, multiple high-level briefings, and engaged on transcribed interviews of nearly 15 current and former State Department officials with the Committee.”
Republicans are trying to manufacture a “Benghazi 2.0” ahead of the election.
In 2015, candidate Hillary Clinton testified for 11 hours on Benghazi (as then-Secretary of State in 2012 when it happened), and in 2016, the waste of time “report” was finally issued and was a dud.
Similarly, you now have current SOS Blinken, who has already testified 14 times regarding the Afghanistan pull-out, getting dragged in again (although he is obviously not running for President).