Congressional Democrats gave President Biden their full backing when he announced plans for an unconditional withdrawal from Afghanistan. After watching it play out, however, many in his party are turning against him.
“I am disappointed that the Biden administration clearly did not accurately assess the implications of a rapid U.S. withdrawal,” read in part of a statement by Sen Bob Mendez, Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Rep. Jim Langevin, a member of the House Armed Services Committee says what’s happening in Afghanistan is a “catastrophe” that could have been avoided.
“The consequences of our decision to abandon Afghanistan are now on full display for the world to see. It didn’t have to be this way,” Langevin said in an op-ed on foreignpolicy.com.
Meanwhile, swift and blistering rebukes are coming from Republicans.
Former Vice President Mike Pence called Biden’s retreat from Afghanistan, “a foreign policy humiliation unlike anything our country has endured since the Iran hostage crisis.”
Speaking on Hugh Hewitt’s podcast, combat veteran, Sen. Tom Cotton called Biden, “detached from reality.”
“The world can now see that Joe Biden is impotent and incompetent. And we should not be surprised that you see Vladimir Putin and Xi Jinping and other adversaries of America use, already using this to their advantage,” Cotton said.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell calls the Afghanistan evacuation a “botched exit.”
“All of this is the aftermath of the decision, first to withdrawal, and then to withdrawal in a precipitous and incompetent way,” he said during a recent Fox News appearance.
A new Reuters poll shows Biden’s approval ratings sinking to the lowest level of his presidency, coinciding with the fall of Kabul.
“I think politically you are seeing the president dealing with one of his first major crisis’ besides the coronavirus pandemic. The biggest takeaway from this poll is that it’s a snapshot in time and in this moment, this week really, this day, the Biden administration is not in a great place,” political reporter for The Hill, Julia Manchester, told CBN News.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee announced it will hold a hearing on the handling of the Afghan withdrawal early next week. They intend to call the highest-level officials in the Biden administration to testify.
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