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Two Republican Congressman have introduced articles of impeachment against Biden administration Secretary of State Anthony Blinken.
The articles were filed on Friday and accused the secretary of state, related directly to the disastrous withdrawal of troops and assets from Afghanistan, Fox News reported.
“Secretary Blinken has failed to faithfully uphold his oath and has instead presided over a reckless abandonment of our nation’s interests, security, and values in his role in the withdrawal of American forces and diplomatic assets from Afghanistan,” the articles read.
And they said that “[i]n direct conflict with the intelligence and advice provided by his own diplomats and the intelligence community, Secretary Blinken failed to advise and counsel the President accordingly and did not inform the Congress nor American citizens at home and abroad of the dangers.”
The articles were introduced by South Carolina Rep Ralph Norman and Maryland Rep Andy Harris as there have been calls for accountability after United States military members and Afghans were killed in terrorist attacks in Kabul this week.
“Under the Constitution of the United States of America, the Secretary of State is tasked with informing Congress and American citizens on the conduct of U.S. foreign relations,” Rep. Norman said to Fox News.
“In Afghanistan, he failed to do so, leaving American citizens exposed in a city under the control of the Taliban. Secretary Blinken is also responsible for the safety of American citizens abroad and, in the case of danger, the safe and efficient evacuation of those Americans – which he has not done thus far,” he said.
Biden, on Thursday, told the nation that he took responsibility for the fallout of his plan to pull out of Afghanistan, including the attack in Kabul. He also vowed to retaliate against those who perpetrated the attacks.
Regardless, he and others in the administration have been accused of botching the withdrawal to an extent that warrants their removal from office.
“I bear responsibility for, fundamentally, all that’s happened of late,” he said before he began to blame Donald Trump.
“But here’s the deal: You know — I wish you’d one day say these things — you know as well as I do that the former President made a deal with the Taliban that he would get all American forces out of Afghanistan by May 1,” he said.
“In return, the commitment was made — and that was a year before — in return, he was given a commitment that the Taliban would continue to attack others, but would not attack any American forces,” he said.
The State Department responded to the articles of impeachment by saying that the secretary of state was still committed to evacuating Americans and allies from Afghanistan.
“Blinken is focused on one thing and one thing only: the evacuation of American citizens and our allies and partners,” spokesperson Ned Price said to Fox News.
Blinken said that more than 82,000 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan since evacuation efforts started on August 14, including “at least 4,500 American citizens and likely more,” Blinken said on Wednesday to reporters at the State Department.
“More than 500 of those Americans were evacuated in just the last day alone,” he said. The secretary of state said that when evacuation operations began, “there was a population of as many as 6,000 American citizens in the country who wanted to leave.”
“Over the past 24 hours we’ve been in direct contact with approximately 500 additional Americans and provided specific instructions on how to get to the airport safely,” the secretary said.
“For the remaining roughly 1,000 contacts that we had who may be Americans seeking to leave Afghanistan, we’re aggressively reaching out to them multiple times a day through multiple channels of communication,” he said.