Senators Josh Hawley (R., Mo.) and Marsha Blackburn (R., Tenn.) called on President Biden to resign on Thursday after ISIS militants killed twelve U.S. soldiers and dozens of Afghans in an attack on the Kabul airport.
“Our nation is forever indebted to the brave Marines who made the ultimate sacrifice today. And we remember as well the innocent Afghans who needlessly perished,” Hawley said in a statement.
My further statement on Joe Biden’s abject failure in Afghanistan that is costing American lives by the hour pic.twitter.com/KaHVMYbKTe
— Josh Hawley (@HawleyMO) August 26, 2021
“We must reject the falsehood peddled by a feckless president that this was the only option for withdrawal,” Hawley added. “This is the product of Joe Biden’s catastrophic failure of leadership. It is now painfully clear that he has neither the will nor the capacity to lead. He must resign.”
Blackburn called for the resignation of the president and other senior administration officials.
“It’s time for accountability, starting with those whose failed planning allowed these attacks to occur,” Blackburn said in a statement. Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, and [Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley “all should resign or face impeachment and removal from office.”
Blackburn added, “The deaths of American service members today are a direct result of Biden’s weak leadership and failed withdrawal.”
White House press secretary Jen Psaki said it was “not a day for politics” when asked about the calls for resignation.
“This is a day where US service members lost their lives at the hands of terrorists. It’s not a day for politics,” Psaki told reporters at a press conference on Thursday evening. “And we would expect any American to stand with us in going after those terrorists” who killed American soldiers.
The attacks occurred near the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, where U.S. and other forces are staging an evacuation from Afghanistan. Two explosions, apparently from suicide bombers, killed eleven Marines and one Navy doctor, and injured an additional 15 U.S. troops. Around 90 Afghans were killed in the attacks and 150 injured, a health official told the Wall Street Journal.