WASHINGTON, DC – SEPTEMBER 14: Committee ranking member Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho) asked questions of Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a Senate Foreign Relations Hearing to examine the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan on Capitol Hill on September 14, 2021 in Washington, D.C. (Photo by Jabin Botsford – Pool/Getty Images)
Sen. James Risch (R-Idaho) said the Biden administration’s tolerance of the Taliban terrorist group is unprecedented. During an interview on Tuesday, the Idaho Republican said the White House doesn’t typically recognize coups as a government, but argued that with Afghanistan they did exactly that.
This comes a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken said the Taliban is the “de facto government of Afghanistan.”
“It [the Taliban] is the de facto government of Afghanistan. Those are just the facts,” stated Blinken to the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. “This is the product, alas, of one side getting the upper hand in a civil war.”
The American people want to know who is responsible for the disastrous withdrawal from #Afghanistan. pic.twitter.com/aBf08hHavW
— Jim Risch (@SenatorRisch) September 14, 2021
Risch stressed this is a slap in the face to every American who died overseas to protect Afghans from oppressive leadership.
“There was a democratically-elected government in place that a lot of men and women in the United States gave blood for and that we all paid treasure for,” said Risch. “They were in place, and they’ve been toppled by a terrorist group. To call them a government, I think, is obscene. I think it’s a slap in the face of every person who served in Afghanistan.”
Source: One America News Network
