Biden faces Dem defections

[brooklynite]

Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.) said in a statement that it's "long past time" to end U.S. military presence in Afghanistan, but added: "it appears that the evacuation process has been egregiously mishandled."

In a phone interview with Axios, she added she doesn't place all the blame on Biden. She said there will be a lot to uncover through future congressional oversight hearings.

Rep. Abigail Spanberger (D-Va.), a former CIA officer who focused on counterterrorism efforts in the Middle East, spearheaded a bipartisan statement from the Problem Solvers Caucus calling on the administration to reconsider Tuesday's withdrawal deadline.

Reps. Mike Levin (D-Calif.) and Andy Kim (D-N.J.) also have called on Biden to extend the deadline.

…snip…

Sen. Maggie Hassan (D-N.H.) distanced herself from the president as he reiterated his commitment to the withdrawal date: "We must complete this mission, regardless of any arbitrary deadlines."

A spokesman for Sen. Mark Kelly (D-Ariz.), a Navy combat veteran, told Axios: "Senator Kelly has been critical of the administration’s execution of the withdrawal. ... [H]e has said in multiple press interviews since then that he sees the August 31st deadline as less important than accomplishing the mission of evacuating Americans and Afghan allies."


https://www.axios.com/midterms-democrats-distance-biden-afghanistan-policy-0953b31e-bab2-443b-be24-7fb6a52402e7.html

[JohnSJ]

1. What a bullshit headline. Defections? Disagreeing with someone isn't a defection, it is a

disagreement

A defection would be something like changing political parties

[iemanja]

2. exactly

[orleans]

9. yep. and that's exactly what i was expecting to read nt

[Arazi]

3. The Taliban and ISIS K would immediately attack the airport and our troops if we renege

Damned if Biden sticks to the deadline and leaves, damned if he orders we stay

[Historic NY]

4. They knew this was coming, no one expected the Afghan army to surrender 300000 men..

and equipment. If the army was in place, things most likely would have been different. What disorder more than 115000 people have been evacuated from the country.

[msongs]

5. repubs love it when dems do their work for them nt

[vercetti2021]

6. This is how we lost so badly in 2010

Dems ran away from Obama and healthcare because they were afraid of the backlash. Soured our side and enabled the right to take over

[uponit7771]

7. THIS !!!! ☝🏾☝🏾☝🏾 While we see maga run TOWARDS sympathizing with 1/6 terrorist dems ran away from

... something that is now fairly popular because the messaging of ACA was all fucked up at the time.

Dems need better messaging

[vercetti2021]

8. Exactly

We are pissing all over this messaging here. Literally I hate seeing our own eating each other over something Trump set into motion and Biden doing his best to fucking solve. Get behind your fucking man or GTFO of the party.

[uponit7771]

10. Yep, this feels like the border story all over again. Where people were unjustifiably putting blame

... on Biden for border non "surge".

Biden admin warned people months ago to get out and there was always going to be an exit mob

Some dems are acting like Biden admin took no effort to get people out of Afghanistan until the last minute

I'm glad Biden is messaging that it was Putin's whore who set the deal with the Taliban

[Piratedog]

11. Well I don't believe he's extending and they need to STFU!

[Tom Rinaldo]

12. A number of those "extend the deadline" criticisms were from before the Airport suicide bombing

Those American military casualties shut a lot of people up as the building danger our troops face every 24 hours they remain at that airport has become tragically evident.

It can be argued how much the Taliban have cooperated with us during our withdrawal because of that pull out deadline understanding, but they have not been fighting us on the way out. When we are pulling our last troops out, the only on the ground security our last planeloads have will come from Taliban fighters. Hundreds of American lives literally may depend on the U.S. honoring the deadline we set for removing our troops.