Blinken faces Congress on Afghanistan withdrawal amid GOP criticism: LIVE UPDATES

Secretary of State Antony Blinken admitted Tuesday that he does not know whether a person killed in a U.S. drone strike in Kabul was a member of ISIS-K or an aid worker, and that the Biden administration is still looking into the matter.

Sen. Rand Paul, R-Ky., grilled Blinken on the matter during a Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on the Afghanistan withdrawal.

"The guy the Biden administration droned, was he an aid worker or an ISIS-K operative?" Paul asked, referencing a New York Times report that found that the vehicle struck was driven by U.S. aid group worker Zemari Ahmadi, one of 10 people the Times said died in the attack.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/blinken-kabul-airstrike-us-who-was-killed

Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, has quizzed Secretary Blinken on reports that lists of names of Americans or Afghan allies were given to the Taliban.

Blinken said that there was a "handful of situations" in which manifests were given to the Taliban when the administration was trying to get people through a checkpoint.

Blinken refused to give a number when Cruz asks it is in hundreds or thousands of people.

"These were in limited instances," he said, to get them through a checkpoint. "They got through the checkpoint."

Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, claimed Tuesday that someone in the White House other than President Biden is "calling the shots."

Risch made the comments during Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s hearing before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations about the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan, which the senator called a "dismal failure."

"One of the things we need to get to the bottom to is who is responsible for this? Who made the decisions?" Risch said. "[Biden] can’t even speak without someone in the White House censoring it or signing off on it."

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/senator-biden-white-house-who-is-in-charge

Blinken is asked if there is a strategy in place to push back against the impact in the region that the Taliban could have, amid reports that countries are considering working with the Taliban government.

He says there is an international "collective strategy," with NATO, the E.U. and the U.N. He says that there have been basic expectations set by the international community, including through the U.N. Security Council.

He says dozens of countries have been brought together by contact groups.

Sen. Rand Paul says while he has advocated for leaving Afghanistan for 10 years, "never in my worst nightmares did anyone conceive such a colossal incompetence

He calls abandoning Bagram Air Base "one of the worst military decisions in our history."

He accuses the Biden administration of "circling the wagons" and of not holding anyone accountable for that failure. He also notes that $64 million in aid has been released, and warns the Taliban will take the money as they did last night.

"Are we really that naïve that we're going to keep sending charity to Afghanistan and they're not going to interrupt it?" he said.

He asks about reports that the U.S. strike that targeted ISIS operatives took out an aid worker instead, along with seven children. Blinken says it is currently being reviewed and so he can't comment until the review takes place.

"You think you'd kinda know before you off somebody with a predator drone whether he's an aid worker or ISIS-K," Paul responds.

Romney pushes back against Blinken's claim that it inherited a deal from the Trump administration, saying the Biden administration delayed the date from May to August, and then asks why it therefore couldn't have been extended longer.

Blinken says "our expectation was beyond Aug 31...the government, security forces were going to remain in control of Kabul, of major cities. Our embassy was fully planned to remain up and running."

He said there was a plan to keep bringing people out after that date, and that they did not anticipate the 11-day collapse of the Afghan government.

Blinken says the nature of the relationship the Taliban will have with the US and rest of the world "will depend entirely on its conduct and actions" on freedom of travel, holding up human rights and counterterrorism.

He says there is "significant leverage" the world holds against the Taliban, he notes that travel restrictions are in place, U.N. sanctions against the Taliban and Afghanistan's financial reserves are currently frozen in banks that are almost exclusively American.

He says that legitimacy and basic support are both things that the U.S. has a hand on.

Sen. Ron Johnson compares the crisis in Afghanistan to the crisis at the border, saying it is the same "detachment from reality."

"A self-inflicted wound, a crisis created by President Biden's policies that have thrown open our policies yet the administration denies we have a problem at the border," he says.

Blinken is asked the value of the equipment left behind. Blinken says over 15 years he the value of the equipment provided was $80 billion, but later adds that some of that was made inoperable or will become inoperable over time. He says none of it poses a threat to the United States.

Blinken says about 100 Americans still in Afghanistan wish to leave, but warns that number is "very fluid."

"We are in direct contact with this group," and says some are changing their mind from day-to-day about whether they want to leave.

Risch tears into the administration on the withdrawal and tells Blinken: "There is not enough lipstick in the world put on this pig to make it look any different than what it is."

Blinken says "ultimately the president makes the decisions" but added there there are many smaller decisions that are made by agencies and other officials.

Risch is pointing again to a moment yesterday when the president's microphone was cut off, and says it happens frequently.

"Somebody in the White House has the authority to press the button and cut off the president's speaking ability," he says.

Blinken says "he speaks very clearly and very deliberately for himself -- no-one else does."

Sen. Menendez is quizzing Blinken on the Afghanistan withdrawal.

Blinken says planning for a worst-case contingency began in "Spring or Summer."

Menendez asked if there shouldn't have been a processing surge for Special Immigrant Visas back in March -- Blinken says they did, and quadrupled the number of people processings SIVs.

Earlier, he said they went from processing 100-a-week in March to 1,000-a-week in August.

Blinken, in his opening remarks, tries to shift the blame to the Trump administration for the withdrawal from Afghanistan.

He says that in January, the Taliban was the strongest it had been since 2001, and American military presence there was at its lowest level.

He says Biden faced a choice of ending the war or escalating it and says “there’s no evidence that staying longer would have made the Afghan security forces or the Afghan government any more resilient or self-sustaining.”

Ranking Member Risch says someone other than Biden is "calling the shots."

He says Biden “can’t even speak without someone in the White House censoring it or signing off on it.”

He says Biden was cut off yesterday during remarks, and says “this is a puppeteer act if you would, and we need to know who is in charge and who is making the decisions.”

Menendez says he is "very disappointed" that Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin did not accept the invitation to appear before lawmakers at the hearing.

"A full accounting of the U.S. response to this crisis is not complete without the Pentagon," he says.

"His decision not to appear before the committee will affect my personal judgement on Department of Defense nominees," he says.

He says he expects Austin to make himself available soon, and if he does not warns that he "may consider the use of committee subpoena powers to compel him and others over the course of the last 20 years to testify."

Ranking Member Risch agrees with Menendez, saying it is "disheartening" that others did not appear -- calling the withdrawal a "dismal failure."

Sen. Bob Menendez, D-NJ, has gaveled the hearing to order, describing the execution of the U.S. withdrawal "clearly and fatally flawed."

"There has to be accountability," he says.

He says lawmakers need to understand why administrations made successive failings and why the Afghan government fell so quickly.

Menendez says he supported the withdrawal but added: 'Doing the right thing in the wrong way can end up being the wrong thing."

He says the U.S. "fell short" in making sure there was a durable political solution in Afghanistan for when the U.S. left, and says the administration must answer a number of questions on this.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken has arrived at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing ahead of his testimony on the Afghanistan withdrawal.

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is expected to speak at the Senate Foreign Relations Committee hearing on Afghanistan this morning -- it is expected to begin at around 10 a.m.

You can watch live on Fox News and FoxNews.com. This blog will have live updates.

Raw video: Former CIA Director Mike Morell testifies at House Armed Services hearing

Former Obama CIA Director Michael Morell said Sunday that President Biden's chaotic retreat from Afghanistan and subsequent Taliban takeover "absolutely inspired" jihadists and emboldened terrorists across the globe.

Morell, who twice served as acting director of the CIA under the Obama-Biden administration and was considered a frontrunner to then-President-elect Joe Biden's for the same position, told CBS' "Face the Nation on Sunday" that the Taliban will likely "flow back" into Afghanistan, making the region "more dangerous than other spots on the planet."

"I think that the Taliban winning the war in Afghanistan, and then the way our exit happened, has absolutely inspired jihadists all over the world," Morell told host Margaret Brennan.

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