Psaki Steamrolls GOP Over Exploiting Tragedy For Political Gain

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A slew of prominent Republicans have used the opportunity provided this week by a deadly attack on U.S. forces and others in Afghanistan to call for the resignation of President Joe Biden, who is in the middle of withdrawing the U.S. military presence from the country. Tragically, the attack — which consisted of a bombing assault at the Kabul airport — killed 13 U.S. troops, in addition to the injuries and deaths sustained by the local population and surviving servicemembers. Biden pledged to go after those who inflicted the assault, and on Thursday, White House press secretary Jen Psaki called out those Republicans who’ve opted to focus at least in part on Biden amid the tragedy.

So far, U.S. Senators who’ve called on Biden to resign include a couple of the usual suspects: Missouri Republican Josh Hawley and Tennessee Republican Marsha Blackburn, and other Republicans elsewhere have made the same call. Psaki said in contrast that it was not a time for “politics.” At a Thursday press conference, she pointedly commented as follows:

‘This is a day where U.S. servicemembers, [13] of them, lost their lives at the hands of terrorists. It’s not a day for politics. And we would expect that any American, whether they’re elected or not, would stand with us in our commitment to going after and fighting and killing those terrorists wherever they live, and to honoring the memory of servicemembers. And that’s what this day is for.’

Watch below:

Trump and certain top allies of his have spent the recent stages of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan essentially jeering from the rhetorical sidelines, even though the withdrawal was explicitly set up by a deal that Trump struck with the Taliban. Trump already called for Biden to resign in connection to other issues related to the Afghanistan withdrawal some time ago — although Trump and other Republicans (like Hawley!) have at times fervently supported a swift withdrawal of the U.S. military presence from Afghanistan. Amid these final parts of the withdrawal, an evacuation effort for Americans and others in Afghanistan is underway — and a substantive total of over 100,000 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan since August 1 of this year, with efforts ongoing to get people out.