NEW: Biden stares down his own “Saigon moment” as he prepares to meet with Afghan President Ghani, whose country is rapidly being taken over by the Taliban amid the U.S. exit. GOP having a told-you-so moment & drawing comparisons to Iraq.
Democrats are mostly standing by the decision to withdraw.
“It’s been proven to me beyond a shadow of a doubt that our military can’t solve the problem,” House Armed Services Chair Adam Smith said, adding that Biden made “the best decision among a bad series of options.”
.@ChrisMurphyCT: “There’s going to be bad news out of Afghanistan. But you know what? There’s been tons of bad news out of Afghanistan while we’ve been there. Every single year the Taliban has gained more territory. Every single year the gov’t remains completely inept & corrupt.”
U.S. intel officials reportedly believe the Afghan gov’t could fall as soon as 6 months post-withdrawal.
Rep. McCaul, top R on House Foreign Affairs, predicts ultimate disaster of U.S. embassy in Kabul falling.
“The crown jewel is going to be the embassy at the end,” he said.
Biden risks being seen as the president who lost Afghanistan — and Republicans know it.
“This may be the ‘Saigon moment’ where you’ve got the helicopter leaving and that’s what everybody associates with [Biden’s] policy,” Rep. Gallagher said.
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New: Congress eagerly awaits the first-ever public UFO report, expected to be released tomorrow.
“How can we have stuff flying over restricted military airspace and not even be curious — not to mention concerned — about who it is and why they’re here?”
Lawmakers don't want confirmation of wild theories about alien life. They’re looking to see those debunked and get more data on the earthbound national security threat posed by the mysterious sightings.
“There are so many uncredible people in that subject matter,” Inhofe told me
Some NEWS—for the first time ever, we can publicly identify the director of the Pentagon’s UAP task force.
His name is Brennan McKernan, a naval intelligence analyst.
He briefed congressional committees last week ahead of the report’s release, I’m told. politico.com/news/2021/06/2…
Ilhan Omar started out in Congress as a somewhat lonely critic of decades of U.S. policy in the Middle East. Now, six months into her second term, the Minnesota Democrat has new and diverse allies as the party grows increasingly comfortable defending her.
It’s a sign that the party’s shift on the U.S. role in the Middle East was more than just a short-term fixture of the recent conflict in Gaza. And the reactions to Omar’s comments highlighted the generational divide between the old guard & those more willing to criticize Israel.
Punishments for Omar never materialized. The dozen Jewish Dems who issued a statement condemning her didn’t push the issue further.
“There were more Jews who didn’t sign that letter than did,” said Rep. Yarmuth (D-Ky.), who is Jewish, describing it as an “overreaction.”
An Iranian frigate and the Makran, a former oil tanker that was converted to a floating forward staging base, have been heading south along the east coast of Africa, said the people, who spoke on condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive subject.
The mere presence of Iranian warships in America’s backyard would represent a challenge to U.S. authority in the region — and would likely inflame the debate in Washington over President Joe Biden’s decision to re-open negotiations with Tehran.
Crapo and Schumer have reached a tentative deal, per Sen. Rounds, clearing the way for cloture on the China bill. Cautious optimism that this now gets done today as originally planned.
The vote has now been open for three hours; despite the breakthrough, we don’t expect it to close any time soon. Details of the Crapo-Schumer agreement are still being ironed out.
GOP Sens. Daines & Tillis just voted yes. Vote is now at 56-32. Needs four more.
“Yes that’s right. I said the two words together. Rand Paul, voice vote. Four words, but...” Schumer says of the amendment process for the China bill
Republicans have been demanding additional amendment votes, but Sen. Young (R-Ind.), Schumer’s partner on the China bill, told me yesterday that Schumer has “kept his word” on a robust & inclusive floor process.
NEWS: Democrats are starting to join GOP calls for a more robust inquiry into the Covid lab-leak theory. The talks center on Senate Intel & the Senate health committee, and could pit lawmakers against the Biden admin which wants a WHO probe.
For the 1st time, Dems are entertaining arguments from GOP China hawks that the WH needs to exert diplomatic pressure on China to release data from the Wuhan lab.
“Understanding the origin & whether there was any nefarious activity in China is all part of that,” @timkaine says.
Sen. Burr, who is uniquely situated atop the health & intel committees, tells me “it’s absolutely essential that we understand what we can about the origin — and the opinions on that are split about 50-50 right now.”