Home ›› 29 Aug 2021 ›› World Politics
The deaths of 13 US servicemen in Afghanistan have sparked calls from some Republicans for President Joe Biden’s resignation or impeachment, a sign of just how embittered the political climate has become in a country that used to band together in times of national tragedy.
“Joe Biden has blood on his hands,” tweeted Representative Elise Stefanik, the third-ranking Republican in the House of Representatives. “He is unfit to be Commander-in-Chief.”
“He must resign,” said Josh Hawley, a Republican senator from Missouri with presidential aspirations. “It is now clear beyond all doubt that he has neither the capacity nor the will to lead.”
The 78-year-old Biden, a Democrat, should “resign or face impeachment and removal from office,” said Republican Senator Marsha Blackburn of Tennessee.
Representative Kevin McCarthy, the leader of the Republican minority in the House, accused Biden on Friday of showing “weakness and incompetence” but stopped short of calling for him to quit or be forced out.
“To be commander-in-chief, you need the faith, the trust and the confidence of the American public,” McCarthy said. “President Biden lost all three of those yesterday.
“In the next five days, everyone’s responsibility should only be focused on getting the Americans out (of Afghanistan),” he said. “When that day passes, we can take up anything to hold accountable for the actions that have been taken.
“There will be a day of reckoning.”
Other Republican lawmakers adopted a more measured tone.
“While it may be tempting to some to use this moment to score political points, now is not the time for that,” said Republican Senator Kevin Cramer of North Dakota.
“My fellow Americans: let’s gather together, mourn the fallen, comfort the hurting, and pray for peace, leadership, and safety.”
That tended to be the response to past US tragedies such as 9/11, when George W. Bush, a Republican, was president, or the 1983 Beirut barracks bombing, which took place while Ronald Reagan, another Republican, was in the White House.
After the Beirut bombing which left 241 US servicemen dead, “No Dems called on Reagan to resign, or said he should be impeached,” said columnist James Surowiecki.
“Because that’s not what people do in a healthy democracy when a president makes what you think was a bad decision or an error in judgment,” Surowiecki tweeted. “You criticize the mistake.
You don’t pretend it’s worth overriding the will of the voters.”
‘It’s not a day for politics’
Lis Smith, who was a senior advisor to the campaign of 2020 presidential candidate turned transport secretary Pete Buttigieg, dismissed the calls for Biden’s resignation.
“The Republicans calling for Biden to resign are as unserious as the Democrats who called for Trump to resign,” Smith tweeted. “At some point, the word has no meaning and you just look ridiculous.” Asked at a briefing on Thursday about the Republican demands, White House spokeswoman Jen Psaki said the day should be about “honoring the memory” of the US troops who died.
