Today, U.S. Representative Tim Burchett (TN-02) called on U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken to resign over the United States' botched withdrawal from Afghanistan. Below are Rep. Burchett's full remarks that were directed towards Secretary Blinken, who was testifying during Tuesday's House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing.
Transcript
Rep. Burchett: "Thank you, Mr. Chairman. This is a picture of Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss in my local paper, the Knoxville Focus. I want to read you something that his mama said this weekend at the funeral. 'He was a God-loving man. He died helping people. He died doing what he loved to do.' My constituent, Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, he was one of the 13 souls lost while allowing over 100,000 people to escape the Taliban. Sadly, the death of Staff Sgt. Knauss, and his fellow heroes, I feel like was entirely preventable. If your department and this administration had a plan and had not been caught flat-footed in Afghanistan, there would have been no need to surge 6,000 additional soldiers into the country to secure that airport. You have repeatedly stated that every contingency was planned for, but clearly the rapid collapse of the Afghan government was something that you had not planned for. Their blood is on your hands and this administration, sir. I call on you to resign."
Source: https://burchett.house.gov/media/press-releases/burchett-secretary-blinken-blood-your-hands-resign
