Lindsey Graham calls for Biden's impeachment over Afghanistan withdrawal
Washington DC – South Carolina Senator Lindsey Graham is again calling for Joe Biden's impeachment following the chaos that has unfolded in Afghanistan since the Taliban takeover of the country.
The Republican senator is gunning for the president following the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, which has been set for official completion on Tuesday.
Over the past weeks, Afghan cities rapidly fell to the Taliban, sparking emergency evacuation efforts for US citizens and NATO and Afghan allies. Violence has since erupted at the Kabul airport, including an ISIS-K bombing attack that killed over 160 Afghans and 13 US service members.
Though many experts have argued that getting out of Afghanistan was necessary and would be messy no matter what, the South Carolina senator apparently remains committed to the idea that US troops should remain in the country and Biden is entirely to blame for the chaotic withdrawal.
"You cannot break [Islamic State’s] will through drone attacks. You’ve got to have people on the ground hitting these people day in and day out. You can’t do it over the horizon," Graham said in a CBS interview, according to The Guardian.
"I think it’s dereliction of duty to leave hundreds of Americans behind enemy lines, turn them into hostages, to abandon thousands of Afghans who fought honorably along our side, to create conditions for another 9/11 that are now through the roof."
The Biden administration has successfully evacuated over 100,000 US citizens and allies of other nationalities, though there are concerns about any allies who may be left in the country after August 31.
"[Biden] deserves a lot of accountability for this. And I’m sure it will be coming," Graham concluded.
Graham struck a personal note with his criticism
But Graham didn't simply stop at criticizing Biden's actions since becoming president.
Instead, he described what he sees as Biden's failure as entirely characteristic of the man: "And this is Joe Biden being Joe Biden. He’s been this way for 40 years, but now he’s the commander-in-chief. He’s not a senator. He’s not the vice-president. These are commander-in-chief decisions. I think the best you could describe is dereliction of duty at the highest level."
The comments come as a departure from the laudatory way Graham has spoken about Biden in the past before he assumed the presidency.
Despite supposedly being friends with Biden, the senator came out in support of ex-president Trump's claims that he was the real winner of the 2020 election.
Biden told TV host Stephen Colbert in December 2020, "Lindsey’s been a personal disappointment, because I was a personal friend of his."
With Democrats in control of both legislative chambers, the call for impeachment is more symbolic than anything.
Cover photo: Collage: IMAGO / MediaPunch