US House minority leader: 'There will be a day of reckoning' for Biden

US House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) has stated that "there will be a day of reckoning” for President Joe Biden following a twin bombing around the Kabul airport that killed a dozen US troops and dozens of Afghan civilians on Thursday.

“I’m extremely frustrated with the president. As I said, if you want to be president of the free world, you have to have the trust, faith and confidence of the American public. President Biden lost that yesterday,” McCarthy said on Friday during a news conference in Capitol Hill in Washington.

“There will be a day of reckoning,” for Biden, the minority leader added.

McCarthy said that now the focus should be fully on bringing Americans safely home from Afghanistan, which has been under US occupation since October 2001.

“Right now in the next five days, everyone's responsibility should only be focused on getting the Americans,” McCarthy said. “When that day passes, you can take up anything to hold accountable for the actions that have been taken, the lies that have been given, the mis-decisions that have put Americans in harm's way, and a decision to leave Americans behind."

“That choice, that answer,” he said, “should never been given [by] a president.”

‘Biden has become the portrait of this chaos’

Several House Republicans called on Biden to resign on Friday.  The group includes Reps. Bill Long and Vicky Hartzler, who are both running for the Republican nomination for a Senate seat in Missouri; and Rep. Lee Zeldin (R-N.Y.), who is running for governor.

“Biden has become the portrait of this chaos, and his standing in America, and the world, is forever diminished,” Hartzler wrote in an op-ed in the Washington Examiner. “It is time he realizes this and acknowledges that America’s recovery, both domestically and across the globe, begins with his resignation as president. It is the right thing to do.”

McCarthy also demanded Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) call the House back into session to address the dire situation in Afghanistan where two explosions rattled the area outside the airport in the capital on Thursday amid the precarious security situation following the Taliban’s takeover of the country.

Following the attacks, Daesh's Amaq News Agency said on its Telegram channel that the terror group was behind the explosions.

The attacks killed 12 US Marines and one Navy medic, US officials confirmed, noting 18 other US service members were injured.

McCarthy argued that lawmakers should question senior Biden officials about the retreat and attack and to pass legislation by Rep. Mike Gallagher (R-Wis.) ensuring Americans are not left behind.

“Speaker Pelosi needs to call Congress back in session to get a comprehensive classified briefing from the Biden administration and to pass Rep. Gallagher’s bill to prohibit the president from withdrawing our troops until every single American is out of Afghanistan,” McCarthy said. “This isn't the time for doing nothing. This is the time for decisive leadership. It's not difficult to call Congress back — in a Pelosi Congress, you can vote by proxy.”

Biden hints US forces may stay in Afghanistan beyond Aug. 31

US President Joe Biden says Washington is considering maintaining a military presence in Afghanistan beyond the Aug. 31 deadline.

The Taliban are poised to run Afghanistan again 20 years after they were removed from power by American forces following the September 11, 2001 attacks on the United States.

The US invaded Afghanistan in October 2001 and removed the Taliban from power. American forces occupied the country for about two decades on the pretext of fighting against the Taliban. But as the US forces left Afghanistan, the Taliban stormed into Kabul, weakened by continued foreign occupation.

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