Sen. James Risch, R-Idaho, claimed Tuesday that someone in the White House other than President Biden is “calling the shots.”
Risch made the comments during Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s hearing before the Senate Committee on Foreign Relations about the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan, which the senator called a “dismal failure.”
“One of the things we need to get to the bottom to is who is responsible for this? Who made the decisions?” Risch said. “[Biden] can’t even speak without someone in the White House censoring it or signing off on it.”
The senator cited an instance Monday in which the White House abruptly ended the feed of Biden’s briefing on wildfires with federal and state officials, cutting him off mid-sentence during a question to George Geissler of the National Association of State Foresters.
Risch said at Tuesday’s hearing, “This is a puppeteer act, if you would, and we need to know who’s in charge and who is making the decisions.”
