Rep. Scott Perry, R-Pa., told Newsmax on Tuesday that the contempt of Congress charge leveled against Secretary of State Antony Blinken is "absolutely appropriate."
Earlier in the day, Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee moved to hold Blinken in contempt over his decision not to testify on the Biden administration's deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 in which 13 American service members were killed. Blinken instead chose to appear at President Joe Biden's final address to the United Nations General Assembly.
Perry said the committee has given Blinken "plenty of time, plenty of opportunity to come testify regarding the Afghanistan withdrawal. He has simply refused.
"He will only come in when it is required to come in and talk about his budget requests and then feels offput when he's asked questions that are outside of that purview."
The congressman from Pennsylvania said there need to be consequences for Blinken's actions and that going to Biden's farewell speech "is a slap in the face to America's gold star families, those who have lost their lives, and those who were maimed because of his poor judgement in the Afghanistan withdrawal so the contempt charge is absolutely appropriate," he said during an appearance on "Newsline."
"If he wants to attend a farewell address, he should attend a farewell address to the nuclear program from Iran. That would be a great one if Biden could have negotiated that. Or a farewell to supporting proxies by Iran who attacked Israel. Essentially, he's just blowing us off, blowing off those families [of those who died in Afghanistan] and blowing off the country, and it's unacceptable," Perry concluded.
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