Idaho senator blasted for his 'nutters' questioning of Antony Blinken during Afghanistan hearing: ‘Full-on Q’
On Tuesday, September 14, Sen. Jim Risch of Idaho was among the senators who questioned Secretary of State Antony Blinken during a hearing on the United States' withdrawal from Afghanistan. Risch is a ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, and his questioning took a strange turn when he wanted to know if someone in the Biden White House is preventing President Joe Biden from speaking.
Risch looked like he was at once puzzled and amused by Risch's line of questioning, and he told the Idaho senator, "I think anyone who knows the president, including members of this committee, knows that he speaks very clearly and very deliberately for himself. No one else does."
Risch's questioning is generating a lot of responses on Twitter. Vox's Aaron Ruper tweeted:
The first line of questioning to Secretary of State Antony Blinken from a Senate Republican during today's hearing is Jim Risch bizarrely grilling Blinken about who in the White House has authority to "push the button" & cut off President Biden's mic. Blinken insists nobody doespic.twitter.com/kWTmitvOXE— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1631631511
Rupar also noted the questioning of Blinken that has come from Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and Sen. Ron Johnson of Wisconsin:
Ron Johnson cuts off Blinken as he tries to get a word in, dismisses his comments as "bureaucratic speak"pic.twitter.com/vvBkjux8dd— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1631633482
Marco Rubio just delivered a 7-minute lecture to Antony Blinken without ever getting around to asking a question— Aaron Rupar (@Aaron Rupar) 1631632557
Washington Post columnist Jennifer Rubin bluntly described the questioning as "nutters":
Nutters— Jennifer 'pro-voting' Rubin (@Jennifer 'pro-voting' Rubin) 1631633017
Here are some more reactions to the questioning of Blinken from Risch and other GOP senators:
Yup, that\u2019s my Senator. The guy who voted to confirm deVos despite the fact that a big majority of calls to his office asked him not to. The ultimate \u201cgood old boy\u201d benefiting from Idaho\u2019s GOP supermajority in order to get rich while not giving a shit about us.— Pippin the Terrible (@Pippin the Terrible) 1631633543
Republicans. This has been brewing for decades among the GOP.\n\nAnd let us not forget that most members of the GOP are staunch, often fundamentalist Christians. Their worldview is informed by their religion, so they are irrational to start with.— WoodyTobiasRedux (@WoodyTobiasRedux) 1631633276
Poor Blinken\u2026.it must be so painful to have to be in the company of such inept moronic politicians— Lina (@Lina) 1631633566
He seems like he's gone full-on Q now.— maraleia (@maraleia) 1631633508
They don\u2019t want to ask questions, only create Fox News sound bites.— Andrew Rice (@Andrew Rice) 1631633156
They're trying to build the narrative that due to his age he's mentally incompetent. It's all they've got.— Grumgully (@Grumgully) 1631633547
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