President Joe Biden is redirecting his focus on Monday from Afghanistan to House Democrats who are threatening to block House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s (D-CA) budget resolution for the “infrastructure” spending spree.
“We expect to see the president personally get involved today by calling Democratic lawmakers, according to sources,” Punchbowl News reported about the nearly $5 trillion infrastructure battle, which the administration is desperate to pass in the wake of high crime, inflation, border crossings, and now the failed Afghan evacuation.
In another distraction, Biden will also on Monday meet with the WNBA champions.
Meanwhile, “[k]ey members of the moderate crew” on the hill told Punchbowl on Sunday they will not, “under any circumstances, back down” until Pelosi holds a single “vote on the $1 trillion bipartisan Senate infrastructure bill before voting for the budget resolution.” This voting schedule may risk the budget resolution vote, which is presumably why Pelosi is attempting to package them together in a single vote.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) gestures as she speaks at her weekly news conference at the Capitol building on August 06, 2021, in Washington, DC. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
Besides the massive “infrastructure” measures the House is trying to pass, Biden has an ongoing crisis in Afghanistan. Just as Biden said he was considering asking the Taliban for a deadline extension past August 31 to fully evacuate all American personnel, the Taliban issued a statement denying any requested extension.
“President Biden announced that on 31 August they would withdraw all their military forces. So, if they extend it that means they are extending occupation while there is no need for that,” Taliban spokesperson Suhail Shaheen said. “If the U.S. or U.K. were to seek additional time to continue evacuations — the answer is no. Or there would be consequences. It will create mistrust between us. If they are intent on continuing the occupation it will provoke a reaction.”
The Taliban’s pressure ratcheting on Biden comes as up to 65,000 Afghan people with families are waiting to be extracted before the deadline in a few days. A reported 7,500 American citizens are also stranded, trapped behind enemy lines, as the U.S. embassy in Kabul alerted people over the weekend to not rendezvous at the airport.
U.S. Marine Corps Gen. Frank McKenzie, the commander of U.S. Central Command, enters a plane evacuating people, at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Afghanistan, August 17, 2021. (Capt. William Urban/U.S. Navy via AP )
Over the weekend outside the airport, the Pentagon confirmed the Taliban are beating and harassing Americans, stealing U.S. passports, and threatening to shoot others.
Follow Wendell Husebø on Twitter @WendellHusebø
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