'Another stellar fact-check': WaPo's Glenn Kessler says 'Blinken clearly knows how important it is to flatter and thank lawmakers'

Doug P. | 3:34 PM on September 13, 2021

Secretary of State Antony Blinken is testifying remotely before the House Foreign Affairs Committee today. Democrats are basically presenting White House talking points after the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal, and Republicans are asking tough questions that Blinken is trying to dodge:

McCaul: "Is it true that President Putin threatened the president of the United States, saying he could not build intelligence capabilities in the region?"

Blinken replies it is "an important question," but one that "we need to take up in another setting."

— Philip Melanchthon Wegmann (@PhilipWegmann) September 13, 2021

McCaul asks Blinken if he can guarantee that the U.S. will get all Afghan SIVs out, warning that they’ll be “executed” if not. Blinken doesn’t give a direct answer.

— Andrew Desiderio (@AndrewDesiderio) September 13, 2021

Blinken is also taking to complimenting Reps on the committee even if it means tacitly admitting the Biden administration blew it:

ARE YOU KIDDING ME?

Blinken just THANKED @RepMcCaul for his work helping to get Americans out of Afghanistan after the Biden administration's grotesque malfeasance.

What?

WHAT?

— Lyndsey Fifield (@lyndseyfifield) September 13, 2021

Washington Post fact-checker Glenn Kessler started there:

As a former congressional staffer, Secretary Blinken clearly knows how important it is to flatter and thank lawmakers in just about every question.

— Glenn Kessler (@GlennKesslerWP) September 13, 2021

Imagine that tweet if this were Trump’s Secretary of State and the botched withdrawal happened on his watch while the SoS tried sucking up to the committee members.