![Blinken testifies on Afghanistan before House lawmakers angry about the war's chaotic end](https://cdn.cnn.com/cnnnext/dam/assets/210913121853-01-blinken-file-super-tease.jpg)
Blinken testifies on Afghanistan before House lawmakers angry about the war's chaotic end
CNN
Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended the Biden administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan and the chaotic evacuation effort that marked the end of America's longest war in the face of blistering criticism from lawmakers.
The top US diplomat, the first member of the administration to publicly account for the events in Afghanistan before Congress, spoke before a virtual hearing of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and defended the decision to leave the country as Republicans decried the withdrawal as a "debacle" and a "betrayal." Blinken suggested that extending the US presence would have made little difference and pointed out that the Trump administration left the incoming government little to work with apart from a deadline to withdraw by May.![](/newspic/picid-6252001-20250215102651.jpg)
In less than a month in office the Trump administration has simultaneously dismantled foreign aid programs that support fragile democracies abroad and put on leave federal workers who protect US elections at home in a move that current and former officials say abandons decades of American commitments to democracy.
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Sen. Mitch McConnell was a generational force for the Republican Party — using procedural tactics and political will to stymie much of former President Barack Obama’s agenda, hand President Donald Trump key first-term political victories and deliver a 6-3 conservative Supreme Court majority. Now he’s the odd man out.
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The Trump administration is forcing out senior leadership at the National Archives and Records Administration in a major shakeup, according to a source familiar. President Donald Trump has been highly critical of the archives since the agency asked the Department of Justice to investigate Trump’s mishandling of classified documents after he left office.
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The morning after the mass resignation of prosecutors sparked a crisis inside the Trump Justice Department, acting Deputy Attorney General Emil Bove led a meeting with the Justice Department’s public integrity section. His message: they had to choose one career lawyer to file a dismissal of the corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams, according to three people briefed on the meeting.
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Seventh prosecutor in Eric Adams case resigns and calls out Trump’s former lawyer in scathing letter
A federal prosecutor assigned to the corruption case against New York City Mayor Eric Adams resigned Friday in a blistering letter that accused top leaders at the Justice Department of looking for a “fool” to dismiss the criminal charges.