Exclusive: Joni Ernst Calls on Biden to Resign, Condemns Pentagon ‘Double Standard' on Scheller, Vindman

Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA) called for President Joe Biden to resign over his handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan on SiriusXM’s Breitbart News Sunday with host Joel Pollak.

“I can’t point the finger at anybody that was serving in Afghanistan, because I think they were providing their best military advice through the chain of command, all the way up to the top,” Ernst said. “Our president, Joe Biden, is one that chose not to follow their best military advice. He’s the one that gave that order. He’s the one that needs to go.”

She bluntly asserted, “We have 13 dead Americans because what the president did.”

Ernst stated, “We’re going to continue digging into what happened [with] this withdrawal [and] how this occurred. We spent 20 years in Afghanistan, all for naught, except that these wonderful men and women that have served in Afghanistan and Iraq have kept our country safe for two decades. I know they’re disheartened to see it fall. I am, too, and we want to thank them for their service, but certainly what Joe Biden has done is thrown that away.”

“It falls on the president’s shoulders,” she added. “He is the commander-in-chief. He did give lawful orders. You can’t disobey lawful orders, but I would say that these political appointees need to go. They need to come out. Secretary Blinken is one that I think needs to be held accountable. He continues to tell us that we’ve only got a hundred Americans left in Afghanistan, and yet we have plane loads of Americans coming out of Afghanistan every week. Sounds like we should have all Americans out of this point, but we know that’s not true.”

Ernst contrasted the U.S. military’s treatment of Lt. Col. Stuart Scheller, who is being held in military prison for critiquing senior military leaders in a publicly released video, with its refusal to reprimand Lt. Col. Alexander Vindman (Ret.) for leaking classified information.

“Having served in uniform, I do understand that there is a time and a place to speak out,” Ernst remarked, “and even Lieutenant Colonel Scheller acknowledged that he shouldn’t be doing this in uniform. We do have to adhere to certain standards and guidelines as we are serving on active duty in the military, but it is a double standard the way Lieutenant Colonel Vindman was treated and the way Lieutenant Colonel Scheller is being treated by being put in the brig.”

She continued, “This is outrageous. Lieutenant Colonel Scheller spoke out [and] acknowledged that he would probably be relieved of his command, and he was, but to throw him in the brig and treat him like this. … There are obviously some differences here. If you speak out against the Democratic president, you get thrown in the brig, but if you’re doing something against a Republican president, you’re lauded a hero. This is double standard.”