‘No introspection’: During a call with House members earlier in the day on Sunday, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin held firm on the White House line defending the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from the country, according to lawmakers who participated in the unclassified conference call scheduled to brief members on the rapidly deteriorating situation. Lloyd showed “no introspection,” a lawmaker told Power Up, adding that he stuck to the administration’s “messaging that they were handed an untenable position by the Trump administration and blamed the Afghan government and army for the collapse.”
