Sen. Marsha Blackburn (R-Tenn.) called for the ouster of national security adviser Jake Sullivan on Friday.
Blackburn sent a letter to President Biden highlighting her reasons for why she thinks Sullivan can be removed from the role, saying he “has routinely misled the entire government about the status of security threats around the world.”
“Just eight days before Hamas launched their barbaric surprise attack against Israel, he stated, ‘the Middle East is quieter today than it has been in two decades,’” Blackburn said in the letter. “Yet, to date, over 1,200 Israelis have been killed, over 150 hostages have been taken from the safety of their homes, and at least 27 Americans lives have been lost, with at least 14 Americans still missing. This is Jake Sullivan’s perception of a quiet Middle East. This is unacceptable.”
The number of dead Americans due to the conflict between militant group Hamas and Israel rose Saturday, now reportedly up to 29 confirmed dead and 15 unaccounted for. More than 3,000 on both sides of the war are now dead.
Blackburn also accused Sullivan of mishandling engagement with Iran. She said, “[His] appeasement toward Iran has only emboldened the world’s largest state sponsor of terrorism.”
“Sullivan had direct influence in establishing the remarkably flawed 2015 Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action (JCPOA), commonly referred to as the Iran nuclear deal,” Blackburn said. “Thankfully, this decision was later reversed, sparing the world from an expanded Iranian influence under this misguided policy that allowed Iran to continue to fund its terrorist proxies and build up its ballistic missile program.”
Blackburn previously called on Biden to fire Sullivan around the time of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. “Joe Biden needs to fire his national security team, starting with Jake Sullivan,” Blackburn said at the time in a post on X, the platform formerly known as Twitter.