Washington — Republicans on the Home Overseas Affairs Committee accused the Biden administration of deceptive the general public concerning the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in a report reviewed by CBS Information that detailed the panel’s yearslong investigation into the 2021 pullout.
Republicans have routinely criticized President Biden over the lethal evacuation, by which 13 U.S. service members died in a suicide bombing in Kabul, and they’re now additionally criticizing Vice President Kamala Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee.
“This was one of many deadliest days in Afghanistan. It may have been prevented if the State Division did its job by regulation and executed the plan of evacuation,” the committee chairman, Michael McCaul stated Sunday on “Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan.” “They left these 13 service women and men hanging out to dry… on account of the, I would say ethical negligence on the a part of the administration permitting this to occur.”
The prolonged report, which will probably be launched Monday however was shared solely with CBS Information, is extremely crucial of Mr. Biden’s choice to withdraw from Afghanistan, accusing the president and his administration of ignoring repeated warnings from army officers, nationwide safety advisers and U.S. allies concerning the dangers related to drawing American forces right down to zero as a result of he “prioritized politics and his private legacy over America’s nationwide safety pursuits.”
“President Biden seems to have believed his historic place on Afghanistan would guarantee his legacy,” the report says, including that Harris “seems to have been working in lockstep” with the president to withdraw all U.S. troops.
Mr. Biden has hardly ever commented on the Afghanistan withdrawal, however he stated in September 2021 that he “was not going to increase this ‘eternally conflict,’ and I used to be not extending a ‘eternally exit.'”
Final yr, the White Home launched its personal 12-page abstract of a labeled assessment of the Afghanistan exit that largely blamed the Trump administration for a deal it struck with the Taliban to withdraw U.S. forces from the nation by Might 2021. The deal, often called the Doha Settlement, laid out a sequence of circumstances for the Taliban to satisfy to ensure that U.S. forces to completely depart Afghanistan. One other report partially declassified and launched by the State Division final yr faulted each the Trump and Biden administrations for “inadequate” planning surrounding the withdrawal.
The White Home’s report stated the intelligence group’s evaluation was that the Taliban would make features solely after a whole U.S. army withdrawal, and never earlier than, however that is not what finally occurred throughout the summer time of 2021.
The Home Overseas Affairs Committee report contains the overly optimistic statements spokespeople on the White Home, State Division and the Pentagon made within the weeks and days main as much as the withdrawal, even because the Taliban was consolidating management of the nation. One instance cited a Pentagon assertion that Kabul was not in imminent hazard. Two days later, Kabul fell to the Taliban.
Samuel Corum / Getty Pictures
In its investigation, the committee has carried out 18 transcribed interviews with Biden administration officers — together with former ambassador to Afghanistan Ross Wilson, Gen. Austin Miller and former White Home press secretary Jen Psaki, in accordance with the committee. The panel additionally acquired over 20,000 pages of paperwork from the State Division, some obtained by subpoenas, together with holding public hearigns because the probe started.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken has not testified in entrance of the committee for the report, and final week, McCaul subpoenaed Blinken for testimony in a public listening to on the withdrawal from Afghanistan happening later this month.
The report comes days forward of the primary presidential debate between Harris and Trump, and with fewer than 60 days to go till Election Day. McCaul, a Texas Republican, stated of the timing that it’s not associated to politics, however comes because it’s taken two years attributable to obstructions from the administration, including that he is needed to serve quite a few subpoenas to achieve paperwork and testimony.
“Why is it essential proper now?” McCaul stated on Sunday. “As a result of the international coverage’s at stake. What occurred after Afghanistan impacted the world.”
The report contains suggestions to forestall an analogous scenario, together with reestablishing a Disaster Bureau within the State Division and congressional motion for the State Division and the Pentagon to keep up customary working procedures. The State Division has undertaken 40 actions from its personal report that they are saying tackle a few of these suggestions.
McCaul stated Sunday that the investigation will go “nicely after the election,” including that “we’ve got a whole lot of unanswered questions” relating to the Protection Division and what occurred on the bottom throughout the airport assault.
Rep. Gregory Meeks, the highest Democrat on the committee, wrote in a letter hooked up to the minority’s report warning that he anticipated a “partisan” report from committee Republicans, who he claimed have tried to “politicize the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.” The New York Democrat argued that the Republican majority took “explicit pains to keep away from details involving former President Donald Trump,” whereas accusing them of ramping up criticism of Harris as Election Day nears.
Within the minority report, which was additionally shared with CBS Information forward of its launch, the committee Democrats defend the Biden administration’s preparations for the withdrawal and response amid swiftly altering circumstances. The report accuses the Trump administration of setting the withdrawal in movement with out the “essential interagency preparations or contingency planning for an orderly drawdown,” together with conducting a coverage handover to the Biden administration that was “shambolic and non-cooperative.”
“President Trump initiated a withdrawal that was irreversible with out sending considerably extra American troops to Afghanistan to face renewed fight with the Taliban,” Meeks stated. “Somewhat than ship extra People to combat a conflict in Afghanistan, President Biden determined to finish it.”
The White Home criticized the GOP-led report on Sunday, saying “Chairman McCaul’s newest partisan report is predicated on cherry-picked details, inaccurate characterizations, and pre-existing biases which have plagued this investigation from the beginning.” Sharon Yang, a White Home spokesperson for oversight and investigations stated in an announcement that “ending our longest conflict was the precise factor to do,” including that it strengthened the U.S. place and redirected assets to threats elsewhere.
“Due to the unhealthy deal former President Trump minimize with the Taliban to get out of Afghanistan by Might of 2021, President Biden inherited an untenable place,” Yang stated. “The President refused to ship one other era of People to combat a conflict that ought to have ended way back.”
The GOP-led report particulars the chaotic month of August 2021, together with when Wilson fled with embassy workers, leaving all the evacuation assist operations workforce to fend for themselves. The diplomat took a two-week trip in July and August, regardless of the deteriorating scenario in Afghanistan, the report says.
Native workers have been “actively deprioritized” within the evacuation, and the report says many left the Kabul airport in tears. U.S. lawful everlasting residents with out American passports have been overwhelmed by the Taliban and denied entry, whereas there have been additionally instances when Americans have been overwhelmed, together with a 12-year-old boy from Virginia, the report says.
Jim DeHart, the consul normal answerable for the particular immigrant visas, described the scene on the airport as “apocalyptic.” The report says the Taliban would whip and kill whole teams of Afghans who confirmed up on the airport, and U.S. service members have been forbidden from intervening.
The committee largely blames the White Home Nationwide Safety Council and nationwide safety adviser Jake Sullivan for offering the speaking factors used throughout this era, accusing them of being “the supply of nearly all of that misinformation marketing campaign.” Sullivan and the Nationwide Safety Council didn’t solicit enter from key U.S. officers in Afghanistan, the committee stated. Republicans have requested that Sullivan testify, which he has thus far declined to do. A White Home official refuted the characterization, including that the messaging mirrored enter from a number of authorities departments and companies throughout the U.S. and in Kabul.
The report additionally faults Zalmay Khalilzad, who helped dealer the Doha Settlement. Khalilzad was appointed by President Trump, and continued in his place as particular consultant for Afghanistan reconciliation below Mr. Biden.
The report accused Khalilzad of undermining the Afghan authorities by excluding it from negotiations, in addition to undermining longstanding U.S. coverage of not negotiating with terrorists. High army officers stated Khalilzad didn’t seek the advice of the U.S. army throughout negotiations and left them “at nighttime” concerning the precise phrases of the deal.
In his testimony earlier than the committee in November 2023, Khalilzad “defined there was by no means a complete evaluation by the [Biden] administration on whether or not the Taliban was adhering to the Doha Settlement,” in accordance with the report. State Division paperwork obtained by the committee by a subpoena confirmed that the administration was conscious in March 2021 that the Taliban was violating the settlement.
Nonetheless, the following month Mr. Biden introduced the choice to withdraw the remaining 2,500 troops from Afghanistan. They would go away earlier than the U.S. marked 20 years because the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist assaults, he stated.
Former State Division spokesperson Ned Worth advised the committee in December 2023 that the Taliban’s adherence to the deal was “immaterial” to the administration’s choice to withdraw.
Regardless of the choice to withdraw the U.S. army from Afghanistan, the State Division was decided to maintain the U.S. embassy in Kabul, in accordance with the report. The report criticizes the State Division’s lack of preparation for the worst-case situation that there would must be an emergency evacuation whereas the Taliban managed Kabul.
A number of witnesses advised the committee that planning for a non-combatant evacuation operation to evacuate the embassy, U.S. residents and Afghans who had helped the U.S. army didn’t start in earnest till August 2021, in accordance with the report, after the Taliban had made sweeping features throughout the nation.
A State Division spokesperson stated “officers who spoke with the Home Overseas Affairs Committee defined throughout their hours-long interviews that there was in depth planning by the State Division for a attainable diplomatic exit from Afghanistan. Planning started in April 2021, with a number of inter-agency and embassy workouts, utilizing a spread of situations. Statements or strategies that the Division had the only authority to activate, or that there was not planning, for a NEO are false.”
The report alleges that when the evacuation started, the “State Division was not working off of a plan,” which led to chaotic selections on the bottom due to the strain to evacuate as many individuals as attainable.
The evacuation did assist greater than 124,000 folks depart Afghanistan, however in accordance with the report, not everybody who was eligible, like most of the Afghans who had helped the army within the 20-year conflict, have been in a position to depart.
The committee stated the Afghanistan withdrawal would have long-term penalties on U.S. nationwide safety.
“When Kabul fell, many drew comparisons to Saigon as, as soon as once more, U.S. helicopters have been ferrying People off a U.S. embassy, abandoning longtime allies. However this investigation reveals what occurred in Afghanistan was far worse,” it stated.
Rep. Jim Himes, a Connecticut Democrat who additionally appeared on “Face the Nation” on Sunday, strongly criticized the report and refuted the allegation that President Biden got here to workplace with an “agenda” on Afghanistan.
“It’s a politicized, cherry-picked report designed to do one factor, not make clear a tragedy,” Himes stated. “It will be a nakedly partisan marketing campaign factor.”
