Rep. Mike McCaul, chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee, said he plans to continue pursuing Secretary of State Antony Blinken on the Afghanistan withdrawal after the lengthy report is completed and will seek contempt of Congress if he does not comply.
“This is a disaster of epic proportions,” the Texas Republican told reporters Monday. “It's a disgrace, and if that's what it takes to bring him before the American people, I'm going to hold him in contempt.”
“Secretary of State Blinken has refused to appear before Congress even once this month. [Gold Star] family.”
McCaul's comments came shortly after he released a 350-page report on Monday on the withdrawal, which the committee has been working on for the most part for the past nearly two years while it was Republican-controlled.
The report strongly criticized the State Department, detailing how State Department officials had no plans to withdraw American citizens or allies while troops were still there to protect them.
McCaul sent a subpoena to Blinken last week, asking him to appear before the committee by Sept. 19.
House Republicans release scathing report on Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal
State Department spokesman Vedant Patel dismissed the committee's threats.
“The vast majority of members of Congress are not really interested in legislating on Afghanistan policy. If they were interested, they would have tried to talk to the secretary a long time ago,” he told reporters on Monday.
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul spoke to Fox News Digital on the sidelines of a congressional delegation visit to Taipei. (Getty Images)
“They should have spoken to him and gotten his opinion as they prepared the report,” he said, “but they waited until the report was fully completed before contacting us.”
In May, McCaul invited Blinken to appear at a September confirmation hearing. CommitteeThe State Department released a report on its investigation into the withdrawal from Afghanistan. McCaul said the department repeatedly failed to provide a timeline for Secretary of State Blinken to appear before lawmakers.
But the State Department said Monday that Blinken has testified 14 times before House and Senate committees about the withdrawal, including four times before the Foreign Relations Committee.
McCaul also indicated he believes a small reserve contingent of U.S. troops should still be stationed in Afghanistan.
House committee subpoenas Blinken over Afghanistan withdrawal
“We can now only see Afghanistan from over the horizon. That doesn't work. Because of this tragic failure of foreign policy, we can't see Russia, China or Iran either,” he told reporters.
“We cannot foresee the entire ISIS congregation in Tajikistan, Pakistan and the Khorazan region of Afghanistan and then heading towards the United States, which is what they did to us,” the chairman continued.
“They are emboldening the unholy alliance of Putin, Xi Jinping, the Ayatollahs and Kim Jong Un,” he said, referring to the leaders of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea.
Secretary of State Antony Blinken (left) and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin (right) speak together during a news conference at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)
The Biden administration has long argued that the president's hands are tied by the Doha agreement, negotiated under President Trump and setting a deadline for the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, but a new report details how the Taliban have violated the agreement and says the U.S. is under no obligation to abide by it.
“Biden faced a stark choice when he took office: stick to the flawed agreement and end the longest war in American history, or abandon the agreement and extend the war, with far fewer U.S. troops returning to fight the Taliban,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday.
“He chose the former, which bought him additional time until the summer to prepare for the withdrawal, and we are now safer as a nation. That is exactly where any discussion of what happened in Afghanistan must start. Unfortunately, the report does not go into that in depth.”
The damning report alleges that U.S. military officials are reducing their activities in the country while the State Department is expanding them.
Also, according to reports, US Ambassador Ross Wilson was on vacation during the last week of July and the first week of August 2021. Ambassador Wilson hurriedly fled the country by plane ahead of his staff in mid-August. Ambassador Wilson was reportedly infected with COVID-19 at the time and had diplomats take COVID tests in order to board the plane.
Taliban fighters celebrate the third anniversary of the U.S.-led withdrawal from Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024, in Kabul, Afghanistan. (AP Photo/Sidiqullah Alizai)
Ms Patel defended Mr Wilson but did not deny the allegations.
“I have no intention of getting into an argument with the House Foreign Affairs Committee, but I will say that the understanding that he was on leave in early August is not mine. Other than that, I would just reiterate what I have said before about Ambassador Wilson: He is a respected man and a decorated diplomat.”
He argued that the Republican-led report “emphasized scandal over substance” and said it was “a cherry-picked collection of comments to paint an inaccurate picture of this administration's work.”
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He insisted the withdrawal was in line with Defense Ministry policy: “The withdrawal in Kabul was carried out in accordance with the standards and procedures of the Ministry of Defense and the country when facing such a situation.”
He said he did not know how many Americans still remained in Afghanistan, but touted that more than 18,000 Special Afghan Immigrant Visas (SIVs) for U.S. Afghan allies, such as translators, had been processed in 2023.
