On CNN’s “The Lead” broadcast on Friday, Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), ranking member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, responded to criticism of the handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal and the Biden administration’s subsequent response. He said he was heartbroken, saying the State Department had not been transparent with the families and that the Committee on Foreign Affairs’ investigation was too narrowly focused to examine how the Trump administration caused the Afghan government’s withdrawal. do not have.
Host Jake Tapper said, “Obviously, a lot of Gold Star families are upset about the withdrawal, but how did it happen? They think there was a cover-up. What did you think about it?
Meeks replied: “First of all, our hearts go out to all of the Gold Star families and the loss they have lost. But we also have an oversight committee that is accountable and responsible for oversight. Let me tell you. And the State Department has been working with us every step of the game. And they’ve developed a post-mortem review process, looking at what happened, what didn’t happen, and looking forward to the future. I think where have we had conversations as individuals about what we need to do to improve? But I also think: Because what’s happening in our committees is that people I think you should look at the entire 20 years, for example, because there are things that lead to it, but especially because that’s what happened in the process leading up to that decision. That’s when the previous administration, along with then-Secretary of State Pompeo, decided to undermine the Afghan government and promote those individuals and bring about the Afghan government.[istan] set off. “
He continued: “Right now, we’re looking at it. And we, and they, the committee has received over 100 hours of testimony from multiple current and former officials, and the State Department has also submitted over 11,000 pages of documents. And let me just say, looking at this, the State Department has facilitated the appearance of all the witnesses requested in the Afghanistan investigation. So we’ve done all of these things. But nothing has changed the facts from what the AAR said. But it seems to me that Republican leadership, like they do in every committee, contradicts what the AAR and the post-mortem showed, for example. It sounds like you’re just trying to conduct an investigation that doesn’t find anything to do.”
Next, Tapper said that Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, is threatening to hold Secretary of State Blinken in contempt for failing to provide documents on Afghanistan. I asked about.
Meeks responded that while the State Department was cooperating and the withdrawal was not “absolutely perfect,” “the entire 20 years in Afghanistan were not perfect.”
“But what we were looking at is how can we make sure that we can learn from it, just as we did,” he concluded. [with] 9/11 to help us be better prepared for the future, but not just what we’re going to do. [they’ve] Impeaching Mr. Mayorkas, trying to impeach the president, trying to overthrow the State Department, which we have done on other committees, is not what we should be doing here. ”
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