The House is set to vote Wednesday to formally condemn President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and other officials over their handling of the 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The resolution, introduced by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, criticized the administration’s “chaotic, precipitous” Afghanistan withdrawal, saying its “willful refusal to properly plan for a noncombatant evacuation operation, and decision to rely on the Taliban to run checkpoints surrounding” the Kabul airport led to the 2021 attack at Abbey Gate at the airport in the final days of the withdrawal.
The resolution also points to Harris’ April 2021 comments to CNN that she played a central role in Biden’s decision to pull troops from Afghanistan.
Separately, the Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday voted to advance a measure to hold Blinken in contempt of Congress after he did not comply with a subpoena to provide testimony at a hearing on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Blinken was at the United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York on Tuesday, the same day as the hearing, and reiterated his willingness to testify and expressed disappointment to McCaul in a letter earlier this week about the congressman’s decision to pursue the contempt resolution.
A spokesperson for the State Department, Matthew Miller, disputed the need for Blinken to testify again, saying in a statement earlier this month that the secretary has testified before Congress on the matter more than any other Cabinet member.
Former President Donald Trump and Republican allies have sought to blame Harris for the Afghanistan withdrawal after she jumped into the presidential race in July.
Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, Trump’s running mate, last month blasted Harris over the administration’s handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal.
“Three years ago, 13 brave, innocent Americans died, and they died because Kamala Harris refused to do her job, and there hasn’t been a single investigation or a single firing,” Vance said. “Sometimes mistakes happen — that’s just the nature of government, the nature of military service. But to have those 13 Americans lose their lives and not fire a single person is disgraceful. Kamala Harris is disgraceful.”
Family members of the service members killed in the Abbey Gate attack did not invite Biden or Harris to Arlington National Cemetery last month to commemorate the attack’s third anniversary, a White House official and a Harris aide told NBC News.
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