A House committee moved to hold Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt for missing a Tuesday congressional hearing on the chaotic 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal despite being legally required to testify.
Blinken is Subpoena He was scheduled to testify before the House Foreign Affairs Committee (HFAC) on Tuesday about the Afghanistan withdrawal that led to the deaths of 13 U.S. soldiers and thousands of Americans initially stranded in the country, but decided not to appear, prompting Republicans on the committee to withhold his testimony. Contempt Parliamentary According to To Axios. (Related: Biden administration official says not interested in Harris administration)
The vote passed by a narrow margin of 26-25 on Tuesday, Axios reported.
“I wish we weren't here today, but Secretary of State Antony Blinken brought this on himself,” said HAFC Chairman Rep. Michael McCaul. said During a hearing on Tuesday.
At the budget council meeting on May 22, CHM Senator McCall It was clear: he was expecting From @SecBlinken He is scheduled to testify before the committee on the Afghanistan report in September.
As September draws to a close, Blinken has refused to spend even a few hours before Congress; his public schedule was completely empty this morning. pic.twitter.com/wQXde1aPKN
— House Foreign Affairs Committee Majority (@HouseForeignGOP) September 24, 2024
Blinken decided to skip the hearing to attend a United Nations General Assembly meeting in New York this week. According to “We're not going to let the U.S. get away from us,” Blinken told McCaul, according to Politico. letter Last week, Trump said he was “deeply disappointed” that the committee “did not accept several reasonable alternatives to the schedule that the committee unilaterally requested during the time period in which I carry out the President's important foreign policy objectives.”
“Today's action by the House Foreign Affairs Committee is a blatant political campaign disguised as oversight, with the sole purpose of advancing the partisan interests of the majority under the guise of asking questions that have long ago been answered,” a State Department spokesperson told the Daily Caller News Foundation.
But according to information obtained by the DCNF, Blinken has been offered multiple dates to appear before the committee beyond Tuesday. schedule The hearing in New York runs until 1:30pm on Tuesday. The HAFC hearing starts at 10am.
A source with direct knowledge of the matter told DCNF that the State Department has repeatedly misrepresented the committee's efforts to invite Blinken to testify.
The State Department, and the Biden administration more broadly, have been widely blamed for the disastrous outcome of the Afghanistan withdrawal. Washington's poor planning and incorrect predictions that the Taliban would not take over Afghanistan so quickly contributed to the disorganized operation.
2023 State Department Postmortem Report The withdrawal was also hindered by a lack of clarity about who was in charge within the ministry, it said, adding that there was “insufficient senior-level consideration of worst-case scenarios.”
No one in the administration was fired or resigned for their role in the withdrawal, and after it ended, President Joe Biden reportedly told aides that he supported and stood by their decisions during the operation. According to To Axios.
“There was never even a chance of any real major reforms happening,” a U.S. official told Axios in February.
Blinken recently indicated he would not plan to stay on in his current position beyond the end of Biden's only term in January, nor would he plan to serve under Prime Minister Kamala Harris' administration.
“As for my own future, all I'm looking at right now is the balance between this administration and January,” Blinken said at a news conference. meeting In early September.
Editor's note: This story has been updated to add a statement from a State Department spokesperson.
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