On Thursday Republican Representative Michael McCaul of Texas moved forward with a bid to hold Biden’s Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt of Congress for withholding documents related to the botched 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The chair of the U.S. House of Representatives Foreign Affairs Committee announced the committee will meet on March 7 to consider a resolution recommending that Blinken be held in contempt “for his continued refusal to comply with a subpoena served by the committee in July.”
Reuters reports:
The House committee has been seeking more information from the State Department for months over the withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021. Republicans – and some Democrats – say there has never been a full accounting of the chaotic operation, in which 13 U.S. service members were killed at Kabul’s airport.
State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told a briefing on Thursday that the department was in touch with the foreign affairs committee and would try to resolve the issue before March 7.
The State Department says it has turned over thousands of pages of documents to the committee and made witnesses available for transcribed interviews, while noting that the executive branch has “legitimate confidentiality rights.”
Taking to social media, McCaul wrote on X: “it is appalling that over two years after the deadly and chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, the State Department continues to choose politics over policy. Congress, the American people, and-most importantly-our gold star families deserve the truth.”
McCaul also reposted a statement by the House Foreign Affairs Committee Majority which stated:
“The law does not afford the State Department blanket authority to hide behind ‘Executive Branch confidentiality interests’ to obstruct our committee’s jurisdiction to access the truth Americans deserve. It’s extremely foolish and disrespectful – particularly to Afghanistan veterans and the Gold Star families – that these administration officials continue to distort our conversations and play politics rather than cooperate to help ensure such a catastrophe does not happen again.”