Secretary of State Antony Blinken can expect the most aggressive questioning of his career when he testifies Monday before the House Foreign Affairs Committee and Tuesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Why it’s important: Republicans see the hearings as their first opportunity to directly confront a top-ranking Biden official about the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Democrats see it as a time when they must reject the Republican Party’s efforts to blame President Biden for 20 years of bipartisan mistakes.
The overview: We talked to lawmakers and staff about what they plan to ask for.
Republicans say they will demand it knowing exactly how many Americans and allies are stranded in Afghanistan, following the latest evacuations and persistent obstacles, and how specifically the United States plans to remove them.
- They want to know the specific breakdown of those who have left (holders of special visas, individuals “at risk”, etc.) and the process of verifying the crushing of evacuees who were airlifted.
- Expect them to raise concerns about convicted criminals or members of terrorism watch lists among evacuees – and cite a particularly distressing AP story about “bride children” trafficked to the U.S. during the chaos.
- They will use viral images of Taliban fighters carrying U.S. military equipment and flying Black Hawk helicopters to assassinate Blinken over how the U.S. will treat an arsenal now controlled by the Taliban. The Pentagon insists the equipment left at Kabul airport was “demilitarized” and “unusable,” but it is clear that this is not the case across the country.
If and how the US recognizes the Taliban the government is a key issue now that a cabinet has been formed in Afghanistan, one with the leader of the al-Qaeda-linked Haqqani network, and a terrorist who wanted the FBI as the minister of Interior.
- GOP members will highlight the minimization of the administration of the Taliban’s links to terrorist networks and the Taliban’s reliance on security cooperation. They will pressure Blinken to prevent the Taliban from ever accessing more than $ 9 billion in frozen Afghan assets in the U.S. financial system.
The other side: Democrats will point to the peace deal the Trump administration negotiated with the Taliban and quote Donald Trump’s own boast in June: “I started the process, all the troops return home. [Biden] could not stop process “.
- “My No. 1 question for Secretary Blinken: Can you now describe to us the detailed and well-considered plan prepared by the Trump administration on how we would get out of Afghanistan in an orderly manner?” Representative Brad Sherman (D-California) told Axios in an interview.
- “Let’s be realistic, this mission was full of danger, because there is no way to escape without causing a stampede and there is no way to have an orderly and meritorious stampede,” he added.
- A Democratic source told Axios that Republicans “are doing as much Benghazi as they can.” The source said that, as Democrats see it, “it’s not January 6. It’s an examination of U.S. policy toward a country in a 20-year war.”
For the record: State Department spokesman Ned Price said in a statement that Blinken “has prioritized engagement with Congress since his early days” in office, even at recent meetings and calls in Afghanistan, and that “appreciates the opportunity to testify.”