Amid scenes of a chaotic and hasty evacuation of Afghanistan, several Republicans in the House promise to start investigations in Congress over the failed withdrawal of the Biden administration if they win the House again next year, and some specifically ask a “Selective Committee of Afghanistan.”
“This makes Benghazi seem like a much smaller issue,” Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana, a Republican Party leadership member of the Armed Services Committee, told CNN. “This can be one of the worst national security and foreign policy disasters in our history. There will be many answers to look for and questions to answer, and I think it will be a priority.”
“After the disastrous events in Afghanistan, we have to face a serious question: is Joe Biden able to fulfill his duties or is it time to exercise the provisions of the 25th Amendment?” has tweeted Florida Republican Sen. Rick Scott, who chairs the Senate Republican Party’s arm of the campaign.
The Biden administration has defended its decision to leave Afghanistan and noted that Trump would have done so even faster. And the White House estimates that, ultimately, the majority of the public is on their side when it comes to bringing troops home and ending the war. But given how it ran, the Republican Party is betting the opposite, and believes Biden’s approval ratings and support for the withdrawal will end up falling.
Republican lawmakers, however, insist it is not about politics. They say it’s about getting to the bottom of Biden’s decision-making, warning that it could have lasting reverberations for the homeland and around the world.
“We need to get to the bottom of what happened and how it happened,” said Rep. Michael Waltz, a Florida Republican and Green Beret who is part of the Armed Services Committee.
Lightning of bipartisanship in the Senate
In the Senate, there is a slightly different tone from some key Republicans, with flashes of bipartisanship so far.
Republicans in the Senate have promised rigorous oversight and have not been afraid to criticize the Biden administration for the consequences in Afghanistan, but Republican lawmakers have also focused and resolved on the issue at hand. Senator Joni Ernst, an Iowa Republican and combat veteran, told CNN Thursday night that while she has serious concerns about whether there were information failures or information sharing that contributed in the rapid fall of Kabul, there would be plenty of time to find out “what happened” and “what went wrong” in the near future.
“What we need to focus on right now is the SIV effort and how to get Americans out of the country safely,” Ernst said. “I have members of the military and former members of the military who texted me directly to ask for help from their interpreters. We need to have a process.”
Backstage, aides and members tell CNN that frustration and discouragement about what is happening in Afghanistan has been bipartisan, fostering an environment that, while it may be short-lived, at least brings members together to work out the best strategy for getting answers from an administration that has sometimes been less than close on their exit plans.
“I think there is a bipartisan desire to ensure that human rights are respected in Afghanistan. Now, of course, I can’t imagine my fellow Democrats being overly critical of the administration, but I can tell you that they are very upset. from what they see, ”Ernst said. “I think there may be a lifespan, especially when we go into an election.”
A Republican in the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Representative Peter Meijer of Michigan, agreed that investigations into security and intelligence failures would likely come later.
“We have to put out the fire before asking firefighters why it took them so long to respond,” Meijer told CNN in an interview Thursday. “They should communicate to us. That I am unequivocally in their favor, but the time to start the commission is after we have taken our American citizens out of danger.”
Power of summons of the house
In the House, however, tensions between the two sides reached an all-time high following the January 6 insurgency at the U.S. Capitol, and this could break into the debate over Afghanistan.
After President Nancy Pelosi rejected two of the options of House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy for a select committee to investigate the deadly riot, the California Republican withdrew all of his selections from court and charged the Democrats try to use the probe to damage Trump’s political prospects.
Now, if the Republican Party takes power in 2022, it looks like Republicans in the House could create a select committee: several Republican lawmakers and aides said it is almost certain the Republican Party will launch investigations into Biden’s withdrawal from the House. Afghanistan. And with control of the House comes the power of summons, which means Republicans could force Biden officials to testify at hearings and hand over documents, all in the run-up to the 2024 presidential election.
“Is it too early to start discussing an Afghanistan selection committee to investigate exactly what happened and when?” has tweeted Rep. Claudia Tenney, a Republican representing a swing district in New York. “I would like to receive news from Americans on the ground about their experiences and get answers to questions about how it went so badly, so quickly.”
Republicans, who have only been able to send letters to the White House, want to know if intelligence failures or bad political decisions led to the wrong withdrawal, as the administration plans to ensure that Afghanistan is not become a haven for terrorism, if the White House ignored warnings about how serious the situation on the ground was and what happened to U.S. military aircraft and weapons left in the hands of the Taliban, among others things.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo, who was a member of the Republican Party of the House Select Committee of Benghazi as a Kansas representative, addressed the House Republican conference on Thursday morning. Pompeo, a potential candidate in 2024, explained how the Trump administration would have approached the withdrawal from Afghanistan, arguing that his evacuation would not have seen the same chaos that is unfolding in Biden’s clock and that it would have turned the exit. of Americans in the country one of the top priorities. , according to call sources.
While Republicans did not raise the idea of an Afghanistan selection committee during the call, several have made the idea public, including Rep. Jim Banks of Indiana, who chairs the largest Conservative group in the House.
“More are wondering about their competence. Republicans will be looking to investigate all aspects of how this withdrawal went wrong and who is responsible,” said Banks, who is part of the Armed Services Committee.
Some far-right Republicans have gone even further and called for Biden’s removal, something the Republican Party would have the power to do if it controlled the House, although major Republicans have stopped admitting the idea.
“What did Joe Biden know and when did he know?” has tweeted controversial Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia. “#ImpeachBiden”.
Even Republicans who haven’t gone that far think Biden has lost his political capital.
“It’s going to make it very, very difficult for any national or certainly foreign policy agenda to succeed. And of course, from our perspective, I think that’s good for the United States,” Johnson said. , the Republican of Louisiana. “But I certainly think it’s been an important moment in his presidency and I don’t think he’s recovering.”