The Republican-led Home Overseas Affairs Committee on Tuesday moved ahead with holding Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt of a subpoena to look earlier than the committee, drawing accusations from Democratic members of partisan maneuvering forward of the November elections.
Blinken argued it was not doable for him to attend the listening to, given his commitments on the United Nations Normal Meeting in New York Metropolis this week. He was among the many U.S. representatives watching President Biden ship his ultimate handle to the U.N. on Tuesday morning because the listening to gaveled in.
The contempt measure is expounded to Home Overseas Affairs Committee Chair Michael McCaul’s (R-Texas) pursuit of the secretary’s testimony following the publication earlier this month of a three-year investigation into the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Democrats have slammed the report as partisan and narrowly centered on Biden’s execution of the withdrawal — a chaotic and lethal episode— with out considering the position former President Trump had in agreeing to exit Afghanistan, and the two-decade scope of U.S. coverage there.
“This investigation is just not about serious fact-finding or oversight, it’s about narrowing the scope of the end of the United States’s longest war to just a few months of the Biden administration, not for the purpose of getting the facts right … but to play politics,” stated Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the rating member of the committee, in opening remarks.
“Why is there suddenly a rush to hold this contempt vote when the secretary has made it very clear, time and time again, that he’s willing to testify?” he added. “Is it the elections coming up on Nov. 5? Is it politics that’s causing this urgency?”
The Home will recess this week and thru the month of October to marketing campaign for the November election and resume afterward.
Blinken, in a letter to McCaul despatched on Sept. 22, stated he had “personally sought to reach an accommodation” with the chairman for alternate dates to testify earlier than the committee, and supplied both of his high deputies to testify earlier than the committee on days he wasn’t out there.
Blinken stated he had spoken twice by cellphone with McCaul about looking for alternate dates for testifying.
“I am profoundly disappointed you have once again chosen to send me a subpoena and threaten contempt, rather than engage with me and the Department in a meaningful way to resolve this matter through the constitutionally-mandated accommodation process,” the letter learn, in response to a replica obtained by The Hill.
However McCaul accused Blinken of stonewalling requests for his testimony in September, and dismissed the State Division’s protection that the secretary had testified over the U.S. withdrawal 14 occasions in entrance of Congress and 4 occasions in entrance of the committee, saying he sought testimony particularly on the findings of his report, which was revealed Sep. 8.
“I take no joy in this procedure, after months of the secretary ignoring countless requests for his testimony, I was forced to subpoena with him to discuss my findings of the catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan,” McCaul stated at Tuesday’s listening to. “Let the record reflect that for four months I patiently waited on his availability for September, but Blinken made false promises and accused me of politicizing this important issue.”
“I offered any day in September, just a few hours in September. The secretary couldn’t find one day, couldn’t find one hour, to come before the United States Congress and respond to our report so we could legislate on that. I find that incredible. His timing, not mine.” he added.
However Democrats seized on the optics of forcing the secretary to look earlier than the committee in September, forward of the election, and on the actual time he’s representing the nation on the U.N.’s annual gathering. Blinken, in his letter, detailed his notably busy schedule Tuesday.
“This is a purely political move. We are 40 some days before a presidential election and isn’t it shocking that there is no accommodation for Secretary Blinken’s request that his appearance be rescheduled some date other than when he had to appear before the UN General Assembly,” stated Rep. Susan Wild (D-Pa.).
“Let me be clear, I was vocally and publicly critical of the execution of the withdrawal of Afghanistan. But I was also vocal about bringing this war to an end,” she added.
Nonetheless, each Republicans and Democrats agreed they need Blinken to look earlier than the committee, and the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 has acquired bipartisan criticism. It stays among the many darkest stains on President Biden’s time period in workplace, with the administration ill-prepared for the speedy collapse of the U.S.-backed Afghan authorities because the Taliban surrounded Kabul, and the large civilian evacuation that ensued.
A suicide bombing on the Kabul airport carried out by ISIS-Ok killed 13 U.S. service members and killed and wounded scores of Afghans. And whereas greater than 120,000 folks had been flown out of Afghanistan over the course of two weeks, 1000’s of Americans and Afghan allies had been left behind amid the drawdown of the U.S. army and diplomatic presence within the nation.
Republicans have homed in on the bombing as a defining image of Biden’s mishandling of the withdrawal, and McCaul has centered his investigative efforts on in search of accountability for the safety failures that allowed the assault.
However Democrats have slammed the report as a political assault and say it has tainted the work of a committee that always views itself as rising above partisan politics.
“It is one of the very few vestiges of decency, collaboration, cooperation and shared principles that remain in the United States Congress and I think what’s contemptible is that we’re doing this today,” stated Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), a Gold Star son whose father was killed combating in Vietnam.
Phillips stated an investigation into the failures of Afghanistan are essential to honor the greater than 2,000 troopers who died combating for greater than 20 years within the nation, in addition to those that had been injured in fight, like his colleague on the panel, Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), who misplaced each his legs serving in Afghanistan.
However he criticized the polarization of the committee below McCaul’s management.
“Damn, have we lost respect, reverence for this institution, for our friendships, for our collegiality,” Phillips stated. “And that’s all I wanted to say today, for the American public that is once again watching us, watching us act like this, is what’s contemptible, and I apologize to every single one of the 350 million or so Americans that are wondering what the heck is going on in this most important institution in the world.”
