Amo Slams Republicans on their Sham Partisan Investigation of the Afghanistan Withdrawal

WASHINGTON, DC – Earlier today, Congressman Gabe Amo (RI-01) spoke about the inane Republican effort to hold the Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt of Congress. In a House Committee on Foreign Affairs markup hearing, Congressman Amo denounced partisan attacks on President Joe Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken and called out Republicans who impeded a thorough investigation of the Afghanistan withdrawal by focusing only on actions taken after President Biden took office. Congressman Amo also reminded committee members that Donald Trump was derelict in his duty by failing to process visas for Afghan allies and by insisting on troop withdrawals despite the Taliban’s lack of compliance with the Doha Agreement.

“My friends on the other side of the aisle have devolved this investigation into a partisan food fight — complete with spaghetti thrown at the wall in the hopes that it sticks,” said Congressman Gabe Amo. “If Republicans are searching for those responsible for impeding this investigation, there is a mirror in the bathroom. By insisting on making this investigation the latest culture war avenue to bash President Biden, they’ve prevented us from carrying out a thorough investigation.”

“It’s a damn shame that Republicans would rather attack President Biden before confiding — much less acknowledging — that Donald Trump bears an iota of responsibility for what happened. This is not a complete investigation. This is a sham,” continued Congressman Amo. “If the other side was serious about finding the truth, then we wouldn’t be debating this bogus report today.”

BACKGROUND

On August 12, 2024, House Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul requested in-person testimony from Secretary of State Antony Blinken regarding the withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. On August 19, 2024, Secretary Blinken alerted Chairman McCaul that he would be traveling on official business throughout the month of September and would not be available on the date requested.

On September 18, 2024, Chairman McCaul issued a subpoena to Secretary Blinken to compel his testimony on September 24 — despite knowing that Secretary Blinken would need to be in New York City on that day for the United Nations General Assembly. On September 22 and September 23, 2024, Secretary Blinken sent letters to Chairman McCaul explaining in detail why he would not be available to testify. Of note, Secretary Blinken has already testified on the Afghanistan withdrawal 14 times before Congress and 4 of those times were in front of the House Committee on Foreign Affairs.

On September 24, 2024, Chairman McCaul submitted a report recommending the House finds Secretary Blinken in contempt of Congress for refusal to comply with a subpoena issued by the House Committee on Foreign Affairs. Republican findings in this report summarize only a partial overview of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. The report fails to include the full facts of the investigation by focusing only on actions following President Biden taking office. By excluding the start of the U.S. withdrawal under former President Trump, Republicans exclude key aspects of the withdrawal, including information on the faults of the Doha Agreement which set in motion the overall withdrawal.

FULL HEARING REMARKS AS DELIVERED

Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Right now, we should be mourning the 13 service members who lost their lives in Afghanistan.

We should be putting country over party to come to a bipartisan understanding of the full picture of what went wrong.

And we should be locking arms to make sure that a withdrawal like this never happens again.

But instead, my friends on the other side of the aisle have devolved this investigation into a partisan food fight — complete with spaghetti thrown at the wall in the hopes that it sticks.

Take the report that’s in front of us today.

We’re only debating it today because Republicans want to force Secretary Blinken to pause his essential work around the world to testify yet again.

Let’s be clear, Secretary Blinken is not the one obstructing this investigation.

How can he be?

He’s already testified 14 times before Congress on the Afghanistan withdrawal — 4 of those times in front of this very Committee.

If Republicans are searching for those responsible for impeding this investigation, there is a mirror in the bathroom.

By insisting on making this investigation the latest culture war avenue to bash President Biden, they’ve prevented us from carrying out a thorough investigation.

If Republicans really cared about the truth, then they’d look at the full withdrawal from Afghanistan. They would not start when President Biden lawfully took office on January 20, 2021.

There is an embarrassing lack of investigative rigor that is deeply concerning.

Throughout their own report, Republicans reveal clear gaps in information that could have been answered by looking into what happened before President Biden took office.

Take page 8 of this report. Page 8 acknowledges that the Taliban did not comply with the Doha Agreement since the beginning of the deal, when President Trump was in office. 

Why did Donald Trump fail to hold the Taliban accountable in the first year of the agreement? Why did he instead draw down troops and leave us in a weakened state during the final stages of the withdrawal?

Page 13 of this report mentions the large backlog of Special Immigrant Visas for our Afghan allies.

The State Department found that the Trump Administration “made no senior-level or interagency effort to address the backlog or consider options for other at-risk Afghans despite its commitment to a military withdrawal.” 

Why did Donald Trump worsen this backlog in the first place by not prioritizing those visas, leaving those who helped our troops withering in the wind?

These are just two of many examples of how the report willingly turns a blind eye to reality.

And it’s a damn shame that Republicans would rather attack President Biden before confiding — much less acknowledging — that Donald Trump bears an iota of responsibility for what happened.

This is not a complete investigation. This is a sham.

If the other side was serious about finding the truth, then we wouldn’t be debating this bogus report today.

Instead, we would be thanking our diplomats who swear the same oath to the Constitution that we do.

Patriots who go to work every single day focused on protecting and defending the constitution from enemies foreign and domestic. They represent the best of our nation.

I yield back.