The House of Representatives is expected to vote Wednesday to formally censure President Joe Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and other officials over their handling of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
The resolution, introduced by House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, criticized the government’s “chaotic, hasty” withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying the “willful failure to properly plan for an evacuation operation of noncombatants, and the decision to rely on the Taliban to operate checkpoints around” Kabul airport, led to the 2021 attack on the airport’s Abbey Gate in the final days of the withdrawal.
The resolution also references Harris’ April 2021 comments to CNN in which she said she played a central role in Biden’s decision to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.
Separately, the House Foreign Affairs Committee voted Tuesday to advance a measure to hold Blinken in contempt of Congress after he failed to comply with a subpoena to testify at a hearing on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Blinken was at the United Nations General Assembly in New York on Tuesday, the same day as the hearing, and reiterated his willingness to testify and expressed disappointment in a letter to McCaul earlier this week over the congressman’s decision to pursue the contempt resolution.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller disputed the need for Blinken to testify again, saying in a statement earlier this month that the secretary has testified before Congress on the issue more than any other Cabinet member.
Former President Donald Trump and his Republican allies have been trying to blame Harris for the Afghanistan withdrawal after she entered the presidential race in July.
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Trump’s running mate, last month sharply criticized Harris for the administration’s handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“Three years ago, 13 brave, innocent Americans died, and they died because Kamala Harris refused to do her job, and there was no investigation or firing,” Vance said. “Sometimes mistakes happen — that’s just the nature of government, the nature of military service. But for those 13 Americans to lose their lives and not fire a single person is outrageous. Kamala Harris is outrageous.”
Relatives of the service members killed in the Abbey Gate attack did not invite Biden or Harris to Arlington National Cemetery last month to commemorate the third anniversary of the attack, a White House official and a Harris aide told NBC News.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
