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Republican lawmakers have released a report accusing the Biden administration of mishandling and misleading the public on US withdrawal from Afghanistan.

What’s the deal: A House Republican report on the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal claims the Biden administration misled the public and failed to plan for the Afghan government’s collapse properly. This, they argue, caused the chaotic evacuation and the deaths of 13 US service members in Kabul.

Getting more into it: The report claims that President Biden “ignored” advice from US allies, US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs, CENTCOM’s commander, and other top officials about withdrawing US troops from Afghanistan. Despite known security risks, it also criticizes the decision to keep a large US embassy presence in Kabul. Additionally, the report accuses the administration of continuing the withdrawal even as the Taliban broke its agreements, calling the administration “willfully blind” to the dangers.  

Here’s what Republicans & Democrats are saying:
House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman McCaul said

• “Our investigation reveals the Biden-Harris administration had the information and opportunity to take necessary steps to plan for the inevitable collapse of the Afghan government, so we could safely evacuate US personnel, American citizens, green card holders, and our brave Afghan allies. At each step of the way, however, the administration picked optics over security.”

• “The administration’s dereliction of duty placed US servicemembers and US State Department personnel in mortal danger, where the Taliban – our sworn enemy – became the first line of defense. As a direct result of the failure to plan for all contingencies, 13 US servicemembers and 170 Afghans were murdered in a terrorist attack at Abbey Gate on August 26, 2021, and 45 US servicemembers and countless Afghans were injured. This was preventable.”
• The Afghanistan withdrawal “damaged US credibility. It has emboldened our adversaries, and it has made the United States more at risk of an attack emanating from Afghanistan. And the moral injury to our veterans and servicemembers is generational. The administration’s unconditional surrender and the abandonment of our Afghan allies, who fought alongside the US military against the Taliban – their brothers in arms – is a stain on this administration.” 

Democrats have criticized Republicans for “playing politics” by releasing the report just one day before the debate between Vice President Harris and Former President Trump. Gregory Meeks, the Committee’s ranking member, condemned the report for lacking Democratic input, labeling it as clearly biased. In a letter, Meeks wrote,

• “I have long voiced my concerns about Republican attempts to politicize the US withdrawal from Afghanistan….The Majority did not involve the Minority in this report, nor have they even provided a draft copy to us. This comes on the heels of former President Trump using a ceremony to honor 13 American servicemembers killed in an ISIS-K terrorist attack as a campaign event to call the Biden-Harris Administration culpable, though Republicans knew for months that the attack was not preventable and that, even though a witness told our Committee he thought he had the ISIS-K bomber in his sights, he did not.“

• “The Republican majority has taken particular pains to avoid facts involving former President Trump— including his committing the United States to a full, date-specific withdrawal in a deal he negotiated with the Taliban that excluded the Afghan government or any reference to the rights of Afghan women and girls; his unilateral announcements to withdraw troops, often a surprise to many of his own senior officials, which undercut US leverage because those announcements were divorced from Taliban compliance with the deal.“
• “Republicans’ partisan attempts to garner headlines rather than acknowledge the full facts and substance of their investigation have only increased with the heat of an election season, and after recent public criticisms about the investigation from former majority staff.2 With the ascendance of Vice President Kamala Harris to the top of the Democratic presidential ticket, the GOP performance has reached a crescendo—Republicans now claim she was the architect of the US withdrawal though she is referenced only three times in 3,288 pages of the Committee’s interview transcripts.”

White House responds: In a statement, White House spokeswoman Sharon Yang said, “Because of the bad deal former president Trump cut with the Taliban to get out of Afghanistan by May of 2021, President Biden inherited an untenable position.“ She also accused Republicans of using “cherry-picked facts, inaccurate characterizations, and pre-existing biases.”

Remember them:

• Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover, 31, of Salt Lake City, Utah.
• Marine Corps Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, 25, of Lawrence, Massachusetts.
• Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, 23, of Sacramento, California.
• Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, of Indio, California.
• Marine Corps Cpl. Daegan W. Page, 23, of Omaha, Nebraska.
• Marine Corps Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, 22, of Logansport, Indiana.
• Marine Corps Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, 20, of Rio Bravo, Texas.
• Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, 20, of St. Charles, Missouri.
• Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum, 20, of Jackson, Wyoming.
• Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20, of Rancho Cucamonga, California.
• Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, 20, of Norco, California.
• Navy Hospitalman Maxton W. Soviak, 22, of Berlin Heights, Ohio.
• Army Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss, 23, of Corryton, Tennessee.