GOP presses ahead with holding Blinken in contempt over Afghanistan testimony

The Republican-led House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday moved forward with holding Secretary of State Antony Blinken in contempt of a subpoena to appear before the committee, drawing accusations from Democratic members of partisan maneuvering ahead of the November elections.

Blinken argued it was not possible for him to attend the hearing, given his commitments at the United Nations General Assembly in New York City this week. He was among the U.S. representatives watching President Biden deliver his final address to the U.N. on Tuesday morning as the hearing gaveled in. 

The contempt measure is related to House Foreign 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 focused on Biden’s execution of the withdrawal — a chaotic and deadly episode— without taking into account the role former President Trump had in agreeing to exit Afghanistan, and the two-decade scope of U.S. policy 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,” said Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-N.Y.), the ranking 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 House will recess this week and through the month of October to campaign for the November election and resume afterward. 

Blinken, in a letter to McCaul sent on Sept. 22, said he had “personally sought to reach an accommodation” with the chairman for alternate dates to testify before the committee, and offered either of his top deputies to testify before the committee on days he wasn’t available. 

Blinken said he had spoken twice by phone with McCaul about trying to find 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 read, according to a copy obtained by The Hill. 

But McCaul accused Blinken of stonewalling requests for his testimony in September, and dismissed the State Department’s defense that the secretary had testified over the U.S. withdrawal 14 times in front of Congress and four times in front of the committee, saying he sought testimony specifically on the findings of his report, which was published 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 said at Tuesday’s hearing. “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.  

But Democrats seized on the optics of forcing the secretary to appear before the committee in September, ahead of the election, and at the exact time he is representing the country at the U.N.’s annual gathering. Blinken, in his letter, detailed his particularly 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,” said 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. 

Still, both Republicans and Democrats agreed they want Blinken to appear before the committee, and the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021 has received bipartisan criticism. It remains among the darkest stains on President Biden’s term in office, with the administration ill-prepared for the rapid collapse of the U.S.-backed Afghan government as the Taliban surrounded Kabul, and the massive civilian evacuation that ensued. 

A suicide bombing at the Kabul airport carried out by ISIS-K killed 13 U.S. service members and killed and wounded scores of Afghans. And while more than 120,000 people were flown out of Afghanistan over the course of two weeks, thousands of American citizens and Afghan allies were left behind amid the drawdown of the U.S. military and diplomatic presence in the country.

Republicans have homed in on the bombing as a defining symbol of Biden’s mishandling of the withdrawal, and McCaul has focused his investigative efforts on seeking accountability for the security failures that allowed the attack. 

But Democrats have slammed the report as a political attack and say it has tainted the work of a committee that often 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,” said Rep. Dean Phillips (D-Minn.), a Gold Star son whose father was killed fighting in Vietnam. 

Phillips said an investigation into the failures of Afghanistan are necessary to honor the more than 2,000 soldiers who died fighting for more than 20 years in the country, as well as those who were injured in combat, like his colleague on the panel, Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), who lost both his legs serving in Afghanistan.  

But he criticized the polarization of the committee under McCaul’s leadership. 

“Damn, have we lost respect, reverence for this institution, for our friendships, for our collegiality,” Phillips said. “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.”