WASHINGTON (AP) —
On Tuesday, Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee brought charges of contempt of Congress against the secretary of state. Antony Blinken After a dispute with the Cabinet Secretary over his appearance to testify America's chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan,
The 26-25 party-line vote was the latest friction point between the GOP and the State Department this Congress. Republicans have been working for the past 18 months to hold the Biden administration accountable for what they called an “astonishing failure of leadership” in going after Taliban forces. captured the capital of Afghanistan In August 2021.
“Instead of taking accountability for this, the Secretary is hiding from the American people. He would rather hide than appear before this committee today,” the representative said. Michael McCaul of Texas, the committee chairman, said, “The secretary's deliberate indifference has led us to this situation.”
The resolution will now go to the full House, which could vote to hold Blinken in contempt of Congress and refer the case to the Justice Department.
Blinken said in a letter to McCaul that he was “deeply disappointed” by the chairman’s decision to pursue contempt proceedings and urged him to find a solution “in good faith.”
“As I have made clear, I am prepared to testify, and I have offered a number of reasonable alternatives to the dates the Committee unilaterally sought, during which I would best accomplish the President's important foreign policy objectives,” Blinken said in the letter Sunday.
McCaul defended his decision on Tuesday, saying he had “patiently asked and waited” about Blinken’s availability and that the department had been “dishonest” in refusing repeated requests to choose a date in September for Blinken to testify.
McCaul first scheduled a hearing for Blinken's testimony last Thursday, while the secretary Was in Egypt and France. He then changed the date to Tuesday, when Blinken was in New York at the annual United Nations General Assembly meeting of world leaders and attending a meeting with the president. Joe Biden Speech of Mr Singh at the hearing.
As all secretaries of state have done in the past, Blinken will spend the entire week in New York and hold dozens of meetings with his counterparts on a variety of issues, but this year his focus will be on the situation in the Middle East and Ukraine–Russia Clash.
Democrats on the committee called the Republicans' contempt efforts “blatantly partisan” and said they came less than two months before the presidential election.
“It's not hard for the American people to see this for what it is: political theater,” the New York representative said. Gregory Meeks“This is yet another attempt to bring negative headlines to the name of yet another senior Biden administration official,” the committee’s top Democrat said in an opening statement.
former President Donald Trump has been repeatedly raised Disastrous exit from Afghanistan in the campaign, trying to link it to his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala HarrisMultiple oversight reviews and a more than 18-month investigation by House Republicans found no instance where Harris had any significant influence on the decision to withdraw.
Blinken has testified 14 times about Afghanistan, including four times before McCaul's committee.
Miller said Blinken is willing to testify again if a mutually convenient time can be arranged, but noted that Congress will be in recess from this weekend until the November election.
Earlier this month, House Republicans released a scathing report on their investigation. withdrawalblaming the disastrous end of america's longest war But Biden administration While Trump's role was minimized.
The partisan review underscored the final months of military and civilian failures following Trump's February 2020 withdrawal deal, which allowed the Taliban to take over the country even before the last US officials flew out on August 30, 2021. The chaotic evacuation left behind many US citizens, Afghan Battlefield AlliesWomen, female activists and others are among those facing threats from the Taliban.