Last week, Townhall reported on a letter from the House Foreign Affairs Committee seeking transcribed interviews with "key" members of the Department of State which were involved in the Biden administration's chaotic and deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The list of officials from whom interviews were requested included a handful of current and former U.S. ambassadors, diplomatic staff, and senior aides to Secretary of State Antony Blinken. As House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) explained in his August 31 letter, "Through our ongoing investigation, we have determined these individuals have important information that is critical to uncovering how and why the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan resulted in a disgraceful surrender to the Taliban, the death of 13 U.S. service members and injuring 45 more — all which could have been prevented."
McCaul set a deadline of September 7 for each "critical witness" to the withdrawal to arrange their transcribed interviews but, as of Friday, September 8, none have done so according to McCaul.
"The State Department has indicated that all requested department officials are willing to cooperate with the committee’s request, but has yet to schedule any of the interviews," McCaul said in a statement Friday morning.
"I expect these interviews be scheduled without further delay," he said despite the current and former diplomatic officials' refusal to do so thus far. "These are crucial witnesses for the committee’s investigation, and I will leave no stone unturned in getting answers for our Gold Star families, veterans, and the American people," McCaul pledged again.
Indeed, without McCaul and his committee's work, there would be little — if any — ongoing scrutiny of the Biden administration's botched withdrawal. The fact that these State Department officials are now apparently ignoring, if not simply dragging its feet in response to, demands to set up interviews with the Foreign Affairs Committee, is further indictment of the Biden administration's actions in the summer of 2021.
If, as Biden has said, he has no regrets about how things were done and, as John Kirby said, he saw no chaos from his "perch," then the State Department should have nothing to hide and even be enthusiastic about telling Congress about how it executed its role in the withdrawal.
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