In the wake of a scathing Republican report on the Biden administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan, Kamala Harris's campaign has fired back, pointing to Donald Trump's controversial deal with the Taliban.
The report, released by House Republicans a day before the first presidential debate, criticizes the U.S. exit from Afghanistan in August 2021, which resulted in an estimated 100,000 U.S. government partners being left behind and the tragic loss of 13 American soldiers and 170 civilians in a Kabul suicide bombing.
According to The Independent, the report places the blame squarely on the Biden-Harris administration, citing a "failure to plan for all contingencies" as the root cause of the disaster. However, Harris's campaign has been swift to remind voters that it was Trump who "cut a bad deal" with the Taliban in 2020, agreeing to a U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan by May 2021.
Michael McCaul, the committee chair leading the investigation, accuses the Biden-Harris administration of failing to plan for a noncombatant emergency evacuation and refusing to order such an evacuation until after the Taliban had already entered Kabul. The report also alleges that the administration "misled" and "lied to the American people at every stage of the withdrawal."
"The evidence proves President Bidens decision to withdraw all U.S. troops was not based on the security situation, the Doha Agreement, or the advice of his senior national security advisors or our allies," the report states. "Rather, it was premised on his longstanding and unyielding opinion that the United States should no longer be in Afghanistan."
In response to these allegations, Morgan Finkelstein, the Harris-Walz national security spokesperson, said, Trump shamelessly attacks the Vice President because he hopes he can trick the country into forgetting that his own actions undermined U.S. strategy and put our troops and allies in harms way. Finkelstein continued, Trump wanted to bring the Taliban to Camp David just days before September 11ththink about that. He cut a bad deal with the very same people who violently took over Afghanistan, leading to the collapse of the Afghan government. Trumps chaotic actions led to catastrophic consequences in Afghanistan.
The White House also vehemently refuted the report, arguing that Trump's deal left President Biden in an "untenable position" when he took office in January 2021. White House spokesperson Sharon Yang stated that the report's author "cherry-picked facts" and insisted that ending the war "was the right thing to do and our nation is stronger today as a result."
Congressman Gregory Meeks, the ranking member of the committee, also criticized the partisan report, accusing Republicans of politicizing the withdrawal and ignoring Trump's role. He wrote in a minority report released the same day, 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.
Meeks also pointed out that Harris was only mentioned three times in the 3,288 pages of the Committees interview transcripts. McCaul dismissed accusations of political motivations behind the report, stating, This is not about politics to me it never has been. Its about getting to the bottom of what happened so we can make sure it never happens again. And its about finding who was responsible for this catastrophe so they can finally, after three long years, be held accountable.
The tumultuous withdrawal from Afghanistan led to chaotic scenes as hundreds of thousands of Afghans and other citizens attempted to escape Taliban rule, with many desperately trying to enter Kabul airport. Trump has consistently used the Afghanistan withdrawal as a means to attack the Vice President, even accusing her of being responsible for the deaths of the American soldiers who died in the suicide bombing. In response, Harris's camp has accused him of politicizing a visit to Arlington Cemetery last month where he met with the families of the servicemen who died.
The blame game over the disastrous withdrawal continues, with a State Department report released last year detailing the failures of both the Trump and Biden administrations. The Afghanistan After Action Review report concluded that both administrations were at fault and highlighted the shortcomings of a chaotic and dangerous environment during the pullout. The report stated, The decisions of both President (Donald) Trump and President (Joe) Biden to end the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan had serious consequences for the viability of the Afghan government and its security. It also noted that during both administrations there was insufficient senior-level consideration of worst-case scenarios and how quickly those might follow.
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