Washington, D.C.- House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul issued the following statement after the administration’s overdue decision to share Afghanistan withdrawal after-action reports with Congress. The chairman requested action in his Jan. 12, March 3, and March 20 letters to the State Department. On March 12, the chairman publicly threatened to subpoena this information. McCaul also responded to John Kirby’s statements at today’s White House press briefing which included Kirby stating he didn’t see the chaos during the withdrawal and blaming the previous administration for the botched planning.
“John Kirby’s comments during today’s White House press briefing were disgraceful and insulting. President Biden made the decision to withdraw and even picked the exact date; he is responsible for the massive failures in planning and execution.
“It is also unfortunate it took my subpoena threat to prompt the administration to finally provide the classified after-action reports from the Afghanistan withdrawal. I look forward to reviewing the report and call upon the administration to declassify as much as possible for the American public. Finally, Congress must be given access to the full and complete record of documents from the withdrawal in order to get the answers on why the withdrawal was such a disaster."