NEW: I resigned in protest from Chairman McCaul’s House Foreign Affairs investigation into the Biden-Harris Admin’s disastrous & deadly Afghanistan withdrawal. Resignation letter below. Despite my repeated urging, McCaul failed to seek answers on & accountability for the debacle.
While the Committee’s investigation has indeed unearthed further evidence detailing the Biden-Harris Admin’s responsibility for the horrific events of August 2021 & for the dangerous global fallout which followed, McCaul & his team have also been derelict in their duty to pursue answers for the Abbey Gate Gold Star families, to seek the proper documents, to bring in the proper witnesses, to ask the tough questions, to fully pursue the truth without fear or favor, & to do everything in the Committee’s power to ensure that a deadly humiliation like this never happens again. McCaul & the Committee made promises to the Abbey Gate Gold Star families & to the American public at large — & those promises simply have not been kept.
I did not come lightly to this decision to resign & to blow the whistle publicly, but I could not be a part of this sham any longer & my conscience simply will not allow me to be silent — after a year of pushing the Committee to do the right thing & to run a serious investigation that relentlessly searches for the truth, it has become undeniably clear to me that McCaul & his team are unwilling to take even the most basic steps necessary to ensure that President Biden, VP Harris, & all the top Biden-Harris diplomatic & national security & military leaders are made to answer for the horrors which unfolded & continue to unfold in Afghanistan & around the world. The Committee’s disappointing lack of courage & lack of moral clarity just cannot go unremarked.
From the troubling handling of the hearings with General Milley & General McKenzie & Zalmay Khalilzad to the refusal to drag in key witnesses at the State Department & CENTCOM & elsewhere, and from the refusal to properly investigate the ISIS-K attack at Abbey Gate to the failure to look into dozens of obvious & important leads, McCaul & his team have allowed a crucial opportunity for a real & deserved reckoning to potentially slip away.
I feel a significant obligation to the Abbey Gate Gold Star families, to all Gold Star families from this two-decade war, to all the U.S. service members who fought & especially those who died in Afghanistan, & to the American public — they all deserve to know how this Committee has refused to fulfill its important obligation to thoroughly expose the Biden-Harris Admin’s duplicity & its atrocious decision-making during America’s retreat & defeat in Afghanistan.
House Republicans had (and, for at least a few more months, still have) a congressional majority which empowered them to run serious & credible oversight investigations — the power to compel sworn witness testimony, the power to force the production of hidden documents, the power to issue subpoenas — but, with regard to the investigation into the Biden-Harris disaster in Afghanistan, McCaul has failed to wield this awesome power with anything resembling strength or consistency.
As I repeatedly made clear to the Committee, I fear that those in the halls of power — the White House, State Dept, intel community, Pentagon — have failed to learn the needed lessons from America’s defeat in the war in Afghanistan. Washington has a widespread culture of unaccountability, & that has been especially true related to this war. I fear that this Committee’s investigation will embolden, rather than remedy, that perverse culture. If those responsible aren’t held accountable, and if necessary lessons aren’t learned, I fear there will be even more Gold Star families in the future as a direct result.
As I did as a reporter, an author, and a now-former senior investigator on Capitol Hill, I will continue my fight for the truth no matter what. The stakes are simply too high to do otherwise. More to come.
August 26, 2021, seems that so many people need or want so desperately to make a name for themselves. When in reality, the ones who deserve the most acknowledgment where, are and forever will be!!!!!!! The boots on the ground not some person off the streets!!!!
I am disgusted in so many ways. I have almost lost complete confidence in ALL our governments. Learning information through media outlets even our own congressmen not being transparent with ALL 13 families, I have lost faith in humanity. So sad how much division has occurred.
It takes WE THE PEOPLE to save US PEOPLE. We all now this administration isn’t for American people. They are set out to destroy us within. @CoryMillsFL we are forever greatful for you.
If Biden and his administration won’t prioritize American lives then I will step up and do his job for him!
77 Americans in 2 days safe and no longer trapped in Israel while Biden thinks of a plan.
Politician Talk and Statesmen Act!
This is the second country (Afghanistan 2021 & Israel 2023) we’ve had to save Americans because Biden had no plan and No leadership!
This never happened under President Trump! 🇺🇸
💥Guest💥Speaker💥Q&A🎙️
(Tonight) 7pm CST - 8pm EST
Cheryl Rex GoldStar Mother of Marine Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola 🇺🇸
All 13 GoldStar families deserve answers and Justice. The support of the American people to demand answers.
Join group ⬇️
https://t.co/dKRvhZtv37
@dprice413 He claimed and got fact checked satay if he was in New York 9/12/01. I’ve already nationally called him out for being a liar. I don’t know when people will see his lies 🤬
Today, we remember the 2,977 precious lives stolen from us on 9/11 and reflect on all that was lost in the fire and ash that September morning.
The American story itself changed on this day 22 years ago. But what could not — and will not — change is the character of this nation.
@POTUS I’ll never forget YOU @POTUS you killed my son. His blood is on your hands. YOU need to tell the American people you failed Afghanistan and it’s people and our 13 kids. Your never going to tell the truth!!! You don’t care about 9/11 you probably helped fund it
This is so heartbreaking. Every situation proves my words of the dishonor that is given by this person. I used to question why our Purple Hearts weren’t given to us in front of the nation, I see this and am thankful to have received my sons by a marine.
A person who can compare one’s death to one in which has zero comparison, needs to be called out. @POTUS you have another thing coming at you. I will show people your lies you live and your disrespect you have given on something you failed at.
Cheryl Rex, whose son, Marine Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola, was killed in the attack on Kabul airport, to Joe Biden:
"I'm not sure what he could do at this point. Honor them, say their names, talk about them. And man up and talk about your failures.”