Republicans accuse Biden team of lying about 2021 Afghanistan pull-out
House Republican report cites US Vice-President Kamala Harris as she seeks the presidency against Donald Trump
Republican lawmakers accused the Biden administration of lying to Americans and sacrificing the safety of US soldiers during the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal, in a report that sought to implicate Vice-President Kamala Harris before the presidential election.
The report said President Joe Biden’s team “misled and, in some instances, directly lied to the American people at every stage of the withdrawal”. The administration’s failures led directly to the killing of 13 American troops in a bomb blast at Abbey Gate in Kabul, it said.
The findings are the culmination of a two-year investigation by congressman Michael McCaul of Texas, who has long criticised Biden’s handling of the withdrawal.
The report was released two days before Harris is set to debate former president Donald Trump, whose campaign has said the withdrawal weakened the US standing in the world and emboldened Russia to invade Ukraine.
No Democrats signed on to the report, and congressman Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee led by McCaul, said it was a partisan effort to tarnish Harris.
