Blinken subpoena/ Blinken congressional testimony/ Blinken contempt of Congress/ Blinken Afghanistan withdrawal hearing/ Newslooks/ Washington/ J. Mansour/ Morning Edition/ The State Department criticized House Republicans for scheduling hearings on Afghanistan during times Secretary Antony Blinken is unavailable. Rep. Michael McCaul accused Blinken of avoiding testimony, threatening contempt of Congress. Tensions stem from the chaotic 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, a focus of GOP investigations.
Blinken’s Afghanistan Testimony Quick Looks
- The State Department accused House Republicans of deliberately scheduling hearings when Secretary Blinken is unavailable.
- Rep. Michael McCaul subpoenaed Blinken to testify on Afghanistan, threatening contempt of Congress if he doesn’t appear.
- Blinken is scheduled for foreign policy meetings during the hearing dates, including at the U.N. General Assembly.
- The State Department provided advance notice of Blinken’s unavailability, calling the scheduling “disingenuous.”
- McCaul argues Blinken’s refusal to provide a September date forced the committee to act.
- This conflict follows a GOP-led investigation into the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which they blame on the Biden administration.
- Blinken has testified 14 times on Afghanistan, with the GOP criticizing the 2021 exit as a “stunning failure of leadership.”
- Previous reviews attributed blame for the withdrawal to both Biden and Trump administrations.
House GOP Accused of Misleading Blinken Testimony Dates
Deep Look:
The State Department lashed out at House Republicans on Thursday over their efforts to subpoena Secretary of State Antony Blinken to testify about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. The department accused Republican lawmakers of repeatedly scheduling hearings when they knew Blinken would be unavailable. The latest confrontation centers around a hearing that Rep. Michael McCaul, chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, had scheduled for Thursday—while Blinken was attending meetings in Egypt and France. McCaul later rescheduled the hearing for Tuesday, a day when Blinken will be participating in the U.N. General Assembly in New York.
State Department spokesman Matthew Miller condemned the move, asserting that the committee knowingly selected dates when Blinken would be out of Washington, D.C., for diplomatic engagements. “They have unilaterally selected a date when we have told them in advance that he will be elsewhere carrying out important meetings to advance the foreign policy interests of the United States,” Miller said. He emphasized that the department had informed the committee of Blinken’s schedule weeks in advance and suggested that Republicans were not acting in good faith.
McCaul, however, pushed back on the State Department’s accusations, calling them “disingenuous.” The Texas Republican argued that the committee had repeatedly asked Blinken to provide available dates in September for testimony, but the department declined. In his statement Thursday, McCaul warned that Blinken could face contempt of Congress charges if he refuses to testify. “If we are forced to hold Secretary Blinken in contempt of Congress, he has no one to blame but himself,” McCaul said.
The subpoena is part of a broader effort by McCaul and other House Republicans to hold the Biden administration accountable for what they have described as a “stunning failure of leadership” during the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. The fall of Kabul to the Taliban came much sooner than U.S. intelligence had predicted, leading to a rushed evacuation of American citizens and Afghan allies. Republicans have criticized the handling of the withdrawal as a national security failure.
Former President Donald Trump has also repeatedly criticized the Biden administration for the exit from Afghanistan, linking it to his political opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, during his campaign speeches. However, multiple independent reviews and GOP investigations over the past 18 months have not found any significant role for Harris in the decision-making process regarding Afghanistan. Several of these reviews have placed responsibility on both the Biden and Trump administrations.
Despite the back-and-forth between Republicans and the State Department, Blinken has already testified about Afghanistan 14 times, including four appearances before McCaul’s committee. Miller noted that Blinken was still willing to testify again, provided that a mutually convenient date could be arranged. However, Congress is scheduled to recess next week, and with midterm elections approaching in November, finding a suitable date could prove difficult.
Earlier this month, House Republicans released a report on their investigation into the Afghanistan withdrawal, which placed the bulk of the blame on the Biden administration. The report highlighted military and diplomatic failures during the final months of U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and accused the administration of not adequately preparing for the Afghan government’s collapse. The report also minimized Trump’s role in setting the stage for the withdrawal, despite the former president’s February 2020 agreement with the Taliban, which significantly weakened the Afghan government.
The Republican review did not uncover new information and largely reiterated findings from previous independent investigations. These earlier reviews concluded that systemic failures across four presidential administrations contributed to the chaotic withdrawal, with Biden and Trump bearing the most responsibility. Nonetheless, McCaul’s committee maintains that the Biden administration could have done more to prevent the swift collapse of the Afghan government and ensure the safe evacuation of U.S. personnel and allies.
Blinken’s availability to testify remains in question, but the State Department has signaled its willingness to cooperate if a suitable date can be found. Meanwhile, tensions between House Republicans and the administration continue to simmer, as the debate over the Afghanistan withdrawal drags on.
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