House GOP Holds Briefing on Afghanistan Withdrawal

All right. Mr. Chairman, we’re going to let you go over. We gave you backup.

You got a big back. You’re going to handle tomorrow, right on the WHF?

Yep. Thank you.

If someone rushes you, don’t worry. I got you.

You can throw me right in the way.

I’m going to throw someone.

Chairman.

Where are the families?

We’re sneaking in slowly.

Got to wait? Hey. Thank you, firstly. We’re related somehow.

Michael, good to see you.

Hey. All right. I want to thank press for being here. I want to thank the members of Congress, but especially I want to thank the Gold Star families, whose children gave the ultimate sacrifice at Abbey Gate. Our report came out today, it’s over 300 pages. It’s a historic document. It’s not a political document. It was a document designed to get to the truth.

(01:26)
As a former federal prosecutor, integrity and credibility was my paramount objective. Follow the facts and the law wherever they take you. Start with the witnesses and build yourself up to the higher levels. And what we found was significant. This was a catastrophic failure of epic proportions. Some say Saigon was the worst. I say this was. For many reasons. The fatal flaw, as we have the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, General Milley, Centcom Commander General McKenzie, and General Miller on the ground, what was the problem in Kabul? In Afghanistan? At Bagram? Sir, there was no plan. State Department bylaw has the authority, authorized by Congress, to come up with a plan of evacuation known as the NEO. State Department wholly failed in that responsibility. Don’t take my word for it. The fact is the plan wasn’t even initiated until the Taliban had overrun Kabul, and were on their way to the embassy when Ambassador Wilson, charged with coming up with a plan and initiating it, fled to the airport, HKIA, leaving his employees behind, leaving the Afghan people, who put their lives on the line, behind, thousands of classified documents, just like at Bagram. $7 billion of equipment in Bagram. He leaves his troops behind. What a coward.

(03:45)
What happens after that? The Taliban is put in charge of the first checkpoint to check American citizens, Afghan partners and allies, and the women and children left behind. The Taliban is given the authority to say, “No, you cannot go behind me.” We have the testimonies of the beatings. If they got past there, then they had our consulates. Very few, by the way. Then what happens on that tragic day? Predictably, when you don’t have a plan, you plan to fail. This was a failure. For everyone, but especially these families standing behind me. We knew the day, the time, we knew the gate, Abbey Gate, yet these Marines were sent in, unprotected, left out to dry by their government, asked to stand by their sworn enemy, the Taliban, to defend this airport.

(05:16)
And what happens? Suicide bomber. Guess where he comes from? Bagram Prisons. Thousands of ISIS-K released. By the way, some have entered the United States. Bomb goes off. 13 servicemen and women killed. 170 Afghans killed. 45 Americans and Afghan civilians wounded. And the sad thing is it could have been prevented. If we just had a plan. It could have been stopped. Nothing will take back their children’s lives. Yes, they will be receiving a gold medal, congressional gold medal, tomorrow, well deserved, on behalf of their children and loved ones, posthumously. But nothing can bring them back. It was one of the deadliest attacks in 20 years because there wasn’t a plan.

(06:32)
Lastly, what is the fallout? Saigon? No, this is worse. What happens after Afghanistan falls? Weakness is projected around the globe, our enemies and adversaries see weakness, not strength. The Russian Federation, within months, moves into Ukraine because they see this is their moment. Then, the unholy alliance, with Chairman Xi, China, threatening Taiwan and the Pacific. Together. Then, in the Middle East, the Ayatollah raises his ugly head with his proxies, Hamas, Hezbollah, Houthi rebels, all as a result of Afghanistan. It all goes back to Afghanistan.

(07:28)
Finally, where a failed form policy meets a broken border policy at our borders. Eight ISIS enter the country, now under detention by the FBI. I was a federal prosecutor of counterterrorism. There’s also a ISIS ring of 400 people being smuggled into the United States. It comes full circle back to the United States. I went in with this. This is not political. It took me two years. The first year was wasted by the Democrats. They didn’t do one thing. I started this. I had to submit subpoena after subpoena, motions of contempt, to bring the dissent cable channel of the employees at the embassy a cry for help, so we could get their testimonies. Secretary Blinken, to this day, refuses to take one day out of this month to come before the American people and these families, but he doesn’t have time. Just like Joe Biden didn’t have time on his watch at Dover. “I don’t have time for this.”

(09:00)
This is a disgrace and I will hold him in contempt if that’s what it takes to bring him before the American people because they deserve the answers. All roads in this investigation lead to the National Security Council. Very clear, from all the testimony, that Mr. Sullivan, Jake Sullivan, who’s a chairman of the National Security Council, was in charge of these decisions being made. That takes our investigation right into the NSC and right into the White House itself.

(09:44)
I intend to continue this investigation after the election, not in a partisan way, but because the American people deserve the truth, so that this never ever happens again. With that, I want to give families some time to speak. Jim McCollum, father of Rylee McCollum, and then after that, we’ll hear from Mr. Brian Mast. We’ll talk… The veterans, for God’s sakes, was it worth it? PTSD they go through. And now this. I want to thank Brian Mast, chairing the Oversight Committee. Phenomenal job. And I want to thank Mike Waltz, another Afghan veteran. Thank you. With that, we’ll hear from the families. Jim.

Thank you all for coming today. You got to forgive me, I’m new at this. I’m not nearly as good at this as him, so I’m going to have to read my notes. I’m here with my daughters, Royce, Cheyenne, my grandson Cameron. I’d like to take a few minutes and definitely thank Chairman McCaul, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Leslie Shedd, all those that worked on this committee to bring this report forward. I’d also like to acknowledge and appreciate Marlon Bateman. He’s helped us navigate this process. We’re all new at this. We don’t know what we’re doing. We’ve been thrust into a position that none of us wanted to be in, and Marlon has been a rock for us to help us get through this process.

(11:48)
This report is really important to me and my daughters for the following reasons. Three years ago tomorrow, September 10th, was the last trip my son Rylee took home to Wyoming. Three days later, his wife, who was extremely pregnant at the time that he came home, gave birth to Rylee’s daughter, Levi Rylee Rose. We have a father who is never going to know his daughter, a daughter who will never know her father, a wife who lost her husband and a family that is never going to be allowed to grow and be that family unit together.

(12:36)
The ramifications of what happened on 8/26/2021, it’s not just a ripple effect. It is a tidal wave of the travesty that came from that moment. September 11th was more than just the beginning of a 20-year war or a conflict in Afghanistan. August 26 of 2021, the culmination of that 20-year long conflict, ended in the loss of 13 lives. It didn’t have to happen. It didn’t have to be that way. It was preventable. This report lays out a fairly detailed chronological order of what took place, when it took place, and the ramifications of what those decisions were.

(13:27)
Over the course of the last three years, the families of the 13 fallen have been given several incomplete reports. Key elements of any semblance of a thorough investigation were either left out, ignored or buried. In April of 2024, we were given another report concerning the events that led up to the suicide blast at Abbey Gate, that promised to be an absolute complete and accurate report. Yet a week later, CNN shared a video that we were told did not exist. Repeatedly we were told there was nothing else. There’s no more information. There are no more videos there. There is no more drone footage. Yet somehow after a Centcom report, we see on CNN something that we were told absolutely did not exist.

(14:14)
You can imagine how hurt and disappointed my girls and I were to learn that we were misled once again, that Rylee’s life, Rylee’s service and Rylee’s death weren’t worthy of following the facts and the evidence as they were laid out and as they were true to be. This report provided confirmation of things I knew, shed light on things I suspected, and pointedly detailed things that I was not aware of in regards to the missteps, the failed leadership, and the decisions that ultimately led to the collapse of Afghanistan, the Taliban takeover, and the preventable murder of our 13 heroes. Please don’t forget our 45 wounded and the countless Afghanis that lost their lives in that blast. The truth no longer resides in Washington DC or in current politics. The media no longer seeks the truth without political motivation. Character or conviction are absent. Rather than step forward and provide the truth, regardless of consequences, our military personnel, elected and appointed officials hide behind committee protections, department protections, and often downright refuse to be interviewed. America deserves better and our 13 definitely deserve better.

(15:29)
April 14th, 2021 was the date the Biden-Harris administration put into motion a series of decisions and events that ultimately led to the death of my son and his 12 brothers and sisters. I urge every American to read this report. It shouldn’t be one side pitted against the other, with hills dug in deep, unwilling to accept or acknowledge the findings. Every American should want, expect and demand the truth as to what happened in Afghanistan and Abbey Gate. Please ask yourself, has the media and the current administration been honest with you about the events leading up to 8/26/2021?

(16:05)
Again, thank you, Chairman McCall, the House Foreign Affairs Committee, for the work that you’ve done and continue to do. I hope you will continue to ask the hard questions and follow the facts wherever they lead. And with that, I’ll move on. Next, you’re going to hear from my newfound friend, and one of my heroes, honestly, long before I ever met you, from Florida, please welcome Brian Mast.

For all of you in the media, you don’t have to look at any of this as the opinions of Brian Mast or Chairman McCaul or Darrell Issa or Michael Waltz or any other member of this. It’s not our opinions. Every bit of this is founded within the transcribed interviews, within the interviews of individuals at hearings, the first person perspectives of those that were on the ground or in the Pentagon or in Foggy Bottom or somewhere else, in the Middle East, in the State Department somewhere, offering what they saw, what they witnessed, what they said, and what was ignored.

(17:20)
And every single time that I was a part of a transcribed interview or a part of doing a hearing somewhere, the same two things constantly came to mind for me as this was going on. The politics were paramount above everything else. The date for withdraw, September 11, that was paramount over everything in the very beginning. That was politics over national security objectives. The politics were paramount. Everything that was coming out of the White House during the time, to spin what was actually happening, it was making the politics paramount, not the reality on the ground. What was coming out of there never actually reflected the reality on the ground as you look at timeline after timeline.

(18:02)
And beyond the politics being paramount, you can look at it and you could say everybody and everything else that was contrary to the politics were to be considered disposable. What any NATO ally had to say or ISAF partner had to say, that was disposable information. What came across a dissent cable, from members of the State Department, that every effort was made to withhold that from us, that was meant to be disposable information. What came through from anybody in the Pentagon, disposable information. Analysis to use a different time, a different season, when fighting was not so prevalent in Afghanistan, disposable information. Whether to use a different air base, a different location, a place more suited to the tactics of that kind of withdrawal, disposable information. And making all of that disposable information made the lives of our service members disposable. That’s how they were treated.

(19:15)
They literally cost the lives of 13 Americans, many more Afghanis, countless more that we don’t know about because they were left behind, because the politics were paramount in all of this. That’s my opinion on what I came away with, after sitting through those interviews, hearing the people speak that were called by both Republicans and Democrats alike, that it was all about the politics and everything else be damned. And that meant that the only ones that paid any price for all of the mistakes that were made were the children of those that are with us today. Those are the only ones that paid any kind of price.

(20:11)
And there’s only two people that can change that. That’s Joe Biden and the person that he said was the last person in the room, Kamala Harris. It’s up to you to make sure that more are held accountable. Get the message out, read the report, read the first person accounts of what took place, what was said, what was ignored and what was disposed of, and help get the truth out there because that’s what this report is. It’s a report of the truth. Going to bring up one of our fathers, a friend, Herman Lopez, father of Hunter Lopez.

Good afternoon. With the release of this report, I, along with anyone who has read it or will read it, shall understand and realize that this is just a beginning. It’s a beginning of understanding of the events that led to August 26th, 2021 and what led to the death of our sons, our daughters, our families. This report represents the beginning, and by no means should be taken, much less accepted, as a complete review of the withdrawal from Afghanistan. It’s only the beginning.

(21:41)
I want to thank Chairman McCaul, thank Speaker Johnson, Congressman Issa, for all of their efforts in getting us to this point and being supportive in this investigation. As a father, I’ll do whatever needs to be done to get answers for my son, for my immediate family and for all of our Gold Star families. I extend an invitation and a challenge to those who have resisted cooperating with this investigation in this review. A challenge to do what is right, regardless of politics, to give Gold Star families answers, and more importantly, to do what’s important for all of America. Thank you. Up next will be Coral Dolittle, mother of Humberto “Burt” Sanchez.

Oh, then… Okay. All right.

I’m sorry.

I’ll go and then give it to her.

I’m sorry.

It’s all good, buddy. It’s all good. It’s all good, man. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. Thank you to all the members and all the staff that participated in this. I just want to take a moment to knock down some ridiculous narratives that I’ve seen emerging over the weekend. We saw Biden’s Secretary of Transportation, I don’t know why he decided to opine on this, Pete Buttigieg, saying that this was a completely politicized and vacuous document, but then, at the end of the interview, he admits he hadn’t even read it. Right?

(23:26)
We’re hearing, unfortunately, from the Democrats, including ranking member Meeks of this committee, that this is a political document, that the timing is all political. You know what was political? The fact that the Democrats were in charge of the House of Representatives all of 2021, as this happened, all of 2022. Not an investigation, not a single interview, not a transcribed sit down, not even a round table. One hearing. One hearing then to be forgotten about.

(24:00)
Because the reality is they want this swept under the rug. Chairman McCaul and his team, and this committee, couldn’t even get started until last year. Too often in this town, people like to point to things that are happening, that we’re looking into, as political, when the reality is what didn’t happen. What wasn’t looked into, what doesn’t want to be talked about is truly what’s political and sweeping this under the rug, and pretending like it never happened, like their lives didn’t matter, like the 20 years that we invested of time and treasure and heartache into keeping this country safe, by fighting that war over there rather than here on the homeland, did it matter? That’s what’s truly, and sadly, tragically, political.

(24:46)
But then the other narrative, this was President Trump’s fault. But let’s rewind the clock and look at some facts. Every President, since 9/11, negotiated with the Taliban in some form or the other. President Bush tried to negotiate

… negotiate with the Taliban. President Obama tried to negotiate with the Taliban. Heck, the Bergdahl, Bo Bergdahl in that trade was a confidence-building measure in negotiations with the Taliban. And we saw how well that went. So yes, President Trump entered a deal, but it was a conditional deal. And when his team came to him and said the Taliban had not lived up to six of the seven conditions, they were not negotiating in good faith with the Afghan government, they were not reducing violence around the country, they had not broken ties with al-Qaeda, and I can go down the list. President Trump said, “Fine. Deal’s off. Bagram stays. Our special operators stay. Our intelligence operatives stay. The embassy stays. NATO stays.” And when he left office, all of that was in place.

(25:47)
The other fairy tale that we’re supposed to be led to believe is that, well, the Biden administration was stuck with this deal. Let’s walk down the list of Trump administration policies, Biden and Harris and their team had no problem reversing when they wanted to. Let’s get back into the Iran deal that President Trump had pulled out of. Let’s get back into the Paris Climate Accords that President Trump had pulled out of. Let’s reverse everything and anything to do with securing the border. Heck, let’s cancel an entire pipeline. Keystone XL. That was practically already built with $16B invested and over 10,000 workers working on it. They could erase a physical pipeline, but yet they’re going to be stuck with this deal that President Trump said the Taliban haven’t lived up to.

(26:38)
And then I think what’s most insulting to these families and every veteran that served there to the Green Berets that I lost there and their families is the lies and just the total lack of responsibility or accountability out of this administration. President Biden, the generals supported this. They didn’t tell me that we needed to leave somebody there. The three four-star generals in charge of this operation have all contradicted Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. So which is it? Our NATO allies fully supported this. The United Kingdom censored a sitting president for the first time since George Washington. The United Kingdom Parliament. We only have 100 Americans that want leave that can’t leave. Quietly revised to 800 months later. Our Afghan allies are going to be okay being hunted down by the Taliban as we speak. There’s no Al-Qaeda. The UN’s pointing to six to eight Al-Qaeda training camps. ISIS is back. Al-Qaeda’s back. And their current commander for the Middle East, ISIS is capable of hitting the homeland within six months. Lie after lie after lie.

(27:56)
So on top of the no transparency … by the way, if this is an outstanding success, why did he have to issue subpoenas? Just give the documents for an outstanding successful operation. Not only has there been no accountability, not a single person fired, in fact they’re being promoted. The woman in charge of the evacuation is being nominated to be ambassador for Iraq. But the thing that’s most insulting in talking to all of these families is they just want to know that they’ve learned their lesson. If they would just get a phone call. Not even a meeting. Would you guys just take a phone call? Saying, “You know what? We did a lot of things wrong. Those responsible are being held accountable, not promoted, and we’ve learned our lessons if we ever have to do this again, so this doesn’t happen to future generations of Marines and sailors and soldiers.” That is truly all they ask for and they can’t even get that.

(28:54)
In fact, future generations of Americans are going to have to go clean up this mess if our homeland gets hit again and that blood is on their hands and this report lays it out in their own words. You should be commended, sir. The nation owes you better. The nation owes those future service members better. And I’ll tell you what, as long as I’m in this office, I don’t care what boards they go sit on or where they go, we will hold them accountable. I hope their conscience holds them accountable. I hope they never get another night’s rest for what they’ve done. Thank you, Mr. Chairman. And I will now hand it over to Ms. Coral.

Thank you.

Please.

Good afternoon everybody. I’m not going to give you dates and I just going to ask you to read the report. I’m so thankful that all this press is right here today because at this point we’re not red and we’re not blue. We are just parents, grieving parents, and we lost the best that we have. Last year, I remember coming to this same place and listen for the first time to the hearing and it really breaks my heart knowing all the things that they couldn’t be changed and done the right way. And they just let our kids die. They just send them to die. They did not protect them. They did not care because they were not their own kids. It was our kids.

(30:49)
After that, I realized that my kid didn’t have a voice. I was not going to bring my kid back, but I know that there are so many that are still here. They are suffering with PTSD. Our own families are struggling with PTSD and we don’t want this to happen again. All this, it was because of this bad administration. I told you, don’t be red, don’t be blue. Don’t hate a person. Read. Read please. This past three days, I have been reading the report even when I was in some of the hearings, and just the way that they lay it down and makes you understand all the mistakes that they actually did.

(31:42)
Our kids’ lives matter. Matter a lot to us parents. If they are trash and they are replaceable, they are not for us. My granddaughter is never going to enjoy a day with his uncle. This nation has to be aware of what happened and they need to be people accountable for all the mistakes that they did. And if you read the report, you’re going to get your own conclusions. The last person in the room, that now wants to be our president, is not the right person to lead this country. We are going to have more Gold Star families. We are going to have more Marines and soldiers dead because of this administration. Please read the report. Get your own conclusions. And never forget our 13 soldiers. I’m going to introduce you now to represent Joe Wilson, chairman of the Middle East and Northern Africa Subcommittee.

Thank you so much. God bless you. Ladies and gentlemen, I am so grateful to be here. It’s so inspiring to be with the families of the persons who were killed needlessly at Abbey Gate. Being here today, I’m here as a member of Congress, but I’m also here as the grateful father of a son Hunter, who served for a year in Afghanistan. So I identify with the families. Additionally, I’ve had 31 years service in the Army Guard. And so I knew on August 26th, 2021 that Joe Biden lied to the American people about having military support for his actions. There was no letters. He claimed he had letters.

(33:46)
The moment I heard him say that I sent a letter that night to the White House asking for copies of the letters. I’ve sent a number of other letters asking for copies of the letters. And so the thought that the president would lie to the American people, that the vice president would sign off on the lie of letters supporting by the military, and then in the meantime with the leadership of Chairman called Brian Mast, we had a hearing where General Milley and General McKenzie said they told the President not to do this.

(34:14)
And the consequence of this, and we need to learn from this report is that this gave a green light to war criminal Putin to conduct mass murder in Ukraine. It gave a green light to Iran through its puppets to conduct mass murder in Israel. And with open borders, we have, as the FBI has identified an imminent attacks in America of mass murder. This needs to change. Thank you, Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Thank you, Joe. Next, we have Cheryl Jules, the aunt Nicole Gee.

Thank you everyone. Thank you for letting us have a voice here. Everything they’ve already said is something that echoes within all of us. This last three years has been a nightmare that, if you’ve never lost a child, you wouldn’t understand. Our kids, the 13 that were killed, weren’t the first ones to be killed in the Afghanistan War, and they’re not going to be the last ones. The Taliban didn’t get the memo that the war was over. It’s not going to end. We have an open border. They’re coming. They’re coming for us. It’s never going to end.

(35:32)
But the failures that happened that led up to this are unconscionable. And everybody that says we’re being played, we’re pawns, all these other things, this is for us not political. None of us asked to be put in this position. This is just where we’re at. Our kids were killed and we want answers. And for the first two years in a Democratic-run House, there was no investigation. It wasn’t until the Republicans took office and Chairman McCaul started open these investigations and we started actually getting answers. We didn’t ask to be put in this position. We’re not trying to be political. We just want answers.

(36:15)
We get so many comments from so many veterans, for a twenty-year war, people who up until that end of this war, until August 31st that said, “You know what? I lost a leg. I lost a arm. I lost two legs. Half my face.” They all said it was worth something because they believed that they were making a better country. They were giving people and women and children and little girls a chance of having peace and freedom, the things that we all take for granted. And they thought it was worth something. When this war ended, it was all thrown away. We left thousands behind. The 100 that they claimed that were left behind, we’re still pulling them out. And it’s despicable. People who started out 16 years old, the United States came in, promised them a better life. They wound up growing up, getting married, having children, having wives that went to school, making better lives. They became doctors and engineers. And we promised them, if you help us, we’re going to give you these SIV visas. When we left there, we left them all behind. There was literally no concern left for any of them. We barely had any concern for getting our State Department out of the embassy, much less boots on the ground who were there protecting them. There was no concern for any of this. It was just a hard-line, self-imposed decision to end this war on the 31st with no rhyme or reason. It wasn’t because President Trump with this Doha Agreement, that’s one of the things we hear. All the tenets of that agreement were already off the table. And the agreement was, if they did these things we would leave, and they didn’t do them. The Taliban did not follow through on that. And I would hope that anybody who says we’re being played or this is political, read this report. Just read it. It’ll take you all through everything. And thank God, Chairman, you have opened up these investigations and got us some of these answers because we’ve been screaming from the rooftops for three years. If we can’t face the mistakes we made as a country … We’re not perfect. We understand that these changes were happening rapidly, but admit that. Admit that there was a lot that was going on and we didn’t have all the answers, and we were going with the flow and trying to change things as they went. Admit that. Admit the faults we made and make corrections because we can’t have another Saigon and another Benghazi and another Kabul.

(38:57)
We can’t have that keep happening. We’ve got thousands, millions of men and women, our kids around this country that are believing that this government has their back. And in this instance, they did not. Their only concern was leaving by August 31st at any cost. And we just can’t have that. And it’s unfortunate that it’s turned into this big political thing between Republicans and Democrats and we’ve been attacked, frankly. We’ve been attacked by people, death threats, everything else saying we’re being played in pawns and all this stuff. But the reality is we haven’t been reached out to not at all by this administration. They want it to go away. They don’t want to think about it. They don’t want to face it. And if they can’t face it and admit the mistakes, it’s not going to change. And we’re going to have more kids coming home in flag-draped caskets, and we just need to make some changes. This can’t continue to happen.

(39:57)
That’s what I have to say and thank you for listening.

You have to introduce the next person.

Next is Tim Burchett. Thank you. Thank you, sir. I appreciate it.

Good job. Thanks for your time [inaudible 00:40:11]

I’m going to bring my guest with me, Mr. Chairman, if that’s all right? Thank you all for allowing me to be here, Mr. Chairman, thank these members. If the families could get up a little closer, I want y’all to get a look at them. You get a look at us all the time, but they’re the ones that we need to be focusing on.

(40:29)
Before I say anything else, I wanted to recognize the mama of Staff Sergeant Ryan Knauss, who’s here with me today. Thank you dear for everything. Thank you for being my friend. Ryan was one of the 13 US service members killed in the Afghanistan withdrawal, and I have a daily reminder when I drive out on the Ryan C. Knauss Memorial Highway. It fronts on my farm there in Corrington. Nothing compares to the pain and loss this family feels. I feel a twinge every time I drive by that sign, but then it leaves me, but it never leaves the family.

(41:02)
My mama lost her brother in the Second World War, until the very day she died, she still, it seemed every other minute, something would come up about her brother Roy. The pain never leaves. This administration butchered this operation. The report today had five basic points. They were determined hell or high water to withdraw from Afghanistan no matter what and no matter what the cost was. The Taliban had already violated the Doha Agreements, so we were not under any obligation to withdraw this quickly. Don’t let them lie to you. They continuously lie to you about these facts. This administration prioritized optics over safety. The lack of planning created an unsafe environment at the Kabul Airport, which resulted in these 13 brave service members being killed, including Ryan. This withdrawal degraded US National Security. The Biden administration lied to the American people about the withdrawal at every dadgum turn.

(41:59)
And on top of everything in this report, this administration is still, they’re still sending up to $40 million of your tax dollars to the Taliban every week. Why aren’t you all in the media asking the Senate, “Where the hell is that legislation and why do they keep sending that money over there?” This administration needs real accountability. The legacy media in this country ought to be ashamed of themselves for the way they’ve conducted themselves, especially during this investigation. You know good and damn well if the shoe was on the other foot, they’d be up in our face. And dadgummit they should be. Thank y’all very much. Mr. Chairman.

Thank you. Next we have a Paula Knauss, the mother of Ryan Knauss.

It’s hard to follow that one. My name is Paula Knauss-Selph. I am the mother of Tyler Christian Knauss and Army Staff Sergeant Ryan Christian Knauss. Almost three years ago, Ryan was killed with 12 other service personnel in the non-combative evacuation operation in Kabul, Afghanistan in August 26th, 2021. Ryan did know he was ready to go back that second time to Afghanistan. What he wasn’t ready for was the politics that came with it.

(43:37)
I’m so grateful for the House Foreign Affairs Committee that’s led by Chairman McCaul that is finally, finally giving our families answers to what went wrong. In my opinion, the US embassy in Kabul needed to have been closed July or sooner. When our military leaders were recommending this to them, arrogance by Biden and Wilson thinking that a US embassy could stay open in a hostile environment with the Taliban taking province after province by August is politics over military planning. The go-to-zero policy by Biden and Harris accelerated the Taliban to overrun the Afghan Armed Forces. And then they took Bagram Airport wherein they released all of the ISIS prisoners that they’re supposed to hate so much. And that ultimately led the ISIS, at least one of them that we know of, to the Abbey Gate where he strapped on a bomb and he blew our kids up. And the funny thing is, the Taliban had the checkpoints that the ISIS members could go through. It’s amazing, isn’t it? Do you really think terrorists that are sworn enemies to each other will not work together if they know they can humiliate or cripple the United States of America in some way? That’s why the Doha Agreement did not work for Biden and Harris because what they meant to do was put it on a timeline and what it was meant to do was be conditional upon what the Taliban was doing and not doing.

(46:08)
Biden then goes on camera to announce our troops movements and our timeline. What are we going to do with that? Our troops are over there. We’re on live TV with our troops sitting ducks in that airport. So many lies and cover-ups by this administration. I speak to Americans. We have been in a downward spiral since the Biden-Harris administration took office. From the ISIS terrorists that were recently caught this year in the United States trying to come across our southern border, which we opened up by the Biden and Harris administration. Look across the nation right now. We have housing costs that are unbelievable for our people. We have grocery bills that are getting astronomical. We have children being taught things that we never dreamed would be taught in school.

(47:16)
This has to stop. We have to stand firm on values that make this nation great again. President Trump is certainly not perfect, but he is a far better choice, in my opinion, than the mess that Biden and Harris have created since Kabul and onward. Remember this in November Americans, stop and think about what is going on with the insanity in our country. From the time Kabul happened it has downward spiraled. And in honor of our nation, our military, including Ryan and the 13 altogether, I want to thank you guys for coming out today, because this mama is going to see it through. She wants to see this country be great again. Thank you. Mr. Darrell Issa, would you come up, please, sir?

Thank you. Good job. Kelly, Darryl, would you come on up? They will speak next, and I’ll try to be brief for that reason, because it’s not about the politicians here. It’s about the families who don’t have accountability. This interim report is just that. It’s not a final report and it will never be a final report until these families don’t just have all the answers to what happened … they have most of those. It’s to where they have the knowledge that this to the greatest extent possible, will create a change to prevent it from happening in the future.

(49:22)
Congress in its oversight role is known for two purposes. One, a legislative purpose. There may not be a legislative purpose to all this. The second one is oversight to determine whether the policies and implementation of existing laws have met the requirements placed on it. Clearly, this is an example, as earlier you heard the fall of Saigon, like Benghazi, doesn’t necessarily create a new law, but it does create an understanding that there need to be changes in procedures

… procedures if we’re going to prevent this in the future to the greatest extent possible. Remember the withdrawal of Afghanistan had all the time in the world to plan. We had the military might to do whatever we wanted to and needed to. We had the entire NATO allies at our available call. It wasn’t D-Day. We weren’t going into a fortified area. We had the time, place and capability to have a withdrawal that had no fatalities. And that includes not just the 13 and the 40 plus, but also the many who in fact are not counted here today. The Afghans. Remember, most of those people who died that were Afghan-Americans, or Afghans, were in fact people who had earned the right to come to the United States, had gotten through the lines and were trying to board aircraft to help them. They will not be easily counted except by this committee now and in the future.

(51:03)
So I want to first remind people that there is a change that needs to occur that must first have an administration willing to provide the information and a recognition that change is necessary. And if this administration won’t tell you that a change is necessary, and they’ve had three years to the day to do it, then the next administration, no matter whose name is at the top, must be held to make those changes. That’s what we’re here today to talk about. That’s what we’re here for you to report on, that requirement that we make the change.

(51:40)
And by the way, this is not an impossible change. I want to just close by noting that one after another of the members who have been honored to introduce the families have for the most part been people who served in the military. The Foreign Affairs Committee has, at least on our side of the aisle, far more members who have served in the military than you would expect of a peace committee. And there’s a reason. Every one of us who have served in the military understands that we’d rather have the State Department and the other programs do the work of preventing war. War is not something that these families wanted or that their loved ones wanted. It was something that came from failures that go back decades.

(52:29)
We cannot ignore those failures either. And so for the families, let’s make sure that this committee and the men and women of the committee, which includes a great many of us who have served in the United States military, do all we can do to keep this from happening again in another way, make sure that our enemies fear us, our friends can count on us, and that our foreign policy is one that is understood, that will not tolerate the kinds of things that are going on around the world as we speak. That’s what I want you all to remember as you listen to the families, our job isn’t done. Thank you.

Good afternoon. My name is Kelly Barnett. I am the mother of Staff Sergeant Taylor Hoover, Taylor’s mom. I want to thank Chairman McCaul. I want to thank the committee members. I want to thank Leslie and the staff. They’ve had so much pushback. They keep going. I’m so appreciative of them. Thank you for standing with us in our search for the truth. And that is in regards to the chaotic, disastrous exodus from Afghanistan. I want to thank you all media for being here, for attending and reporting. I urge all of you to read the report in its entirety. I urge the American people to read the report.

(54:05)
I will give you my takeaway. I’m Southern, so stay with me, I’m going to just give you an analogy. So the men and women over there, the servicemen and women on the ground, they were given an order to dig a ditch in a swamp with no shovel, no bucket. Impossible. And then they were told, don’t worry, we got the alligators, they’re going to watch your back from the snakes that are coming up behind you. Makes no sense. Makes no sense. Anyway, that’s the best way to give you how I felt from reading that section, which was the most important section to me. Those men and women, they did their job. They did it a hundred percent. They did other people’s jobs. They did the job of the State Department. They were ready. They were Marines, they were soldiers, they were Navy corpsmen. They were ready. They did their job.

(55:23)
There was no regard for their wellbeing. 13 killed, 45 wounded, 170 civilians killed. Thousands of service members that were on that field, they’re scarred for life, collateral damage. My son lived, he breathed. My son was loved. My son loved so deeply. Collateral damage to the Biden-Harris administration. It was a success to them. This report will show this was an intentional disaster orchestrated by the incompetent Biden-Harris administration.

(56:25)
I have a plea to the media, the press here. Some of you I’ve talked to many times, I consider you friends. No matter which side you’re on, I don’t care. Report this as it’s written. Do not spin it. Do not spin it. Report it as it’s written. We deserve that. I deserve that. These men and women that came back, they have to live with this every day. They deserve that. Tell the truth. I don’t want to be here today. I would rather be on a beach in La Jolla watching my son and his sisters attempt to snorkel. That’s gone. I’ll never have… I am a gold star mother. Love me or hate me, I don’t care, it’s not my concern. I’m here. I will fight for what’s right until the end. Thank you.

And I am Taylor’s dad. Thank you all for being here. We’re grateful to Chairman McCall to Congressman Issa to Congressman Mast, Congressman Waltz who have all stood in the breach with us during all of this. This started just a little over a year ago where we dug in and trying to find those answers. With this report coming out, the third or fourth or fifth one, whichever it is now, there are many, many questions. One of which is why were our kids left out on an island by themselves? They were the best of what this could country has to give and our military leaders let them down.

(58:51)
I won’t be as nice as the chairman was. I’ll go after General McKenzie. I’ll go after Secretary Austin. None of them threatened to quit. None of them threatened to give up. None of them stood up and said to the president and the vice president that you’re wrong. That you can’t do this. And I’m certainly not going to stop going after Secretary Blinken, who is the Secretary of the State Department, and it was his crew and his cowards that set up that fateful day. They can’t even get out of the embassy in time because they wanted to play politics. They wanted their day to stand. Now, I urge all of you again, as everybody said, to read the report. Do it honestly. Report it honestly. And if you still think after reading the report that this country can stand four more years of a Harris administration, in my opinion, you’re sadly mistaken. We can’t have any more. We can’t have any more of our wounded who stood in the breach and said, “Here I am. Take me.” We can’t have 22 a day because of the PTSD that they’re all dealing with and being left behind by this administration. We have to do something. We call for change, it is being worked on, and call on Congress to not let us down and keep the pedal to the metal and keep going. This country deserves this. Our 13 families deserve this. Our veterans and our wounded veterans deserve this. Thank you.

[inaudible 01:01:33] We have Representative Michael Waller.

Thank you Mr. Chairman. To quote Joe Biden, “This is a big effing deal.” And the reason is because for the first time, Joe Biden, Kamala Harris, Secretary Blinken, Secretary Austin, the military leadership and this administration are being held accountable. Accountable to these gold star families and accountable to the American people. For three years, they’ve lied. They’ve obfuscated, they’ve tried to cover up. They’ve misled, all because they didn’t want to take accountability for the disastrous withdrawal. That was based on a timeframe because Joe Biden wanted to say that when the 20th anniversary of 9/11 hit, we were out of Afghanistan. That is the only reason that we’re standing here today. Because he allowed politics to be his guiding light. He allowed politics to determine when we withdrew from Afghanistan as opposed to the conditions on the ground, which is what the Doha agreement called for.

(01:03:16)
Joe Biden and Kamala Harris, who proudly tells everybody she was the last person in the room. Joe Biden and Kamala Harris own this. 13 US service members are dead because of them, period, full stop. What this report tells us is very simple. This was preventable. It did not have to happen. That’s what this report says. And I encourage every American to read it, to understand the facts and the information, not from the elected officials, not from the members of Congress, but from those who gave firsthand testimony, sworn depositions and statements outlining one disastrous decision after the next.

(01:04:18)
13 US service members are dead today. Their families never get to enjoy their company. Their children don’t know them, don’t get to experience the holidays, don’t get to experience time on the beach as Joe Biden did as the third anniversary hit. They don’t get to sit in a mansion like Kamala Harris did on the third anniversary. Disgraceful. Kamala Harris wants to be the President of the United States. She wants to be Commander-in-Chief. She needs to answer for this report immediately.

(01:04:58)
If any of you in the press actually get the opportunity to ask her a question, don’t ask her how she’s feeling. Don’t ask her what’s your day like? Don’t ask her about what it’s like to be the first female potentially to be President of the United States? Ask her about this report. Ask her about her decision to withdraw in advance of 9/11. That’s what you should be asking her about.

(01:05:31)
So I want to thank Chairman McCaul for his effort to uncover the truth, to get accountability for these families, and to make sure that this never happens again. And let’s be clear, this is just the beginning, not the end. There will be a reckoning for this administration and everyone that is accountable for these decisions.

Next we have Mark and Jaclyn Schmitz, father of Jared Schmitz, and his stepmother.

Wow. Three years, three reports, and we’re now finally getting names. We are now getting a little bit closer to getting the answers that we’ve been fighting for. The most disheartening part of this, besides obviously losing our son Jared and the devastating loss of the other 12, and the horrific catastrophic injuries sustained by 45 of our own and the countless Afghans loss, most disheartening thing besides all that unfortunately, is our Democratic Party, in my opinion. They’ve had two years to start investigations looking into this. Wasn’t important. Didn’t care. When we have hearings, I’ve watched every one of them. I listened to the softball questions being lobbed up from the left side instead of actually getting down to brass tacks and getting the answers out of the witnesses that they’re actually asking questions of. You hear it from every Republican. Last time I checked, our military is not out there defending the Republican Party. They’re out there defending all of us. And the fact that this has become a partisan issue blows my mind. It should never, when it comes to the military ever be that way.

(01:07:53)
I’ve been on this Earth for over five decades now. I remember my grandfather, my father, telling me stories about George C. Patton. I remember General Schwarzkopf. Where are those generals? I don’t have a lot of good thoughts about the ones we’ve got going right now because had those two generals been issued the orders that our current generals got by Joe Biden and Kamala Harris would’ve slapped those stars down on that desk right then and there and said, “Hell no, I’m not doing it.” They let this happen. They let our 13 kids get murdered, sacrificed out there, and they have done nothing but try everything they can to make this go away and cover it up. There are gold star parents you don’t want to piss off because we don’t stop fighting and I’m one of them. Like Paula said, I’m going to see this to the end as well. Things have got to change. We have got to get the government back the way we used to have it where the Democrats and the Republicans can work together, especially when it’s something to do with something like this. It’s ridiculous. I don’t want to take all the thunder. I’ll give it over to my wife, Jaclyn.

Thank you. I really just want to talk to those families, those moms and dads, those other maybe soon to be parents out there that don’t really know anything that’s going on. I’m hoping that you guys, as the media can really open up and share what is really happening. I hope that people will actually read this report. I encourage anybody to. We still have small children at home, and I think Coral said to, we’re all struggling. It doesn’t just end with the murdered service member or those veterans that are hurt both physically as well as emotionally. It goes all the way down, all the way down to our kids. And it’s really hard to parent your kids and tell them to do the right thing, not to lie. The little things, we all have hopefully had kids or are raising kids at this time, you can’t sweep stuff under the rug because guess what? Parents typically always find out and we will get to the bottom of this. That’s all I have to say. Thank you.

When I first became chairman of this committee and started this investigation, a very brave soldier came to me, courage under fire. He was a sniper. He was a sniper at HKAYA. He is the survivor of Abbey Gate. He is my hero and he’s my friend. And I want to recognize Tyler Vargas Andrews because this man had the courage to come before Congress, the American people and the military brass and speak truth to power.

(01:12:07)
He told me, “Sir, I had him. I had the suicide bomber in my sights. I was not given permission to engage the suicide bomber that could have prevented this entire disaster.” CENTCOM, as a result, reopened their investigation. I received the briefing. I requested the families receive the briefing. I want this to be declassified, protecting sources and methods, but I want the American people to see it. And I want this man to be briefed by CENTCOM so he can see with his own eyes the pictures, to be able to tell us the truth about what really happened that day. So sir, it’s been an honor to get to know you. I appreciate your courage and your strength.

Thank you. I don’t have much to say, but I think what’s important, especially with the third anniversary that just happened of August 26th 2021, and the entire evacuation, is that people understand. I say I’m not left or right, I’m American, but at the end of the day the only thing that matters is that these families and the entire global war on terror veterans and every single family, child, mother, wife, husband, father, extended family that was affected by that and by those decisions the last 20 plus years, they get their answers and they get their accountability. So please, this is what’s important to these families, and that they get those answers that’s all that matters.

[inaudible 01:14:00]. I know we have time for questions. I want the families to participate. I don’t want this to be just about the members of Congress because they have stories to tell as well. So questions.

Thank you so much. [inaudible 01:14:24] Home International. So I went through the report, it indicates that the Biden administration knew somehow that the previous Afghan government is going to be collapsed, but didn’t pay attention to, and didn’t plan accordingly to withdraw the United States.

Right.

The embassy staff [inaudible 01:14:46] so how they knew it, when they knew it, what is your finding? And the second question is that there are so many Afghans who worked with Americans side-by-side, and they supported

… Americans on the ground. So they need help and they asked for help over and over and over. What are the next steps for them to be helped somehow?

We need to get them out of there. But you know what? This administration broke the promise we gave to them that if you fight with us, we will protect you. What did this administration do? They betrayed them and they left them behind. And you know what? When they took over the embassy, when they took over Bagram, they got the biometrics on our Afghan allies and partners, and they go door to door as you know, and check the fingerprints. And if they get a positive identification, they’re then imprisoned, tortured, and in some cases, executed. We owe it to them.

(01:15:56)
Otherwise, what good is our word, the United States of America? What ally is going to trust us if this is how we treat them? I will tell you on day one as Mr. Waltz or… This was a political decision, no question. You can see now they’re blaming it on the Doha agreement. The Doha agreement was in violation. That is why President Trump kept the 2, 500 troops, 6,500 NATO, the contractors, air power. On day one, decision was made to go to zero. What does that mean? Everything comes out. The Afghan Army, military was defenseless at that point, but don’t take my word for it. Look at the report. President Biden’s spokesperson himself said that Doha was immaterial to the evacuation of Afghanistan. This was a political promise on a political timeline and now we see the victims of politics. Okay, we can do I

I think two more questions, but okay. First, right here. You’re up.

Tony Cappacio with Bloomberg News. Two quick questions. Should the United States still be in Afghanistan? I read the report closely and I didn’t get a feel for it. I got a feel for the ramification of us leaving, but should the United States still be in Afghanistan in some form? Two, can you help the reader of the report understand specific examples that Vice President Harris had input into the decision making versus the Biden/Harris administration? I did a control seven. I couldn’t find any specific example.

Well, let me take the first question. They’ve kind of blown it. I mean, we had stability with a very light footprint. We have 25-30,000 in Korea, 100,000 in Europe. We 2500-6500 in NATO. NATO didn’t want to leave. Air cover. What did we lose? Eyes and ears on the ground. Intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance, ISR. We cannot see now into Afghanistan except through over the horizon, which doesn’t work. We can’t see Russia, China, and Iran either because of this tragic failure in foreign policy. We can’t see all of ISIS gathering in the Khorasan region of Tajikistan, Pakistan, Afghanistan making their way to the United States of America. That is what they did to us and they embolden in the unholy alliance of Putin, Xi, Ayatollah, Kim Jong-un.

(01:19:19)
Second question. Kamala Harris was in the room when the decision was made. She says I was the last one to leave. If she agreed with our generals and the intelligence community, she wouldn’t have agreed with the President, but she did. She said, “I 100% agree with the President’s decision.” She was there. In fact, two weeks ago on the anniversary, when these families are at Arlington Cemetery grieving the loss of their children, trying to invite their guest, the President of the United States, and then they get harassed by the Army. What does she call it? She called the evacuation brave and courageous and they call it a success. If that is a success, they have no sense of reality. And that was the bottom line with the failure was the reality on the ground versus the fantasy in the NSC and the White House, and they never came together to protect their children.

Okay, right here in the glasses.

Mr. Truman. Tyler [inaudible 01:20:59] with Fox News. Thanks for holding this today. I’m wondering if you could respond to some of the comments from State and from Ranking Member Meeks on the report today. Ranking Member Meeks said he didn’t think it was a coincidence that this came out the day before the Presidential debate. And the State Department called it cherry-picked scoring political points and scandal [inaudible 01:21:22].

Yeah, they called it cherry-picked before they even read the report. I would ask you to read it. It’s very professional. The idea that this was political aid. Brian Mast. Where is he? He and I on day one said, “We do not want this to be a political exercise. We want this to be a truth seeking mission.” The timing, the Democrats had two years in the majority after Abbey Gate and they did absolutely nothing. On day one, I put this man in charge of oversight and I said, “This is going to be one of my number one priorities.” You know what? When you have an administration that will not respond, when you have an administration that will not cooperate, when you have an administration you have to subpoena for documents.

(01:22:27)
When you have a Secretary, you have to threaten with a contempt proceeding to get the dissent cable from the employees at the embassy. What does that do? It slows down the process. Jen Psaki. It took us eight months to get her before our committee. So I would say no. The timing was not by design, nor was it political. What was political was the obstruction that took place between my investigation and the State Department that continued to obstruct our requests. Their goal, in my opinion, was to push us off after the election so they would not have to deal with the truth. You have several investigations on the Hill. This investigation is the one they fear the most because they know they were wrong. Mr. Mast.

Yeah, I would just say you can look at it simply administratively. Looks just like a hearing when you’re looking at the transcribed depositions. Republicans are asking questions for 30 minutes an hour. Democrats are asking questions for 30 minutes an hour. Just like when you’re in the hearings, Republicans are asking questions for five minutes. Democrats are asking questions for five minutes. We’re choosing witnesses, they’re choosing witnesses. We’re choosing witnesses together. And some of the most damning testimonies came out of the questions from Democrats. Nothing about this whatsoever was cherry-picked. Again, it’s just the fact that the facts point to this was driven by politics. Everything else be damned. That’s what everything points to. Whether it was a Republican or a Democrat asking the question or giving the answer.

Great. Okay, who’s next? Matthew.

Congressman, thanks for doing this. In a question to your point on for the Gold Star families to answer is one of the points that you guys have made a lot is about how several of you have not received a lot of the personal effects of your children. And so I’m wondering if any of you would be willing to talk about that and the experience that it’s been in trying to obtain these things, why these are being denied to you. And then bigger picture if there are other changes. I think all of you have said there’s a lot more work to be done here. What more are you looking for in future reports, future investigations on this conflict?

When the families came to me with this, we immediately sent a letter to the Secretary of both State and Defense and the White House. “Please return the personal effects of the family’s children.” To me, this is one of the most egregious violations that they can’t even get their children’s personal effects. But I would like for the families to speak to this.

I’ll say on the behalf of Sergeant Nicole Gee’s family, we just asked for her cell phone. For months while she was deployed, we kept hearing, “I can’t wait until I get back and I tell you everything.” She’s taken all these pictures. She’s on a Navy ship deployed and they’re in a skiff. She can’t send pictures. But for the last six months of her life, we don’t know what she did. The last pictures we have are all will ever have. She’ll never grow up, she’ll never get married. We’ll never see her any older than 23. Those last pictures that she took while she was deployed and stopping in Greece and Jordan and Oman.

(01:26:18)
We’d love to have those pictures to see her smiling, her videos with her and her friends. We’ll never get those. We’ve asked for those phones. Many of us have. We haven’t received. We get one excuse after the next. “This was destroyed. That was destroyed. Oh, it happened because of biological matter.” We know that’s not true. I know specifically because of Nicole’s injuries were from the neck up. She wasn’t on the phone. There’s no reason except for whatever reason they’ve come up with to keep all of our children’s phones from us. There’s just no reason for it. We just want to know what their last days were like. So that’s my point of view.

Matthew, sir, if I can hit the second part of your question, and I haven’t discussed this with the other family members at all, but for me, Blinken’s got to step up. He’s got to answer some questions and the NSC is culpable in this from head to toe and we need them to start answering questions and we need to dig a little bit deeper there and hopefully Chairman McCaul’s committee will continue to find those answers. But there are several peoples and several entities, and as we uncover more, there’s going to be more people that need to step up and I’m asking them point-blank, “Man, step up. Do the right thing.” We teach our kids to do the right thing, be honest, be forthright, have character and conviction. I would expect that from our elected and appointed leadership. And so far, we haven’t gotten that.

Okay. I can do one more question and then we have to go. So I feel like [inaudible 01:27:59]. Okay, go. Last one.

Mr. Chairman. Your reports used to single out most of the State and NSC, but not much of the way of DOD. But one of your recommendations is that Lloyd Austin and some other DOD officials should be interviewed. Do you think the military handled this perfectly or without faults?

No. No. One of the things that frustrated me the most because I have to work with jurisdictions was to get answers from the Department of Defense on the snipers. He had three commanding officers on the ground. Colonel Whitehead was their commanding officer. I was given access us through another committee in a classified context. But I got the answers from him, that yes, Tyler did forward the photographs, that they were forwarded to the command center for review, which initiated the CENTCOM Reinvestigation. Those three individuals have still not testified. Now I don’t have the jurisdiction, but we did get the letter with 60 questions that we got answers to that we included in the report. Do I think that’s sufficient? No. That’s why this will continue. I believe Tyler, families, the American people need to hear from these three commanding officers on the ground who made all these decisions.

(01:29:52)
The other thing, immediately after Abbey Gate, the Pentagon’s answer was this wasn’t a single attack. It came from a lot of different points. That’s very consistent with Al-Qaeda and ISIS. Unfortunately, the DOD, the best evidence of photos, they destroyed. They say not intentionally, but the best evidence is now the Marines who were there. What do they say? “Sir, the Taliban was firing at us, at Americans.” One of the soldiers said, “The Taliban hit me with a bullet.” Now the doctor upon review by the Pentagon says it was shrapnel. Now, I don’t know. I don’t know the truth, but they deserve to know the truth. Was there a coordinated attack between ISIS and the Taliban against our troops, against the Marines who were put in harm’s way?

(01:31:21)
Why is this important? First of all, it violates the Doha Agreement. The idea Haqqani Taliban harbored al-Zawahiri, the number two guy to Bin Laden says a lot. The narrative we always hear is, “Oh, well, the Taliban fights ISIS. They’re sworn enemies.” Well, Mr. Hoover and I talked last night. If this was a coordinated attack and we don’t know until we get all the evidence, what does that say about our foreign policy with respect to the Taliban and ISIS? And should the Taliban be recognized as a governing body or should they be designated as a foreign terrorist organization? Personally, I think the latter, but we won’t know until the truth comes out.

Mr. Mill, did you want to say something too and then we’ll wrap up? Sorry guys. We’re super, super behind.

Well, thanks for coming. I appreciate everyone taking the time. While the report’s great, I sit on the Foreign Affairs Committee. I sit on the House Armed Services Committee. And while it gives some facts that maybe people didn’t know about or maybe reiterate facts that they already knew, let’s stick to the real bottom line here. There has been no accountability held by Congress. There has been no one removed for command. There has been no one terminated out of the State Department. There’s been no one impeached. More hearings and more paperwork does not bring accountability for those responsible for the death of 13 brave heroes. I’m not going to sit here and sugarcoat things as if all of Congress or the US government has done their job. We haven’t. If we had, we wouldn’t be sitting on the third anniversary still waiting for someone to be terminated or held accountable.

(01:33:29)
And let me be specific, responsibility and saying, “Mia culpa. I’m sorry. I made a bad call.” Or Harris’s excuse that she was the last in the room, or that they feel this is a great airlift success is not accountability for poor decisions where we put politics over strategy and politics over people. This is about these families behind us. This is about the 13 brave heroes who paid the last full measure, who sacrificed two lives, the one they were living and the one they would’ve lived. And until we get accountability and until Harris and the Biden administration who wouldn’t recognize the 13 names in two State of the Unions will take responsibility and accountability for their actions, then we haven’t done enough. And I’m going to keep fighting until we do. Thank you.

As a fellow veteran, you need to be aware the American military has been abused by Biden and Harris, and that we have civilian control of the military. And so the military really have been following orders. Well, the orders have been lies. And so sadly, we see that before us today. But indeed we know that General McKenzie and General Milley have both said that they advised Biden and Harris not to surrender in Afghanistan. And so the military has been abused and we really have a choice of war through weakness or peace through strength in the upcoming election. Thank you.

All right. Thank you everybody. I appreciate it.

[inaudible 01:35:28]. Good. Good.

The reception is in [inaudible 01:36:02].

Oh, geez. [inaudible 01:36:24].

Here, let me hold that for you, Jacqueline.

I’m just trying to hide it.

All right. On 3? 1, 2, 3. 1, 2, 3. One more. 1, 2, 3. Thank you.

[inaudible 01:37:13].