While congressional Democrats have gone noticeably silent after Monday’s official end to the war, with many back in their congressional districts for the final three weeks of the summer recess, House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) in recent days has held a pair of news conferences in the Capitol demanding that Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) call the House back into session.
McCarthy also convened a roundtable of two dozen Afghanistan vets, including Reps. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas) and Brian Mast (R-Fla.), to call for action.
30 Republicans also unsuccessfully tried to force a vote on the House floor Tuesday demanding more accountability from the Biden administration. Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.), a Pelosi ally presiding in the chamber, refused to recognize the Republicans and quickly gaveled the session closed.
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“Never in my lifetime would I ever believe America would have an administration knowingly make a decision to leave Americans behind. ... We now have Americans stuck in Afghanistan, the Taliban in charge with more weapons than they've ever had in the past, and a border that is open,” McCarthy, flanked by dozens of GOP colleagues, stressed at a news conference.
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“Speaker Pelosi, now was not the time to act like you could not see us on the floor, now was not the time to hide,” he went on. “We are a co-equal branch. Now is the time for leadership in Congress, and we will lead.”
That those entreaties are sure to fail is beside the point. With their full-court pressure campaign, GOP leaders are seeking not only to highlight the tragic U.S. exit from Afghanistan after 20 years of war, but also to fasten the blame for a series of eleventh hour fiascos — including the tragic death of 13 U.S. soldiers at the hands of a suicide bomber last week — squarely on the shoulders of Biden and several of his top political lieutenants, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and national security adviser Jake Sullivan.
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The strategy carries risks, since the momentum for a full withdrawal from Afghanistan originated with former President Trump, who championed the idea as a way to focus U.S. resources on domestic problems. Trump’s position has lent Biden plausible claims that he was simply following through on a popular plan to bring the troops home after two decades of increasingly futile conflict and mission creep.
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But Trump is no longer in the White House; Biden is standing firmly behind his steadfast withdrawal timeline, announcing Tuesday that he was “not going to extend this forever war”; and Republicans on and off of Capitol Hill are betting the issue becomes a liability for Democrats in next year’s midterm elections, when both chambers are up for grabs.
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