Today in the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing, U.S. Senator Josh Hawley (R-Mo.) expressed deep frustration with the Biden administration’s continued finger-pointing over the Afghanistan withdrawal failures, demanding that Congress investigate what went wrong and hold decision makers accountable.
“We need an investigation right now into what happened here with this evacuation and with this drawdown. We need a Select Committee. We need hearings held in public to get to the bottom of this decision,” Senator Hawley said.
“What is happening before our eyes here with various officials […] is outrageous when you have 13 service members who are dead, because of decisions that, ultimately, the President of the United States made,” he continued.
Senator Hawley concluded by saying, “The administration has proved they have no interest in actually getting us the facts. They have misled us at every turn. And if it seems like I’m angry about this, it is because I am. A Missourian is dead because of this. Lance Corporal Schmitz, twelve other service members are dead. Hundreds of civilians are dead. Hundreds of Americans, maybe thousands, are still there. And all we have is the administration officials saying ‘it’s your fault,’ ‘no it’s your fault,’ ‘no it’s your fault.’ It’s the President’s fault, but we need to figure out who in the world advised it, why he made the decisions he made, and I submit to you the time to do that is right now.”
The Senator did not get clear answers during the Senate Armed Services Committee hearing on Tuesday with Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin or the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley when he asked about their timelines for the troop drawdown or who was responsible for what went wrong. He concluded by calling on both of them to resign over this crisis.
Senator Hawley has gone to the Senate Floor multiple times, as recently as this Tuesday, to talk about the failed withdrawal and remains committed to forcing Senators to take individual votes on Biden nominees for the State Department and Department of Defense until those responsible for the haphazard withdrawal step down.