House GOP releases Afghanistan withdrawal report finding Biden-Harris admin. failures, WH responds

The GOP-led House Foreign Affairs Committee released a report Sunday that criticized the Biden administration's handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal and argued that the death of 13 U.S. service members could have been prevented.

The release of the report coincides with the three-year anniversary of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“The evidence proves President Biden’s decision to withdrawal all U.S. troops was not based on the security situation, the Doha Agreement, or the advice of his senior national security advisors or our allies," the report reads. "Rather, it was premised on his longstanding and unyielding opinion that the United States should no longer be in Afghanistan." 

The report concluded that the administration was “more concerned about the optics of NEO [noncombatant evacuation operation] than the dangers associated with failing to call” for one to be implemented.

According to the report, the administration had "concern that a NEO equated to failure."

The White House blasted the report, arguing that it is "based on cherry-picked facts, inaccurate characterizations, and pre-existing biases that have plagued" the House GOP's this investigation from the beginning. 

"As we have said many times, ending our longest war was the right thing to do and our nation is stronger today as a result,” White House spokeswoman Sharon Yang said in a statement. “Because of the bad deal former President Trump cut with the Taliban to get out of Afghanistan by May of 2021, President Biden inherited an untenable position."

Yang said Biden had a choice to "either ramp up the war against a Taliban that was at its strongest position in 20 years and put even more American troops at risk" or finally take steps to end the longest U.S. war after two decades and $2 trillion spent. 

"The president refused to send another generation of Americans to fight a war that should have ended long ago," Yang said.

House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., said the report "paints an incriminating picture of an administration concerned with optics and public perception rather than accountability and the safety of American personnel."

Due to the "failed withdrawal," he continued, the Taliban "once again controls Afghanistan, terrorists have been emboldened, billions of dollars of weapons and equipment were left behind, and America has lost the trust of our allies. And not a single administration official was fired over this catastrophe."

He said Republicans won't allow the Biden-Harris administration to "rewrite history" with regard to the withdrawal. 

"The families of the 13 fallen servicemembers and the allies we abandoned in Afghanistan deserve better, and we are grateful to Chairman McCaul and the entire committee for their work in bringing these important facts to light,” he said.

The Afghanistan withdrawal is expected to come up during the presidential debate on Tuesday between former President Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris.