Biden aides will testify on the Afghan mess NEXT WEEK: Nancy Pelosi says Anthony Blinken and Lloyd Austin will be questioned by Congress - and PRAISES president's 'strong and decisive' decisions amid the Taliban takeover

  •  Pelosi said Foreign Affairs Chairman Meeks told the caucus Wednesday his committee would hold an investigation beginning 'early next week'
  • Dems of other committees are pushing for their own hearings  
  • Senate Foreign Relations Chair Robert Menendez said Biden team 'clearly did not accurately assess the implications of a rapid U.S. withdrawal' 
  • Armed Services Chair Jack Reed wants to probe 'failures of intelligence, diplomacy and a lack of imagination'
  • Intel chair Mark Warner also vowing to ask 'tough' questions
  • Comes as outside groups and Republicans also blast handling of events 

Foreign Affairs chairman Rep. Greg Meeks told the Democratic caucus Wednesday that 'early next week' his committee would hold a hearing to demand answers of top Biden administration officials on the US' chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi revealed.

'That is Congress' role the role of oversight and that will take place early next week at least it will begin then,' Pelosi said Tuesday night.

The speaker lauded President Biden's decision to withdraw, but conceded Afghanistan has been left in 'disarray.' 

'We should have been out of Afghanistan a while back, but now, we are — unfortunately, one of the possibilities was that it would be in disarray, as it is. But that has to be corrected,' she told KPIX 5.

Meeks on Tuesday invited Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Antony Blinken 'as early as possible.'

 'The situation in Afghanistan is rapidly changing and it is imperative that the administration provide the American people and Congress transparency about its Afghanistan strategy,' the New York Democrat wrote in a statement. 

'I have asked Secretaries Blinken and Austin to testify before the House Foreign Affairs Committee and tell Congress what the administration's plan is to safely evacuate American citizens, SIVs, and other vulnerable Afghans from the country, and to understand our broader counter terrorism strategy in South Asia following the collapse of the Ghani government.'

'Nearly twenty years ago, I voted in support of the war in Afghanistan to hold those who attacked the United States on September 11 accountable and diminish the ability of al-Qaeda and other terrorist groups from using Afghanistan as a launching point for further attacks against America and its allies. I still believe that was the right vote,' Meeks also said. 

Neither Blinken nor Austin nor Biden have directly fielded questions from the press on the recent events unfolding in Afghanistan yet, instead relying on their spokespeople. Austin will give a joint conference with Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley Wednesday afternoon. 

The push by President Biden's own party for formal oversight comes even as White House national security advisor Jake Sullivan promised an internal 'hotwash' that would ultimately take a look back at how the events culminated in the sudden collapse of Kabul and a rush to evacuate U.S. nationals and allies. 

Increasingly frustrated Democrats in both chambers are vowing to investigate what went wrong, setting up a formal and public reckoning even as the Biden team is trying to field off bitter criticism from Republicans and former President Donald Trump. 

Neither Secretary of State Antony Blinken, above, nor Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin nor Biden have directly fielded questions from the press on the recent events unfolding in Afghanistan yet, instead relying on their spokespeople
Defense Secretary Austin, above, will give a joint conference with Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley Wednesday afternoon

 Meeks has invited Austin and Blinken to testify before the House next week 

'We are now witnessing the horrifying result of many years of policy and intelligence failures,' said Sen. Robert Menendez (D-N.J.), who said the Foreign Relations Committee he chairs will probe events in Afghanistan

'The events of recent days have been the culmination of a series of mistakes made by Republican and Democratic administrations over the past 20 years,' Senator Bob Menendez, Democratic chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said in a statement.

'We are now witnessing the horrifying result of many years of policy and intelligence failures,' Menendez said. While hammering the Trump Administration for its deal with the Taliban, he also called out the Biden administration's 'flawed' execution of the strategy.

'In implementing this flawed plan, I am disappointed that the Biden administration clearly did not accurately assess the implications of a rapid U.S. withdrawal,' Menendez said. 'We are now witnessing the horrifying results of many years of policy and intelligence failures.'

A Taliban fighter patrols in Wazir Akbar Khan in the city of Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 18, 2021. Lawmakers want to probe the swift Taliban takeover of much of the country

Soldiers help a women who fell due to high temperature at the Kabul International Airport as thousands of Afghans rush to flee the Afghan capital of Kabul, on August 18, 2021

Soldiers help a women who fell due to high temperature at the Kabul International Airport as thousands of Afghans rush to flee the Afghan capital of Kabul, on August 18, 2021

Menendez said his committee would hold a hearing on U.S. policy toward Afghanistan, including negotiations between former Republican President Donald Trump's administration and the Taliban and the Biden's administration's execution of the withdrawal.

Committee Republicans said they wanted Secretary of State Antony Blinken to testify, 'to understand why the State Department was so ill prepared for the contingencies unfolding before us,' according to a letter sent to Menendez.

'Updates from the State Department have been inconsistent, lacked important detail, and not be responsive to Members and the American people,' the Republicans wrote.

The date of the hearing was not immediately announced.

Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Jack Reed (D-R.I.) vowed in his own statement to probe 'failures of intelligence, diplomacy and a lack of imagination as we transitioned military forces from the country.' 

Senator Mark Warner, the Democratic Intelligence Committee chairman, had said on Monday he intended to work with other committees 'to ask tough but necessary questions' about why the United States was not better prepared for the collapse of the Afghan government.

Republicans continued their harsh criticism of Biden's policies.

House Armed Services Committee member Rep. Jim Langevin (D-R.I.), called the latest events a 'catastrophe' in a blunt statement.

'At minimum, the Biden administration owed our Afghan allies of 20 years a real plan,' he said, the Hill reported. 

Rep. Mark Kelley (D-Ariz.) said the 'rapidly deteriorating situation in Afghanistan reveals a failure to prepare for a scenario where the Afghan government and military would refuse to fight the Taliban's advances when put to the test.'

'The security and humanitarian crisis now unfolding in Afghanistan could have been avoided if you had done any planning,' Republicans on the House Armed Services Committee wrote in a letter to the White House on Tuesday.

The congressional probes – Democrats control both Houses of Congress – follow a period in which committees tried and failed repeatedly to get top Trump Administration officials to testify in House probes when seeking to conduct public oversight of the administration. 

Afghanistan crisis: Biden aides will testify in Congress on military withdrawal NEXT WEEK

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