Jen Psaki, the former White House press secretary, will reportedly be interviewed by the House Foreign Affairs Committee in August 2021 regarding the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.
On July 26, Psaki, who currently hosts an MSNBC program, is anticipated to participate in the interview. With permission from the White House, she offered to address the committee.
The president’s deputy counsel, Rachel Cotton, told the committee that although the White House had made a “extraordinary accommodation” to allow Psaki to interview, she should be escorted by her personal attorney and the White House Counsel’s Office.
For the past nine months, House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) has been requesting Psaki’s testimony as part of an extensive investigation into the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, which put an end to the United States’ almost two-decade-long war there.
Plans for the United States to reduce its military presence in Afghanistan by August 2021 were derailed by the Taliban’s quick takeover and the fall of the Kabul government, which the United States had supported.
In addition to pulling out its diplomatic personnel, the United States launched a huge airlift for over 120,000 people, the bulk of whom were vulnerable Afghans running from the prospect of violence, revenge, and repression under Taliban authority.
Images of civilians hanging to and tumbling off leaving flights, together with an Islamic State suicide attack that claimed the lives of 170 Afghans and 13 American service members, were a constant feature of the American departure.
When the withdrawal was announced, the Biden administration claimed that it had not expected the Taliban’s onslaught to so quickly destroy the American-backed Afghan government and the American-trained and equipped Afghan military.
It took Taliban forces a little over a week to completely overrun the entire country, forcing the U.S. to execute a hasty withdrawal.
Republicans contend that the withdrawal’s execution gave America’s adversaries more confidence, and they have advocated for President Biden and his top advisors to be held responsible for the disastrous consequences that followed the pullout.
[READ MORE: Biden Family Demands He Stay The Course After Disastrous Debate]
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