WASHINGTON, D.C. — While the U.S. House was briefly back in session earlier this week, House members heard directly from military leaders on where the crisis in Afghanistan stands.
What You Need To Know
- Ohio Republicans blame President Biden for a messy withdrawal from Afghanistan
- Ohio Democrats feel former President Trump is at least partially responsible
- There’s bipartisan agreement that Americans and allies still in Afghanistan deserve to be rescued
- Some Ohio lawmakers’ offices are working to get people freed
Ohio Republicans like Dayton Rep. Mike Turner (R, OH-10), a senior member of the House Armed Services and Intelligence committees, came away from the briefings accusing President Joe Biden of bungling the withdrawal of U.S. troops.
“In every briefing that we’re undertaking on a bipartisan basis, people are seeing that this is not a failure of the intelligence community, it’s not about what we did not know, it was about what was not done,” Turner told Spectrum News on Tuesday.
Ohio Democrats like Toledo Rep. Marcy Kaptur (D, OH-9), the longest-serving woman in House history, feels former President Donald Trump deserves at least some of the blame.
“The president inherited a situation where the prior president had already said he was going to withdraw. However, when he did that, he did not properly equip the State Department to deal with the human exodus that would occur,” Kaptur said in an interview Tuesday.
The Biden administration reported Tuesday morning that more than 82,000 people have been evacuated from Afghanistan in the last 12 days, with more to come.
Within Ohio’s congressional delegation, there’s bipartisan agreement over two things: that the withdrawal process has been messy; and that Americans and allies still in Afghanistan deserve to be rescued.
Cincinnati Rep. Steve Chabot (R, OH-1) told Spectrum News his office has received requests to help get people out.
“We can’t go into a lot of detail, because we don’t want to jeopardize people who may be literally in danger right now, so I really can’t go into any of that in detail,” Chabot said Tuesday.
While Biden is so far sticking to Aug. 31 as his deadline to exit the country, northeast Ohio Rep. Tim Ryan (D, OH-13) agreed with members from both parties who said that might not be enough time.
“I don’t see any evidence of how we’re going to be able to get everybody out of there by Aug. 31,” Ryan said in an interview Tuesday.
The U.S. House returned to its summer recess Tuesday night, but lawmakers expect to have more hearings on Afghanistan in the coming weeks.
