Congressional Reaction To Biden's Afghanistan Withdrawal Has Been Scathing

Updated August 16, 2021 at 2:44 PM ET

Congressional outcry over the Biden's administration's handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the Taliban's takeover of the country has been swift.

Criticism of the administration was bipartisan: Republicans were scathing about the White House's actions, and Democrats, while acknowledging that President Biden was carrying out the policies of his predecessor, criticized the haphazard manner of the U.S. withdrawal.

Biden addressed the increasing criticism Monday afternoon in his first public remarks since the Taliban moved into Kabal, Afghanistan's capital.

Here's a look at what members of Congress have said:

Sen. Tom Carper, D-Del.

Carper, a member of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee and an ally of the president's, said in a statement that the withdrawal of U.S. troops "should have been carefully planned to prevent violence and instability."

"We must act swiftly to protect Americans and our Afghan allies and partners on the ground," he said. "We cannot abandon those who fought by our side who now face mortal danger from the Taliban's takeover. We have a moral obligation to act immediately to protect their lives and a national security imperative to ensure that Afghan soil does not again become a source of terrorist attacks on our allies and our homeland."

Sen. Jeanne Shaheen, D-N.H.

Shaheen, a member of the Senate Armed Services and Foreign Relations committees, said in a statement the images of Afghan civilians at the airport pleading to be evacuated are "seared into our minds."

"Dire conditions on the ground persist today and without swift, decisive action from the administration, Afghan civilians will suffer or die at the hands of the Taliban," she continued.

She called for an immediate expansion of the refugee program for Afghan women seeking asylum.

"A failure to act now will seal their fate, and the generation of girls who grew up with freedoms, education and dreams of building their country's future will die with them."

Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass.

Moulton, a former Marine who served in Iraq, said the "time to debate whether we stay in Afghanistan has passed" but says the "disaster" of the withdrawal could have been avoided.

"For months, I have been calling on the Administration to evacuate our allies immediately — not to wait for paperwork, for shaky agreements with third countries, or for time to make it look more 'orderly,' " he said in a statement on Sunday.

He added that the "tragedy" happening abroad was "set in motion" by the Trump administration.

"Successive leaders of both parties have failed to hold the votes for re-authorizing this conflict for the last two decades since we invaded to find Osama bin Laden. For that, all of us in Congress should be ashamed."

Sen. Mitch McConnell, R-Ky.

The Senate minority leader has called the Biden administration's exit from Afghanistan a "shameful failure of American leadership."

"The rapid advance of the Taliban was expected after the U.S. abandonment of Afghan security forces. The plight of innocent Afghans was predicted, and the challenges of safely evacuating U.S. personnel and innocent Afghans have been magnified by our inexplicable withdrawal from Bagram Air Base. And the likelihood that Al Qaeda will return to plot attacks from Afghanistan is growing," he said in a statement Sunday.

"Everyone saw this coming except the President, who publicly and confidently dismissed these threats just a few weeks ago."

He said the U.S. had the capability to avoid this "disaster."

"Terrorists and major competitors like China are watching the embarrassment of a superpower laid low," he said.

Rep. Barbara Lee, D-Calif.

Lee, who in 2001 and 2002 voted against two war powers measures passed in the wake of the Sept. 11 attacks, told MSNBC that the priority right now should be the safety of American citizens, diplomats and Afghan allies.

"This is an example, though, that there is no military solution unfortunately in Afghanistan," she added. "We've been there 20 years, we have spent over a trillion dollars and we have trained over 300,000 of the Afghan forces, so I think the president is absolutely correct."

Sen. Mitt Romney, R-Utah

Romney, a member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, tweeted Saturday that he "cannot understand why [withdrawal] has been done with such tragic human cost; without an effective strategy to defend our partners; and with inestimable shock to our nation's credibility, reliability, and honor."

Sen. Josh Hawley, R-Mo.

In a statement on Monday, Hawley blamed the Biden administration for "drastically underestimat[ing] the speed with which the Taliban would overrun Kabul and other parts of the country."

"For two decades, almost no one has leveled with the American people about the true state of affairs in Afghanistan," he said. "President Biden's incompetence and failure of leadership is only the latest failure from the Washington establishment in this long war in which so many Americans have honorably fought and died. All of them should answer to the public."

Rep. Steve Chabot, R-Ohio

Chabot is a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee and had expressed concerns over President Biden's decision to pull troops out of Afghanistan. He previously criticized former President Donald Trump's efforts to reduce the military presence in Afghanistan. On Sunday, he told NPR's Don Gonyea he believes U.S. troops should have stayed in Afghanistan in a limited capacity.

"I don't think any of us necessarily want the United States to be the world's policeman, but we do have a role to play in the world today," he said. "And we're either going to be a leader or we're not."

He called the administration's actions a "travesty" and that history is repeating itself.

"[Former President Barack Obama] was warned not to pull all troops out of Iraq. He did that. The result was ISIS and innocent people being murdered, thousands and thousands in U.S. troops having to be sent back in," he said. "Unfortunately, we're seeing a very similar, virtually the exact same thing here in Afghanistan. This president, President Biden, was warned. He decided to ignore those warnings."

Rep. Adam Kinzinger, R-Ill.

The Illinois Republican who is also a member of the Air National Guard told NPR's Tamara Keith the situation unfolding in Afghanistan was "totally avoidable" and "is heartbreaking."

"I'm trying to keep myself calm, but I am beyond angry," he said.

"When all of a sudden you hear that your strongest and most important ally is abandoning you because 'the war can't be won,' well, if you're an Afghan military soldier, you're going to sit here and think maybe I'm just going to go back and be with my family," he said. "The Afghan military, of course, had a long ways to go, but they were carrying the brunt of the combat operations. But under President Trump, and now President Biden, they rushed for the exit, and they thought it would be a political win, and it's gonna be a huge disaster for both."

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas

McCaul is the top Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee and has been one of the most outspoken critics of the withdrawal. He told NPR he's continually argued for a "light footprint" in Afghanistan, saying "2,500 soldiers is a very small price to pay for stability."

"We're seeing this nightmare unfold — unmitigated disaster of epic proportions, and what I really worried about the most are the women left behind and what's going to happen to them," he said, noting that his office has been inundated with calls from people trying to get their families out of the country.

Rep. Mike Johnson, R-La.

During a House Judiciary subcommittee hearing on the Voting Rights Act, ranking member Johnson used his opening statement to decry the situation in Afghanistan and lay the blame squarely at the feet of the president.

"The American people awoke this morning to yet another incomprehensible and utterly avoidable disaster created by the obviously incompetent Biden administration," he said. "The president is clearly in far over his head."

He called for "top-to-bottom accountability at the Pentagon and within the administration for this disaster."

Johnson criticized Biden for staying at Camp David during the weekend's events.

"That this stunning failure has been met with silence from President Biden calls into serious question his ability to carry out his duties as commander in chief," he said. [Copyright 2021 NPR]