It’s a big week for Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who is set to testify on Capitol Hill Monday and Tuesday regarding the botched Afghanistan withdrawal.
Blinken will testify before the House Foreign Affairs Committee Monday afternoon, and is sure to face heated questions from lawmakers on both sides of the aisle.
Indeed, American citizens, green card holders and Afghan allies are still stranded in Afghanistan after U.S. military forces left at the end of August, and members of Congress will now have the opportunity to get answers on how this went so wrong.
“I have a lot of questions for Antony Blinken, as do all of the republicans and I’m sure many of our democratic friends,” committee member Rep. Claudia Tenney told Fox News. “Look, right now, we have families that are still stranded.”
“This is just completely unacceptable,” she continued. “And it’s part of the debacle that has been this policy and Secretary Blinken needs to answer that.”
Another issue Tenney said she plans to address is whether Blinken “is actually going to recognize the Taliban government, a terrorist organization, as a legitimate government.”
Rep. Greg Steube is concerned that he and others on the committee won’t even get a chance to question Blinken, as the secretary is notorious for leaving question sessions early.
“Each time Mr. Blinken’s come to our committee...he only comes for maybe two or three hours,” Steube explained in a Nexstar interview.
It remains unclear exactly how many American citizens or permanent residents remain in Afghanistan.
Blinken is also scheduled to testify Tuesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
