House Republicans vow to probe Biden’s Afghanistan exit if they win in 2022

CNN — Some Republicans see the fallout over the US exit from Afghanistan as their new Benghazi – a foreign policy blunder ripe for investigation that could provide just the political ammunition they need to dent a popular Democratic President. Amid scenes of a chaotic and rushed evacuation from Afghanistan, multiple House Republicans are vowing to launch congressional investigations into the Biden administration’s botched withdrawal if they win back the chamber next year, with some specifically calling for an “Afghanistan Select Committee.” “This makes Benghazi look like a much smaller issue,” Rep. Mike Johnson of Louisiana, a member of GOP leadership who sits on the Armed Services Committee, told CNN. Now, if the GOP seizes back power in 2022, it looks like House Republicans might create a select committee of their own: Multiple Republican lawmakers and aides said it’s almost certain that the GOP will launch probes into Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal. “I’d like to hear from the Americans that were on the ground about their experiences and get the questions answered about how this went so wrong, so fast.” Republicans – who have only been able to fire off letters to the White House – want to know whether intelligence failures or poor policy decisions led to the botched withdrawal, how the administration plans to ensure Afghanistan does not become a haven for terrorism, whether the White House ignored warnings about how dire the situation was on the ground and what happened to the United States’ military aircraft and weapons left in the Taliban’s possession, among other things. Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo – who was one of the GOP members on the House’s Benghazi select committee as a representative from Kansas – addressed the House Republican conference on Thursday morning.