Congressional Hearing On Withdrawal From Afghanistan Underway

The US House of Representatives Committee on Foreign Affairs has gaveled-in to hear testimony from former Chairman of Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Miley and former Commander of United States Central Command General Kenneth McKenzie Jr on the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021. LIVESTREAM

• The withdrawal from Afghanistan is regularly cited as a turning point for the presidency of Joe Biden. It precipitated a major collapse in Biden's approval which has never recovered and remains a major political vulnerability for Biden ahead of the presidential election in November.
• Axios notes: "Republicans on the panel will try to get the retired generals on the record in order to tie the chaos of the withdrawal back to Biden and his White House officials..."
• Axios adds that the hearing, "will be intense," with Republicans likely to frequently reference, "the Kabul airport attack, in which 170 Afghan civilians and 13 U.S. service members were killed in an ISIS-K suicide bombing."
• A spokesperson for Foreign Relations Democrats said: "None of the interviews or materials State has produced to the Committee makes these suggestions, and to blame the President for an ISIS terrorist attack demonstrates the extremism of this Republican Party."