Rick Scott leads call for open Senate hearing on Afghanistan withdrawal
Image via AP.

Image: Rick Scott
Senate Republicans say the public deserves answers.

On Monday, Sen. Rick Scott led a letter co-signed by 17 Republican colleagues calling to make public at least some of the scheduled hearing about the American withdrawal from Afghanistan.

Scott wrote Sens. Jack Reed and Bob Menendez, the respective chairs of the Senate Armed Services Committee and Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Scott appealed to the Democratic leadership to allow the public to hear from Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin on what Scott’s release calls the “botched and deadly withdrawal of U.S. Armed Forces from Afghanistan.”

“President Joe Biden’s misguided and dangerous decisions in his botched withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan led to the United States’ most stunning, unforced and humiliating defeat in decades. In the withdrawal, America lost 13 brave service members, left billions of dollars of U.S. military equipment to be seized by the Taliban, stranded hundreds of American citizens behind enemy lines and returned Afghanistan to the same terrorist-coddling extremists who ruled it on Sept. 11, 2001. Thanks to this administration’s actions, the world is now a more dangerous place. Now, we as members of the United States Senate, and the American people, are rightfully demanding answers,” the letter asserted.

Scott and the co-signers believe it “is imperative that a portion of this joint hearing be open to the public so that American families and all impacted by the botched withdrawal can hear directly from Secretaries Blinken and Austin.”

While a “closed” portion of the hearing would still permit the discussion of “sensitive or classified information,” the senators “cannot allow this opportunity to pass without ensuring that the American people get answers from the Biden administration.”

Co-signers included Sens. John Barrasso, Marsha Blackburn, Bill Cassidy, Tom Cotton, Joni Ernst, Deb Fischer, Ron Johnson, Bill Hagerty, Josh Hawley, James Lankford, Roger Marshall, Rand Paul, Marco Rubio, Dan Sullivan, Thom Tillis, Tommy Tuberville, and Roger Wicker.

Scott has been among the sharpest critics of the Biden withdrawal from Afghanistan, even going so far as to suggest the President should be removed from office in the wake of the move.

A.G. Gancarski

A.G. Gancarski has written for FloridaPolitics.com since 2014. He is based in Northeast Florida. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter: @AGGancarski


4 comments

  • politics

    January 24, 2022 at 4:09 pm

    no the world has always been dangerous.they forget their are countries surrounding them. and their were limitations in this battle.American citizens were told to leave.that is on their accord.America always leaves things behind nothing new.they get scraped and researched. We all know this is most likely caused by financial and legislative reasons (Africa) and just plain no like.

  • PeterH

    January 24, 2022 at 6:35 pm

    Political grandstanding. Trump and Steve Miller vowed not to relocate ANY Afghanistan refugees. Amer we’re told to leave a year ago. What did Afghan resident Americans think would happen when we withdrew? Trump cut the deal with the Taliban AND WE HEARD NOTHING FROM SCOTT.

  • poitics

    January 28, 2022 at 5:23 am

    we all know how this started how it will end is which side of the dime they are on.

  • nail

    January 29, 2022 at 10:57 pm

    trump knew from Jan 2020 he was going to loose. He made the deal with the Taliban to release 5,000 of their men. Then he removed all but 2,500 troops. When Biden came in he had 2,500 to fight 15,000 Taliban and Americans who had from Feb until Aug to get out. Did they think he was kidding. They did not move until the Taliban took over all the other airports. With 2,500 was Biden to move thousand more in to save ppl who did not care to move. He brought out 125,000 Afghans. The GQP was complaining because “everyone” was not saved. The Afghans got here and they did not want them.
    trump closed the Embassy when he signed the agreement. There were no passports or Visa for over a yr. Biden added 50,000 to process passports while trump sat back and laughed at how Biden had to scramble to save everyone. trump did not care if they all died. He would have rather have Biden fail. trump is a very, sick animal. We need to rid our country of this vile POS. Rick Scott knows this but he would rather go down a path that the GQP has been on before. They knew with Hillary, they knew when over 240 mental health doctors recommended that trump could not run the govt, they knew about Mueller. They all sat back and knew about the attempted coup and insurrection.
    The GQP is a rotten party to the core. We need to vote them out.

Comments are closed.


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