Posted on 08/25/2021 4:46:21 AM PDT by Oldeconomybuyer
WASHINGTON — Two members of Congress flew unannounced into Kabul airport in the middle of the chaotic evacuation stunning State Department and U.S. military personnel who had to divert resources to provide security and information to the lawmakers, U.S. officials said.
Rep. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., and Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Mich., flew in and out on charter aircraft and were on the ground at the Kabul airport for several hours Tuesday. That led officials to complain that they could be taking seats that would have otherwise gone to other Americans or Afghans fleeing the country, but the congressmen said in a joint statement that they made sure to leave on a flight with empty seats.
Three officials familiar with the flight said that State Department, Defense Department and White House officials were furious about the incident because it was done without coordination with diplomats or military commanders directing the evacuation.
One senior U.S. official said the administration saw the lawmakers’ visit as manifestly unhelpful and several other officials said the visit was viewed as a distraction for troops and commanders at the airport who are waging a race against time to evacuate thousands of Americans, at-risk Afghans and others as quickly as possible.
(Excerpt) Read more at apnews.com ...
I am trying to find a news article that is not a recap of the WH talking points.
Found this at the end of an article from Boston (one of the Congressmen is from MA).
Afghan men? What are disgrace whatever happened to giving preference to women and children?
Mr. GG2 has that hat. 😆
ABU DHABI, United Arab Emirates—Two U.S. congressmen quietly slipped into Kabul airport on Tuesday, saying in an interview that they hoped to gather on-the-ground information to provide to their fellow elected officials about the chaotic evacuation effort in Afghanistan.
Reps. Seth Moulton (D., Mass) and Peter Meijer (R., Mich.) transited through the United Arab Emirates on a commercial airline and then, with no staff and without alerting congressional leadership or administration officials, took military flights on a U.S. ally's planes in and out of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.
If anything, these guys are guilty of embarrassing the Biden/Harris White House.
Who was pissed?
The Biden Administration or the AP continuing to try to shore up administrative abject failure by trying to create a scape goat
The AP is a very dangerous American Domestic Enemy and must be destroyed
Don’t forget, although Meijer has an R next to his name, he voted to impeach Trump.
Both I hope
The sense of frustration comes just weeks after Waltz and a group of House lawmakers, led by Rep. Jason Crow (D-Colo.), sent a letter urging Biden to expedite the visa approval process and address challenges with the Afghan refugee program. Members of the House Foreign Affairs Committee also grilled Zalmay Khalilzad, the special representative for Afghanistan reconciliation, about the issue during a Tuesday hearing.
Biden has yet to formally respond to the bipartisan April 21 letter, Waltz and three other signers told POLITICO this week.
Even members of his own party signaled that Biden needs to do more to ensure safety for the Afghans who have spent decades providing critical help to Americans and other Western allies fighting in Afghanistan. Rep. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) noted that the average time to process a special visa is 800 days — compared to the 116 days remaining until Americans leave the country.
Like Davy Crocket at the Alamon except they didn’t stay.
The ultimate sin in Washington is revealing the truth to the American people. The truth always exposes the lies and corruption that Washington depends so heavily upon and cannot be tolerated.
Thanks
As someone else said.....trying to save their seats
I don’t see how Biden himself could be furious, unless he accidentally dropped his ice cream cone.
I’m sorry, I don’t buy the DOD huffing and puffing. I spent some time with DOD, both active duty and DOD civilian. Like 40 years over three wars. You didn’t just walk on to the military flight, even a charter, going into a war zone without somebody knowing about it. If these 2 Congressmen did, it tells me one of two things happened.
1. The situation is completely out of control; or
2. Somebody let the Congressmen on the flight so they could document the chaos before the catastrophe.
Neither of those is good, and both are extremely serious. I’m not sure which is worse.
On the contrary, I would love to see AOC and Pelosi go to Afghanistan to experience life under the Taliban, since they seem so sanguine about leaving Americans and Afghani women to suffer.
Thought the article said they flew commercial and then on a flight of an allied nation.
One article this morning said they flew in on a charter flight.
Tax payer funded romp?
Oh My! Send in John Traitor Kerry to give them a good tongue lashing:-)
I think this probably made much of the Biden bunch mad because it just might show them up for the idiots they seem to be. Biden’s ire always seemed to be misdirected anyway.
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