U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken testifies before the House Foreign Affairs Committee in the Rayburn House Office Building on December 11, 2024, in Washington, DC. (Photo by Kevin Dietsch/Getty Images)
OAN Staff Blake Wolf 3:56 PM – Wednesday, December 11, 2024
On Wednesday, Secretary of State Antony Blinken appeared before the House Foreign Affairs Committee to address the use of taxpayer funds in support of the Taliban and the heavily criticized withdrawal from Afghanistan, following extensive prior disputes.
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Blinken appeared for the hearing after resisting two subpoena requests, which led the committee to consider holding him in contempt for missing a scheduled date on September 3rd.
The House Foreign Affairs Committee, under Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) and Rep. Brian Mast (R-Fla.), pressed Blinken on his attempts to avoid the hearing.
“I must express my disappointment,” McCaul stated, criticizing Blinken for “only appearing after disregarding a congressional subpoena.”
McCaul shifted focus to condemn Blinken for the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan, which led to the fatalities of 13 American service members in a suicide bombing attack.
“Despite clear warning signals, … you dismissed the severe and looming threats to U.S. interests,” McCaul said. “This was the deadliest day of the American presence in Afghanistan since 2012, and tragically, it was preventable.”
Blinken expressed sorrow while attempting to attribute some responsibility to the Republicans.
“Today, I am especially remembering the 13 heroes we lost at Abbey Gate. I deeply regret that we didn’t do more and couldn’t do more to protect them,” Blinken remarked.
“I deeply regret that we did not do more and could not do more to protect them.”
Secretary of State Antony Blinken testifies before a House committee on the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, apologizes to families of 13 service members killed. https://t.co/5WI0jopUWRpic.twitter.com/VcynFJsQQz
“To genuinely analyze and learn from the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan requires a proper understanding of the context leading up to it,” he continued, alluding to criticisms of Trump’s earlier policies. He argued that the Doha agreement negotiated during the Trump administration was fundamentally flawed.
However, the DOJ under the Biden administration stated in 2022 that, “The Doha Agreement provided a framework for Taliban participation in intra-Afghan negotiations aimed at forming a post-settlement government. The United States continues to support such initiatives,” implying that the Biden administration endorsed and facilitated the agreement.
“By January 2021, the Taliban held the strongest military position it had since 9/11 [and] we had the fewest U.S. forces in Afghanistan since 2001,” he added. “We all, myself included, grappled with what we might have done differently during that timeframe and over the past two decades.”
Moreover, the committee later criticized Blinken for reportedly “providing the Taliban tens of billions of dollars.”
🚨BREAKING: Secretary of State Antony Blinken confirms the Taliban has received U.S. tax dollars, but downplays it as a minor amount. pic.twitter.com/WVq5kh8vQ7
“An American citizen woke up this morning and lost 30% of their paycheck. A significant portion of that is being sent to the Taliban or other overseas programs,” Mast asserted. “This is something we all need to reflect on, and we will be considering deeply over the next two years. There’s often a joke about kids going to college to study basket weaving, but right now the United States is literally sending millions of dollars to the Taliban. To be precise, $14.9 million is allocated to teach Afghans how to weave carpets.”
Mast continued to confront Blinken over the American tax dollars that were allegedly misappropriated for social programs in Afghanistan, which were later discovered to be funding the terrorist group, adding that “we lack diplomats on the ground to verify the legitimacy of these programs.”
“Even more troubling, we have spent $9 billion to resettle approximately 90,000 Afghan refugees since the fall of Afghanistan. My simple Army math shows that’s about $100,000 per person. That’s outrageous. So my question for you is this: Why are we sending one dollar to a country where we don’t even have an embassy?” Mast inquired.
“Mr. Secretary, you are aware that there were direct lies told to us, particularly by those outside this country,” Mast added. “Your team had to return and clarify matters. It turns out we were, indeed, spending half a million dollars to promote atheism in Nepal, through a third-party implementer, Humanist International. They misled us, and they didn’t provide the exact presentation they created for half a million dollars. And throughout this, they were deceptive. We have no oversight on the ground. I would conclude by stating that we do not even have an embassy there. We should not be allocating any funds to that nation.”
Blinken countered Mast’s critiques, asserting: “The initiatives we’ve undertaken through these partners, and many other nations, have saved countless lives in an extremely challenging environment.”
GOP Rep. Tim Burchett also addressed these concerns back in September.
“The Afghanistan withdrawal was a total catastrophe, yet many are unaware that the Biden administration has been sending funds to the Taliban weekly since then… When the United States concluded its presence in Afghanistan, our troops were ordered to leave behind military gear valued at $7 billion, which ultimately fell into the hands of the Taliban. As reported by the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction (SIGAR), the Taliban probably also accessed around $57.6 million from funds provided to the previous Afghan government,” Burchett stated.
This is not a joke: Joe Biden and Kamala Harris spent tens of millions of YOUR tax dollars to teach Afghans how to carpet weave.
That’s in addition to the $3 BILLION they sent to Afghanistan since the Taliban took over. How does this help America? pic.twitter.com/dyjoUWKDLP
