Press Releases

At yesterday's House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing on the State Department's Withdrawal from Afghanistan, Congressman Mike Lawler slammed Secretary of State Antony Blinken for his role in the failed withdrawal and for the Biden Administration's many foreign policy failures over the last four years.

A full transcript is available below:

Congressman Lawler: Mister Secretary, have you read this report in full?

Secretary Blinken: I have read the executive summary of the report. I haven’t read the entire report yet.

Congressman Lawler: I hope that you will take this copy with you on your flight to the Middle East and read it because this is your legacy. This is your legacy. Starting with the disastrous withdrawal in Afghanistan that resulted in the death of 13 U.S. service members, creating 13 Gold Star families. Families our vice president hasn’t even been bothered to meet with. Then the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the terrorist attack on Israel, the illicit oil trade between China and Iran to the tune of $200 billion under your watch.

That is what is funding Hamas, Hezbollah, the Houthis, and other terror networks in the region, China threatening Taiwan. This is your legacy, and this stems from this disastrous withdrawal. So I hope you read the report in full and reflect upon that. You talk about the Doha agreement. It’s conditions-based.

This administration had no problem reversing policy decisions that it disagreed with President Trump on. In fact, Joe Biden revoked 94 executive orders to open up our southern border and create an absolute calamity. Seventy thousand Americans die every year from fentanyl overdose as this administration has allowed fentanyl to pour into our country, drug trafficking, gangs, human trafficking, women and children being sold into prostitution—not a care in the world. This is the legacy.

So don’t sit here and tell us, having not read the report, that you disagree with it or it’s not true, saying to my colleague from Florida, “Oh, it’s not true.”

We left people in Israel after October 7th. It most certainly is. I had constituents calling in a full-fledged panic, and we called the State Department and were told there is nothing we can do. Don’t tell us that that didn’t happen. This administration had no problem trying to renegotiate the Iran nuclear deal, no problem lifting sanctions on Iran, allowing for the illicit oil trade.

So when you say that the previous administration negotiated the Doha agreement and therefore we were bound by it, that is complete and utter bulls***, and you know it. You absolutely had the ability, based on the conditions on the ground, to keep our troops there, to ensure the safety and well-being of American citizens and to make sure what happened did not.

Mister Secretary, on August 26, 2021, who was the president of the United States?

Secretary Blinken: Joe Biden.

Congressman Lawler: On August 26, 2021, who was the Secretary of State?

Secretary Blinken: I was.

Congressman Lawler: Okay. Take responsibility. Don’t shirk in your responsibilities. Don’t try to shift blame.

The reality is you guys allowed the conditions on the ground to deteriorate. You did not hold the Taliban to account. And as a result, 13 U.S. service members are dead, and the world is a tinderbox. We are in the most precarious place since the lead-up to World War II. That is your legacy, period. Full stop.

And if Israel listened to this administration and didn’t go into Gaza and didn’t go into the south, Sinwar would still be alive. And if Israel listened to this administration, Nasrallah would still be alive, and Assad would still be in power in Syria, and Iran would be stronger than ever. That is your legacy.

This Congress has passed the SHIP Act and the Abraham Accord special envoy. You didn’t fill the special envoy, and you didn’t enforce the SHIP Act. You’ve had over a year to do both. That is your legacy. You leave the world worse off today than it was when you inherited it.