House Foreign Affairs Committee Presses Blinken Over 2021 Afghanistan Withdrawal

Secretary of State Antony Blinken defended the State Department’s actions on the 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal during a sometimes-contentious House Foreign Affairs Committee hearing, but lawmakers from both parties pressed him over inspector general findings, whether the embassy abandoned sensitive materials, and who ultimately directed evacuation decisions.

Chairman opened the hearing by framing it as oversight of a ‘‘catastrophic withdrawal,’’ saying he had subpoenaed documents and witnesses and urging accountability for the 13 U.S. service members killed in the Kabul airport attack. Ranking Member Gregory Meeks called for context and cautioned against partisan conclusions, and members on both sides exchanged sharply different interpretations of the underlying facts.

Blinken said the administration inherited a Doha agreement and substantial troop reductions and that the decision to withdraw was a choice between ending the war and re-escalating U.S. combat operations. He described extensive interagency planning, an emergency removal of sensitive documents at the embassy, and what he called the largest airlift in U.S. history. “We were able to evacuate our embassy and relocate our diplomats to the airport within 48 hours, and then conduct the largest airlift in U.S. history,” Blinken said.

Lawmakers cited the State Department inspector general’s report, alleging the embassy left armored vehicles, firearms and classified materials behind and that diplomats tried to burn documents on rooftops. The chair asked bluntly why the embassy had remained open while military advisers had warned of imminent collapse. Blinken responded that no single agency unilaterally ordered the evacuation: “The decision was reached collectively,” he said, adding that the State Department initiates a Noncombatant Evacuation Operation (NEO) but the interagency and the president determine the timing.

Members also sought precise counts and timelines. Blinken provided department figures on evacuations and Special Immigrant Visas (SIVs): he said the U.S. helped relocate roughly 120,000 people during the evacuation and that, since August 2021, the administration has resettled tens of thousands of Afghans and approved or welcomed more than 68,000 SIV recipients. He said roughly 63,000 SIV applicants remain in early processing phases and that roughly 9,000 Afghans with chief-of-mission approval were in Afghanistan pending interviews.

Republican members pressed whether policy choices — including the Trump-era Doha deal and earlier troop reductions — set conditions for the collapse and whether the administration’s conduct signaled weakness to adversaries. Some Democrats warned the committee’s investigation was cherry-picking facts and asked that closed-session transcripts be released to provide fuller context.

The hearing produced no new binding actions, but the committee extracted commitments to follow up: the chair said the committee is arranging a classified interview with National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan and sought public release, where feasible, of materials gathered in the investigation.

The committee will accept five days of written follow-up questions and the record remains open. The chair adjourned the hearing after Blinken said he would soon depart for a trip to the Middle East.

Ending: The committee did not adopt formal remedies at the hearing; members on both sides signaled continuing oversight and legislative follow-up to address gaps identified in the withdrawal and evacuation processes.