Republicans Are About To Make Sure You Hear A Lot About The U.S.'s Afghanistan Exit

The chaotic exit of U.S. forces from Afghanistan in August 2021, with its images of desperate Afghan citizens trying to clamber aboard American planes and a suicide bombing that took the lives of 13 U.S. troops, marked the beginning of the end for President Joe Biden’s presidential approval ratings.

Three years later, with Biden off the White House ticket and his vice president instead running, Republicans hope to make it a political anchor for her as well.

The House may only be scheduled to be in session for three weeks in September so lawmakers can hit the trail for the final stretch of the 2024 campaign season, but Republicans there have lined up a number of ways to keep the Afghanistan exit issue on the front burner: a posthumous medals ceremony the dead troops, the release of a long-awaited report by Republicans on the Foreign Relations Committee and possible fight over whether Secretary of State Antony Blinken will testify publicly again.

The efforts will build on former president Donald Trump’s own seeming attempt to call attention to the service members’ deaths, with his recent attendance at a private Arlington National Cemetery service . At that ceremony, a campaign staffer allegedly got into an altercation with cemetery staffer when it became clear the visit would be recorded in defiance of Arlington’s rules.

In a letter Tuesday accompanying a subpoena for Blinken to testify Sept. 19, House Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) called Blinken “the final decisionmaker” for State’s withdrawal plans.

“You are therefore in a position to inform the Committee’s consideration of potential legislation aimed at helping prevent the catastrophic mistakes of the withdrawal, including potential reforms to