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Congressmen make a secret trip to Afghanistan, shocking White House


As the Biden administration continues efforts to evacuate Americans and Afghan allies out of Kabul, a secret trip made by two members of Congress has left the White House furious. The video above shows Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby reacting to the trip.

Reps. Seth Moulton (D-Mass.) and Peter Meijer (R-Mich.) were on the ground at the Kabul airport for several hours Tuesday. The two lawmakers are both military veterans, with backgrounds in the region.

Moulton served multiple tours in Iraq. Meijer was deployed as part of the Army Reserves and later worked in Afghanistan at a nongovernmental organization providing aid.

In addition to their military experience, both also hold committee positions important to the war in Afghanistan. Moulton serves on the House Armed Services Committee and Meijer is on the House Foreign Affairs Committee.

“As Members of Congress, we have a duty to provide oversight on the executive branch,’” the two said in a joint statement. “We conducted this visit in secret, speaking about it only after our departure, to minimize the risk and disruption to the people on the ground, and because we were there to gather information, not to grandstand.”

Officials said the U.S. military found out about the secret trip as the legislators’ aircraft was inbound to Kabul. State Department, Defense Department and White House officials were reportedly angry about the incident because it was done without coordination with diplomats or military commanders.
The officials were also concerned the congressmen could be taking seats that would have otherwise gone to evacuees. However in their statement the congressmen said they made sure to leave on a flight with empty seats.

In a Tuesday night statement, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi reiterated, “The Departments of Defense and State have requested that Members not travel to Afghanistan and the region during this time of danger.”

“Ensuring the safe and timely evacuation of individuals at risk requires the full focus and attention of the U.S. military and diplomatic teams on the ground in Afghanistan,” Rep. Pelosi said.

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John Kirby, Pentagon Press Secretary: “We were not aware of this visit, and we are obviously not encouraging VIP visits to a very tense, dangerous and dynamic situation at that airport and inside Kabul generally and the secretary, I think, would have appreciated the opportunity to have had a conversation before the visit took place.”

“They they got a chance to to talk to commanders, as I understand, and got a chance to talk to troops, but to say that there wasn’t a need to flex and to. to alter the day the day’s flow, including including, you know, the need to have protection for these members of Congress, that would you know, that that wouldn’t be that wouldn’t be a genuine thing for me to assert. I mean, there was there was certainly there was certainly a pull off of the kinds of missions we were trying to do to be able to accommodate that visit.”

“Certainly took time away from what we had been planning to do that day. And I don’t know, on the aircraft, they did fly out on a military aircraft. I honestly don’t know what the seat capacity was on that that aircraft, but they are, but they are out of the country now.”