Press Releases

Sen. Rick Scott: One Year After Botched Afghanistan Withdrawal, Americans Still Need Answers

August 23, 2022

Renews call for bicameral, bipartisan Joint Select Committee on Afghanistan to investigate Biden administration’s failures

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, ahead of the one-year anniversary of President Joe Biden’s botched and deadly withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan, Senator Rick Scott is renewing his calls for the U.S. Senate to immediately pass his resolution establishing a Joint Select Committee on Afghanistan. The establishment of a bicameral, bipartisan committee will allow the Congress to conduct a full investigation into President Biden’s failed and tragic withdrawal of U.S. forces from Afghanistan that took the lives of 13 brave U.S. service members, stranded hundreds of Americans behind enemy lines, handed power back to the Taliban and left billions of dollars in U.S. military equipment in the hands of terrorists.

 

This Joint Select Committee would follow the precedent set in the aftermath of the Iran-Contra affair. Senator Scott introduced the legislation to establish a Joint Select Committee on Afghanistan in October 2021 after House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer refused to answer his calls for accountability and failed to use their authority to launch a bicameral, bipartisan investigation.

 

Senator Rick Scott said, “It has been one year since the United States suffered its most stunning, unforced and humiliating defeat in decades and there has been ZERO ACCOUNTABILITY FOR IT. We lost 13 brave service members, stranded hundreds of our own citizens and left BILLIONS of dollars of military equipment in the hands of terrorists in President Biden’s horrifically botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, but he still hasn’t taken responsibility or been forced to answer for a single one of these failures. The president’s failures have placed Afghanistan back in the hands of the same terrorist-coddling extremists who ruled it on September 11, 2001. Afghanistan is once again a haven for the world’s most dangerous terrorists, who are back openly operating in Kabul. President Biden’s actions and decisions have put the national security of the United States in jeopardy more than any other president in modern history. He must be held accountable for it. It is shocking and unacceptable that after the loss of 13 American soldiers and the massive failure of President Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal, Democrats can’t find the courage to demand answers. If Democrats are truly committed to exercising congressional oversight and protecting America’s national security, they’ll join me and move quickly to pass my resolution, launch a Joint Select Committee and begin the important work of getting answers for the American people.”

 

Senator Scott has repeatedly called for accountability and answers for the Biden administration’s failures in Afghanistan, including for Leader Schumer and Speaker Pelosi to launch a bipartisan investigation into President Biden’s withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan:

 

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