Afghanistan withdrawal: Austin, Milley testify again after tense hearing: LIVE UPDATES
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and head of U.S. Central Command Gen. Kenneth McKenzie are testifying before the House Armed Services Committee after addressing the Senate.
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Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley scoffed at Rep. Ronny Jackson’s call for him to resign during Wednesday's hearing.
During a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee on the Afghanistan military withdrawal, Jackson, R-Texas, accused Milley of being so focused on doing book interviews and “defending and pandering to the Biden administration’s woke social experiment with the United States military" that he committed a “dereliction” of duty.
“It has become abundantly clear that the American people have completely lost confidence in your ability to do your job. Gen. Milley, will you now resign?” Jackson asked.
Milley responded with a chuckle and said, “I serve at the pleasure of the president, Mr. Jackson.”
Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said during Wednesday’s hearing that he, too, was featured in Bob Woodward and Robert Costa’s book “Peril,” and that “a lot” of what he said was “conflated.”
Smith made the comments in defense of Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, who said during Tuesday’s hearing before the Senate Armed Services Committee that he spoke to multiple authors, including Woodward, for their books about former President Donald Trump.
“I will just note for the record that I was quoted in that book as well,” Smith said Wednesday. “And a lot of what I said was conflated and not 100 percent accurately portrayed. It does happen. Just because someone says something doesn't mean that it is an accurate portrayal and doesn't even mean they're lying. It could be a misunderstanding about what was actually said.”
Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., tore into the top U.S. military advisers during Wednesday’s hearing, saying they’d all be fired if President Biden wasn’t “so addled.”
“I believe that you guys probably won't resign. You seem to be very happy failing up over there,” Gaetz told Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, and U.S. Central Command Commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie during a hearing on the military withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“But if we didn't have a president that was so addled, you all would be fired, because that is what you deserve,” Gaetz continued. “You have let down the people who wear the uniform in my district and all around this country, and you're far more interested in what your perception is and how people think about you, and insider Washington books than you care about winning.”
U.S. Central Command Commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie said during Wednesday’s hearing that an ISIS-K “facilitator” killed in one of two retaliatory drone strikes was not “directly involved” in the Aug. 26 Kabul bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members.
“I think it is a facilitator and it was a good strike,” McKenzie said of the Aug. 27 drone strike in Nangahar, Afghanistan. “I think we got we got someone who, while not directly involved in the attack on Abbey Gate on the 26th, certainly fell within that circle of accomplices."
U.S. Central Command had previously said two ISIS-K members were killed in the first of two strikes. The second strike on Aug. 9, for which the military apologized, killed 10 Afghan civilians, including seven children.
Rep. Austin Scott, R-Ga., pleaded with top U.S. military officials to help in evacuating the remaining allies still trying to flee Afghanistan and its surrounding region.
“These are people who trained with us, they fought with us, they did everything that we asked of them,” Scott said. “And we have gotten no assistance at all from the State Department to move them. And I'm asking all three of you for your help in addressing the issue."
The congressman was addressing Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, and U.S. Central Command Commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie. Austin said he shared in Scott’s concerns.
“Acknowledged, sir,” Austin told the congressman. “And we will get with state right away to see if we can move this forward."
Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said during Wednesday’s hearing that he wouldn’t rule out sending U.S. troops back into Afghanistan.
Testifying before the House Armed Services Committee, Austin said restarting the war was not part of the plan but that he would ultimately follow the president’s lead on any military involvement in the now-Taliban-controlled country.
“I would just say that obviously that's a decision that has to be made by the president,” he said. “While I won't rule anything out, I would just say it's not preordained that we will go back or have to go back into Afghanistan again. But if we do, the military will provide good, credible options to be able to do that and to be effective.”
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said during Wednesday’s hearing that the U.S. “lost” the war in Afghanistan due to a number of strategic errors over the course of 20 years, not the last several months under the Biden administration.
“My assessment is this is a 20-year war and it wasn't lost in the last 20 days or even 20 months, for that matter,” he testified before the House Armed Services Committee.
Milley cited the U.S. involvement in Iraq and its failure to address Pakistan as a terrorist sanctuary as part of a “series of strategic decisions” that led to the Taliban-takeover of Afghanistan last month.
“I don't think that whenever you get some phenomena like a war that is lost, and it has been in the sense of we accomplished our strategic task of protecting America against Al Qaeda, but certainly the end state is a whole lot different than we wanted,” he said. “So whenever a phenomenon like that happens is an awful lot of causal factors are going to have to figure that out.”
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said during Wednesday’s hearing that former Secretary of Defense Mark Esper directed him to make the calls to his Chinese counterpart in the final months of Donald Trump’s presidency.
Milley said he was aware of “significant” intelligence that the Chinese were worried about a coming U.S. attack.
“It wasn't just a singular report. There was a lot,” he said. “And it was significant and it was concerning to the point where Secretary of Defense Esper, Admiral [Philip] Davidson and myself, along with others, had conversations about it and I was directed by then-Secretary of Defense Esper. First, he directed his assistant secretary of Defense for Asia Pacific Affairs to make calls and then me. This is all done with oversight, and I tried to lay that out in the memoranda."
Rep. Mike Turner, R-Ohio, indicated during the hearing that the intelligence was not shared with Congress.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said on the Senate floor Wednesday that President Biden “gave our enemies in Afghanistan everything they wanted and got less than nothing in return.”
“What a debacle,” the senator said. “We face a greater terrorist threat from Afghanistan than we did before we withdrew, we have less intelligence about that growing threat, and we have fewer tools with which to combat it.”
McConnell slammed Biden for not taking responsibility for the chaotic withdrawal after U.S. Central Command Commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley testified Tuesday that they assessed that the U.S. should maintain a presence of at least 2,500 troops in Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin admitted during the hearing that their input was "received" by Biden, despite the president’s claims to the contrary.
“These top generals gave President Biden exactly the advice the President told the American people he had not received,” McConnell said. “To be very clear, Mr. President, the Commander-in-Chief gets to make the final decisions, no matter what his advisors suggest. But he needs to own his decision.
“The President publicly misstating what advice he got from his top generals is corrosive to the civil-military dynamic that keeps America safe,” he added. “The military did their job. They gave their best military advice. It was rejected. So they saluted and executed the order of the Commander-in-Chief. But having rejected their advice, the President doesn’t get to claim he never received it.”
Rep. Joe Wilson, R-S.C., on Wednesday called on President Biden to resign over his handling of Afghanistan.
During a hearing of the House Armed Services Committee, the congressman argued that the U.S. is less safe now because of the Taliban-takeover of Afghanistan last month.
“In history, we are at greater risk. Suicide bombers can operate from the safe haven of Afghanistan just as 9/11 and with the open southern borders,” Wilson said. “The buck stops with 13 murdered Marines. Mr. Biden is disregarding military advice, and I believe the president should resign.”
Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, commander of the United States Central Command, arrives to testify before the House Armed Services Committee, Wednesday, Sept. 29, 2021, on Capitol Hill in Washington. (Olivier Douliery/Pool via AP)
U.S. Central Command Commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie again said Wednesday that he took “full responsibility” for the Aug. 29 drone strike that killed 10 Afghan civilians.
“That strike was a mistake, and I take full responsibility for that strike,” he testified in front of the House Armed Services Committee. “I was under no pressure from any quarter to conduct the strike. It was based on our intelligence read of the situation on the ground. While in many cases we were right with our intelligence and forestalled ISIS-K attacks, in this case we were wrong, tragically wrong."
At the time of the strike, the U.S. said it had targeted ISIS-K terrorists, the group responsible for the Kabul airport bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members.
Rep. Mike Rogers, R-Ala., ranking member on the House Armed Services Committee, said during Wednesday’s hearing that he fears President Biden is “delusional."
Rogers pointed to Biden’s claims that his chaotic military withdrawal from Afghanistan was an “extraordinary success” as evidence the president is out of touch with reality.
“This wasn't an extraordinary success. It was an extraordinary disaster,” the congressman said. “It will go down in history as one of the greatest failures of American leadership. We're here today to get answers on how the hell this happened. I expect our witnesses to give us an honest accounting of exactly what went wrong.”
Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, said during Wednesday’s hearing that the military commanders who said they recommended President Biden keep 2,500 U.S. troops in Afghanistan were “wrong" and that the president was right not to take their advice.
“The president is the one in charge,” Smith said. “This is ultimately what civilian control of the military means. … I believe certainly there were military commanders who said, ‘Nope, we should stick it out. We should keep the 2,500 there.’ I think they were wrong. And so did the president.”
“This committee has an enormous amount of respect for our military leadership,” he added. “That does not mean that the military leadership is incapable of being wrong.”
U.S. Central Command Commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley testified Tuesday that they assessed that the U.S. should maintain a presence of at least 2,500 troops in Afghanistan. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin testified that their input was "received" by Biden, despite the president’s claims to the contrary.
Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley arrived for today's House Armed Services Committee just before 9 a.m. ET.
Head of U.S. Central Command Gen. Kenneth McKenzie likewise arrived at 8:52 a.m.
Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley and the head of U.S. Central Command Gen. Kenneth McKenzie will appear Wednesday before the House Armed Services Committee after fielding tough questions from Senators the day before.
One of the key takeaways from their appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee was that McKenzie and Milley both testified that they recommended maintaining a presence of U.S. troops in Afghanistan, despite earlier comments from President Biden.
The chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley admitted during the Senate Armed Service Committee hearing on Tuesday that he has spoken to several journalists for their high-profile books reporting on the final months of the Trump administration.
"General Milley, yes or no to this," Sen. Marsha Blackburn, R-Tenn., began the exchange. "Did you talk to [Washington Post journalists] Bob Woodward or Robert Costa for their book, ‘Peril?’"
Woodward, yes. Costa, no," Milley responded.
Top military officials on Tuesday testified that they assessed that the U.S. should maintain a presence of at least 2,500 troops in Afghanistan, with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin admitting that their input was "received" by President Biden, despite Biden's claims to the contrary.
Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley, and head of U.S. Central Command Gen. Kenneth McKenzie appeared before the Senate Armed Services Committee Tuesday for a public hearing on the Biden administration's chaotic military withdrawal from Afghanistan.
McKenzie and Milley both testified that they recommended maintaining a presence of U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
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