The report from the House foreign affairs committee released today castigating the Biden administration for the chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal mentions Kamala Harris’s name 251 times.
By contrast, a 115-page interim report issued by the committee’s Republican chairman, Michael McCaul, on the committee’s investigation in 2022 name-checked Harris just twice.
Democrats seized on the contrast, accusing McCaul of inflating Harris’s part in the incident simply because she had replaced Biden as the party’s presidential nominee.
Democrats accused the Republicans of trying to exploit the withdrawal for election purposes while overlooking the fact that the party’s presidential nominee, Donald Trump, took the original decision to withdraw US troops from Afghanistan when he was president. Gregory Meeks, the Democrats’ ranking member on the committee wrote in a 59-page rebuttal to McCaul’s report:
Republicans now claim [Harris] was the architect of the US withdrawal though she is referenced only three times in 3,288 pages of the Committee’s interview transcripts.
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Partisan divisions over the chaotic 2021 pullout of western forces from Afghanistan have burst into the open ahead of Tuesday’s presidential debate in Philadelphia after a Republican-led congressional report attempted to implicate Kamala Harris in the episode.
A 250-page report from the House of Representatives’ foreign affairs committee castigated the Biden administration for failing to anticipate the Taliban’s rapid takeover and neglecting to prepare for the orderly departure of non-combatant personnel.
The report, written by the committee’s Republican chairman, Michael McCaul, zeroes in on the supposed role played by the vice-president, although no evidence has emerged that she was directly involved in the decisions leading to one of the most damaging foreign policy chapters of Joe Biden’s presidency. The report states:
Vice President Kamala Harris was the last person in the room when President Biden made the decision to withdraw all US forces from Afghanistan; a fact she boasted about shortly after President Biden issued his go-to-zero order.
The report’s front page carries a picture of Harris prominently displayed below that of Biden, and above an image of Jake Sullivan, the national security adviser, who played a more prominent role in the withdrawal.
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The statement of support for Kamala Harris by a group of retired top military officials comes a day before the Republican House speaker, Mike Johnson, and the Senate minority leader, Mitch McConnell, will host a congressional gold medal ceremony honoring the 13 service members killed in the chaotic 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal.
Donald Trump and his fellow Republicans have tried to blame Harris for the Afghanistan pullout, including in a report by House GOP lawmakers today.
The report claims that in the months before the Afghanistan withdrawal, Biden administration officials “watered down” warnings about crumbling security and failed to launch an emergency evacuation of Americans and Afghan allies until it was too late, according to NBC News.
The Texas representative Michael McCaul, chair of the House foreign affairs committee, said:
Our investigation reveals the Biden-Harris administration had the information and opportunity to take necessary steps to plan for the inevitable collapse of the Afghan government. At each step of the way, however, the administration picked optics over security.
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The letter by National Security Leaders for America also sought to defend Kamala Harris against Donald Trump’s attacks over the Biden administration’s chaotic 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal.
Trump “repeatedly fails to take responsibility for his own role in putting service members in harm’s way”, the retired US military officials wrote.
Without involving the Afghan government, he and his administration negotiated a deal with the Taliban that freed 5,000 Taliban fighters and allowed them to return to the battlefield.
The Republican former president then left Joe Biden and Harris “with no plans to execute a withdrawal, and with little time to do so”, they said.
This chaotic approach severely hindered the Biden-Harris administration’s ability to execute the most orderly withdrawal possible and put our service members and our allies at risk.
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Ten former top military officials endorse Harris, call Trump 'a danger to our national security'
Ten retired top US military officials have announced their endorsement of Kamala Harris in a letter warning that Donald Trump is “a danger to our national security and democracy”.
The statement by the bipartisan group National Security Leaders for America, first obtained by Axios, is signed by retired Adm Steve Abbot, who served as deputy homeland security adviser to George W Bush, Gen Lloyd W Newton and Gen Larry R Ellis, who has never previously endorsed a political candidate.
Harris is “the best – and only – presidential candidate in this race who is fit to serve as our commander-in-chief”, the letter says, adding that the Democratic vice-president “has demonstrated her ability to take on the most difficult national security challenges in the Situation Room and on the international stage”.
Trump, meanwhile, “does not understand selfless service and sacrifice, and he should never be allowed to again serve as commander-in-chief of the greatest fighting force in the world”, the group writes.
The release of the letter coincides with the release of a new Harris campaign ad featuring former Trump officials warning of the threat a second Trump presidency could pose to the country.
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Trump says he will vote yes on Florida amendment to legalize marijuana
Donald Trump has confirmed he will vote in support of a ballot measure in Florida that would legalize recreational marijuana.
“I believe it is time to end needless arrests and incarcerations of adults for small amounts of marijuana for personal use,” Trump posted to Truth Social on Sunday night.
As a Floridian, I will be voting YES on Amendment 3 this November.
He added that as president, he would support the passage of similar laws in other states “that work so well for their citizens”.
Trump, as a resident Floridian, will be able to cast a vote on the state’s amendment 3 in November, which would allow adults over 21 to legally buy and use marijuana without a medical card.
Trump’s support contrasts with Florida’s governor and fellow Republican, Ron DeSantis, who has been a vocal opponent of the ballot measure.
Tim Walz, the Democratic vice-presidential nominee, has postponed a rally he was scheduled to speak at this evening in Reno, Nevada due to wildfires in the region, his campaign said.
The Davis Fire in northern Nevada has so far scorched more than 6,500 acres and triggered evacuations since starting on Saturday.
Nevada Army National Guard Staff Sgt. Audrey Williams, a soldier with the 2/238th Aviation unit, captured footage of a UH-60 Black Hawk helicopter executing a crucial water bucket drop to combat the #DavisFire Washoe Valley, Nevada. pic.twitter.com/4MD4UiZMlL
— Nevada Guard (@NVNationalGuard) September 9, 2024
Walz is still expected to visit Reno today for other political engagements, the campaign said.
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As Kamala Harris and Donald Trump prepare to meet on the debate stage in Philadelphia, the battle over abortion rights has vaulted to the center of the 2024 presidential election campaign, the first since the supreme court’s decision overturning Roe v Wade.
In the bitterly contested race for the White House, abortion remains a glaring vulnerability for the Republican nominee. Celinda Lake, a veteran Democratic pollster, said:
You know it’s an important issue because Trump is trying to change his position.
As a candidate, Trump has held conflicting positions on abortion, alternately boasting that he appointed three of the nine supreme court justices whose votes were decisive in overturning Roe, while complaining that Republican extremism on the issue has cost his party at the ballot box.
He recently appeared to endorse a ballot measure to expand abortion rights in his adopted home state of Florida, only to announce one day later – after sparking backlash among prominent conservative groups – that he would vote against it. He has also previously hinted at support for a 15-week federal ban only to insist that the issue should be left to the states. His campaign has said Trump would not sign a national abortion ban as president.
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Harris releases ads targeting Trump on abortion
Over the weekend, the Harris campaign also released thee new TV ads targeting Donald Trump on abortion ahead of Tuesday’s debate that includes comments from the Republican nominee claiming credit for helping overturn Roe v Wade.
The 30-second ad has includes a clip of Trump saying in 2016 that “there has to be some form of punishment” for women who seek abortions. It then has a clip of him earlier this year saying: “For 54 years they were trying to get Roe v Wade terminated and I did it and I’m proud to have done it.”
Trump “wants to go further, with plans to restrict birth control, ban abortion nationwide, even monitor women’s pregnancies”, the narrator says.
The Harris-Walz campaign is launching a new ad campaign ahead of Tuesday’s debate on reproductive freedom.
— Lauren Hitt (@LaurenHitt) September 7, 2024
The three ads feature Trump’s own words saying he is “proud” to have overturned Roe, as well as two women who have been directly affected by Trump’s abortion bans. pic.twitter.com/390JrfXbLi
The ad will appear on broadcast and cable networks in seven swing states – Arizona, Georgia, Michigan, Nevada, North Carolina, Pennsylvania, Wisconsin – and in Nebraska’s competitive second congressional district, according to the Harris campaign.
Another ad discusses the impact of the Alabama supreme court’s ruling that frozen embryos are “children” on a woman’s efforts to conceive.
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The Harris campaign said the new ad would run as part of their $370m digital and television buy.
A statement by Harris-Walz principal deputy campaign manager Quentin Fulks reads:
This ad will remind Fox News viewers, perhaps even a certain defeated former president himself, about how Trump’s own national security team can’t stomach him anymore because of how he’d put the country at risk. To every American who understands the threat that Donald Trump poses, who cares about upholding the constitution, who believes in the rule of law, and who knows America is stronger when it leads, there’s a home for you in Vice-President Harris’s campaign.
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“In 2016, Donald Trump said he would choose only the best people to work in his White House.,” the Harris campaign’s new ad reads.
Now, those people have a warning for America: Trump is not fit to be president again.
The ad includes clips from the former Republican vice-president Mike Pence saying that he would not be endorsing Trump in 2024, and from the former defense secretary Mark Esper warning that another Trump presidency “places our service members at risk, places our nation’s security at risk”.
Pence, Esper and Trump’s former national security adviser John Bolton, who is also featured in the Harris campaign’s ad, have said they will not vote for Trump.
According to the Washington Post, just over of Trump’s former cabinet supports his comeback campaign.
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Harris goads Trump with ad of former officials warning of a second Trump term ahead of debate
Good morning US politics readers. The Harris campaign is set to air a new TV ad featuring former officials in Donald’s Trump administration warning about the threat he poses to the country, in what looks like an attempt to goad the former president ahead of tomorrow’s debate.
The minute-long spot, entitled “The Best People”, will run on Fox News as well as in West Palm Beach, Florida, and Philadelphia on Tuesday to coincide with the presidential debate between Trump and Kamala Harris. It will continue to play throughout the week, according to the Harris campaign.
The ad features Trump’s former vice-president, Mike Pence, former defense secretary Mark Esper, former national security adviser John Bolton and retired Gen Mark Milley, former chairman of the joint chiefs of staff. The ad reads:
Take it from the people who knew him best: Donald Trump is a danger to our troops and our democracy. We can’t let him lead our country again.
The ad came after endorsements by some high-profile Republicans for Harris last week, including the former vice-president Dick Cheney and his daughter Liz Cheney, a former representative of Wyoming, as well as Jim McCain, the son of the late senator and 2008 presidential nominee John McCain.
Here’s what else we’re watching:
Kamala Harris is in Pittsburgh preparing for her debate tomorrow. She is expected to travel to Philadelphia in the late afternoon.
Congress is back. The House rules committee is set to take up Speaker Mike Johnson’s six-month stopgap funding bill, which would extend government funding through 28 March.
Joe Biden will be in New York, Pennsylvania and the Pentagon for 9/11 events this week. He will welcome the UK prime minister, Keir Starmer, to the White House on Friday.
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