With a surprise to the Biden Administration, two members of U.S. congressmen Rep. Seth Moulton, Massachusetts Democrat, and Rep. Peter Meijer, Michigan Republic, secretly flew to Kabul on Tuesday in the middle of ongoing evacuation from Afghanistan.
Moulton served in the Marine Corps in Iraq, Meijer in the Army.
Three officials familiar with the flight told the associated press that State Department, Defense Department, and White House officials were furious about the incident because it was done without coordination with diplomats or military commanders directing the evacuation.
Rep. Seth Moulton confirmed that he visited Kabul airport with Rep. Peter Meijer to conduct oversight on the evacuation.
“Witnessing our young Marines and soldiers at the gates, navigating a confluence of humanity as raw and visceral as the world has ever seen, was indescribable, “.Moulton said in a tweet.
“As Members of Congress, we have a duty to provide oversight on the executive branch. There is no place in the world right now where oversight matters more,” Moulton and Meijer said in a joint statement Tuesday.
According to WSJ report, both congressmen transited through the United Arab Emirates on a commercial airline and then, with no staff and without alerting congressional leadership or administration officials, took military flights on a U.S. ally’s planes in and out of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.
Defending the Kabul trip, Moulton and Meijer said, “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,” their statement said. “We left on a plane with empty seats, seated in crew-only seats to ensure that nobody who needed a seat would lose one because of our presence.”
The congressmen added: “After talking with commanders on the ground and seeing the situation here, it is obvious that because we started the evacuation so late, that no matter what we do, we won’t get everyone out on time, even by September 11. Sadly and frustratingly, getting our people out depends on maintaining the current, bizarre relationship with the Taliban.”
Earlier Tuesday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi warned fellow members of Congress in an official memo not to travel to Afghanistan following requests by the Defense and State Departments.
“Member travel to Afghanistan and the surrounding countries would unnecessarily divert needed resources from the priority mission of safely and expeditiously evacuating America and Afghans at risk from Afghanistan,” Pelosi said.
In a speech, President Joe Biden told reporters on Tuesday that the US is “on pace” to meet a 31 August deadline for evacuations.
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