The Lead with Jake Tapper: Rep. Michael McCaul, (R-TX), Is Interviewed About Antony Blinken, Withdrawal To Afghanistan

Interview

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Well, I mean, basically we got a filtered summary narrative from the State Department as to what they would like to show us or in the cables themselves. And I have to say, Jake, I think I've been very patient, very accommodating, we offer to redact the names of the dissenters to protect them, if that's the secretary's concerns.

In fact, secretary and I, you know, get along fairly well, that this is critical. This is not a political stunt on my part, I'm doing this for the veterans and the gold star families who are entitled to know why did 23 members in the embassy dissent from the policy of the administration as to what was going on a month before Afghanistan fell?

And we've given him three extensions of time. We have till tomorrow, that's a deadline. And if he doesn't comply, I'll have no other alternative but to proceed with contempt proceedings. I would prefer not to do that. And you know, and the way it goes is you have a markup at a committee and you have time on the floor. This will be the first secretary of state to ever be held in contempt of Congress.

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Well, again, we're willing to protect their identities. We need to know the state of mind at the embassy and the response, quite frankly, of the secretary of state to the dissenting cables as to what was actually happening at that time. Why did it go so badly?

And so, I know there's this institutional argument out there, but they cite a case going back to Henry Kissinger dissent cable from an ambassador of Greece at that time who supports our position that the Congress and the American people deserve to know the truth here. There is no executive privilege that he can maintain or assert in this case. And that's why I've been patient. We hope he'll still comply with this, but we are prepared to move forward if necessary.

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Look, I respect my friend from San Antonio. He's on the committee. And as I point out, the Rules Committee, that's just absolutely not right. I mean, we put in H.R. 2 in a provision that says that everyone who's already paroled into the country, that provision would not apply to the Afghans paroled by humanitarian reasons into the country. And we talked about the Ukrainians, you know, as well.

Usually paroles on a case by case basis, and then you also have political asylum claims, you know, also. So, you know, I beg to differ with my colleague. I would do nothing to damage any of the Afghans we got out of that country. And by the way, Jake, we left a lot behind, not only citizens, but Afghan partners. We left behind the biometric devices that the Taliban is using to hunt them down.

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And I'm having a roundtable with the women of Afghanistan as well.

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A 100 percent. You know my position on this. And we promised them we would protect them special immigrant visas. They have not gotten out of the country. They're being hunted down by the Taliban with the biometrics we left behind. And we owe them that. And I will do everything to protect them from the Taliban.

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