One Year Later, House Republicans Say WH, State Dept. Had ‘Head in the Sand’ Over Fall of Kabul

One year after Kabul fell to the Taliban, a senior Republican lawmaker on Sunday accused the White House and State Department of having had “their head in the sand, not wanting to believe” what the Pentagon and intelligence agencies were advising about the security situation, “and therefore not adequately planning” for what would happen.

Speaking ahead of the release of a minority report on the tumultuous withdrawal from Afghanistan, Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas), ranking Republican on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, said there had been a “disconnect” between intelligence on the ground and the “rosy picture” painted by the White House.

“There were so many mistakes,” McCaul said on CBS’s “Face the Nation,” recalling hearing from the intelligence community and the military warnings that the Taliban’s takeover of Kabul was “going to be imminent, is going to fall sooner rather than later.”

“And then we went to State, and they paint – and the White House – a very rosy picture. There’s a disconnect between, you know, intelligence on the ground and what the White House is doing.”