Democrats ramp up oversight over Biden's Afghan withdrawal

Congressional Democrats are preparing a series of hearings on the US withdrawal from Afghanistan amid rising anger about the Biden administration's handling of the end of the war, with the Taliban rapidly taking control and the US chaotically scrambling to evacuate Americans and vulnerable Afghan allies.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said there would be a hearing in the Foreign Affairs Committee early next week, and the panel's chairman Gregory Meeks, a Democrat from New York, said Tuesday he's invited Secretary of State Tony Blinken and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin to testify. In the Senate, three Democratic committee chairmen have said they're going to ask tough questions about what happened with the US withdrawal and are also expecting to hold hearings when they return from August recess. The swift congressional pivot to oversight of the Biden administration's decision to withdraw from Afghanistan reflects the frustration and anger Democrats are feeling about the rapidly unfolding developments that have exposed the administration's failure to prepare for worst-case scenarios. While most Democrats have defended President Joe Biden's decision to end the US war -- arguing that Trump shares in the blame for his deal with the Taliban last year setting a withdrawal deadline -- many have shifted from tiptoeing around criticism of the Biden administration to full-on criticism over its failing to act swiftly to get Afghan interpreters and others who helped the US military out of the country before the government fell.