White House says Republicans' Afghanistan report 'says little or nothing new'

By Michael Hernandez

WASHINGTON (AA) - The White House strongly pushed back Monday on a just-released House Republican report on the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, alleging it is motivated by partisan interests.

The report comes two years after an initial assessment from Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and National Security Council spokesperson John Kirby said "this one says little or nothing new," and described it as being "one-sided, partisan."

"We have all held ourselves accountable for the progress of the withdrawal across the administration, and it was a true interagency effort to get those 120,000 people out and to make sure we removed our diplomats and our military personnel safely," Kirby told reporters at the White House.

The Republican report was issued hours earlier on Monday, with Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul saying it "reveals the Biden-Harris administration had the information and opportunity to take necessary steps to plan for the inevitable collapse of the Afghan government, so we could safely evacuate U.S. personnel, American citizens, green card holders, and our brave Afghan allies."

"At each step of the way, however, the administration picked optics over security," McCaul said in a statement accompanying the report. "As a result of the Biden-Harris administration’s failure to plan for all contingencies, the U.S. government conducted an emergency evacuation without the necessary personnel, supplies, and equipment."

The 2021 US withdrawal from Afghanistan was marred by the collapse of the internationally-recognized Afghan government, which was quickly overrun by Taliban forces as international forces left the group.

An Aug. 26, 2021 suicide bombing claimed by Daesh/ISIS at Kabul's international airport killed 13 US troops and about 170 Afghan civilians.

Kirby acknowledged that "not everything went according to plan" during the US exit, saying "we hold ourselves all accountable for" the deaths that day.