GOP: Biden Picked 'Optics' Over Safety in Afghan Exit

The blame game over the deadly US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021 is heating up before the election. Republican members of Congress issued a new report blaming President Biden and VP Kamala Harris for the chaotic exit, one that left 13 US service members dead, while Democrats say Donald Trump's policies, including a deal with the Taliban, had put them in a bind.

• From the GOP: Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee issued a scathing report that says the White House botched the exit, reports NPR. "Our investigation reveals the Biden-Harris administration had the information and opportunity to take necessary steps to plan for the inevitable collapse of the Afghan government," said Rep. Michael McCaul, the committee's chair, per NBC News. "At each step of the way, however, the administration picked optics over security." The full report of about 350 pages is here.
• Harris connection: The report makes a point to note that Harris "appears to have been working in lock step with President Biden behind the scenes" on the exit plan, per the New York Times. However, it doesn't provide much in terms of specifics on that, per the newspaper. Trump has been making the exit a campaign issue of late.

• Little new? In the assessment of the AP, the GOP report "breaks little new ground as the withdrawal has been exhaustively litigated through several independent reviews." The analysis notes that "previous investigations and analyses have pointed to a systemic failure spanning the last four presidential administrations and concluded that Biden and Trump share the heaviest blame."
• From Democrats: Democrats didn't participate in the Republican investigation and released their own memo on the exit, reports Fox News. Committee member Rep. Gregory Meeks accused McCaul of pursuing a "predetermined, partisan narrative about the Afghanistan withdrawal" and asserted that "Republicans' partisan attempts to garner headlines rather than acknowledge the full facts and substance of their investigation have only increased with the heat of an election season," per CNN. Biden "inherited an untenable position" from Trump, the White House said in its own statement. Biden chose to end the war, which was "the right thing to do."

(More Afghanistan war stories.)