Tenney Calls on Administration to Safely Evacuate All Americans, Seeks Briefing from Biden Administration on Chaos in Afghanistan

Washington D.C. – Congresswoman Claudia Tenney (NY-22), member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, joined several of her freshman House Republican colleagues in sending a letter to President Biden calling on him to ensure the safe evacuation of all American citizens and Afghan partners currently in the country. Tenney also called on the Administration to call for an immediate briefing on the situation. 

"This Administration presided over a horrifically mismanaged withdrawal from Afghanistan that has placed the lives of Americans and our allies in danger and left taxpayer funded military equipment in the hands of the Taliban. It is imperative that our Commander in Chief take control and safely evacuate Americans and our partners from Afghanistan. The Administration must also answer to Congress for the decision-making and leadership failures leading up to and during this hasty and completely bungled retreat," stated Tenney.

Full text of the letter can be found here or read below. 

Dear Mr. President:

We write today as members of the House Republican Freshman Class to express our deep concern with the rapidly deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, and to highlight the plight of the many Afghans who worked alongside U.S. forces and have still not been evacuated. While we may be new to Congress, the complete lack of leadership and direction that has come from your administration in the midst of this ongoing crisis has not been lost on us.  

For nearly twenty years, brave Americans - several of whom are represented in our Freshman Class - have served in harms way in Afghanistan. The primary goal of our nation’s mission in Afghanistan has always been to prevent the region from being a safe haven for terrorists who seek to violently attack our nation and our way of life, as it was on September 11, 2001. 

Over the course of our nation’s military operations in Afghanistan our servicemembers and intelligence professionals have succeeded in preventing the many terrorist threats emanating out of Afghanistan from becoming a reality. The world has undoubtedly been a safer place because of the efforts to deny terrorist groups the ability to use Afghanistan as a base of operations. 

As you oversee the final withdrawal of Americans from Afghanistan, we urge your administration to urgently prioritize the protection of American citizens, security of the airfield, and evacuating loyal Afghans who served alongside U.S. forces. We must safely and expeditiously get Americans and our Afghan partners out of harm’s way. Leaving Afghan allies behind would almost certainly seal their fate and would have harmful and lasting repercussions for our nation that cannot be overlooked.  

With these grave concerns in mind, we ask that you provide a briefing to Congress as soon as possible on your administration’s plan to evacuate Afghan allies. We would also ask that you brief our members on your plan going forward to prevent terrorists from capitalizing on the instability in Afghanistan. As members of Congress, we also need to understand how and why your administration had such a poor grasp of the situation on the ground in Afghanistan. The American people, and our nation’s veterans who served in Afghanistan deserve to have a full accounting of the diplomatic, defense, and intelligence failures that led to the crisis we are witnessing today. 

Sincerely,