Top Republican demands a Congressional committee dedicated to chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal

Rep. Michael Waltz of Florida, the ranking member of the Subcommittee on Readiness on the House Armed Services Committee, spoke with DailyMail.com by on Friday

Nearly a year after the last US soldier left Afghanistan, a House Republican who served on the ground in the war-torn country is calling for a Congressional committee to get to the bottom of the Biden administration’s withdrawal.

Rep. Michael Waltz of Florida, the first Green Beret to serve in Congress, told DailyMail.com during an exclusive interview that he believes the White House and its Democrat allies have swept the controversial operation and its ensuing fallout ‘under the rug.’

‘I want a committee dedicated to it. Exactly where that committee will be housed is still under discussion. But it needs to have oversight – this is the part that I think is critical – it must have oversight of the Defense Department, the intelligence community and the State Department,’ Waltz said.

He said it was clear to him, as a member of the Armed Services Committee, that the Biden administration wants to move on 12 months after facing bipartisan criticism over the operation.

‘I mean, that’s obvious. And I think Democrats in Congress want it swept under the rug. I mean, we’ve seen, what, one hearing…Armed Services Committee, and then one in Foreign Affairs…that was determined that it’d be classified, so it was closed,’ Waltz said. ‘I think it’s disgraceful and it’s – it’s unbecoming, and the families deserve better.’

Among those he’s seeking accountability for are the relatives of the 13 service members who were killed on August 26 last year when a suicide bomber set off an explosion outside of Hamid Karzai International Airport.

Waltz accused the Biden administration of trying to sweep the Afghanistan withdrawal and its fallout ‘under the rug’ over the last 12 months 

‘No officials have been fired. Not one. Nobody’s relieved. Nobody’s resigned. No one’s taken accountability or responsibility. But I think the thing that really, you know that they feel like it’s just a slap in the face is to have Biden standing before the world saying this was an outstanding success,’ Waltz said of the families.

‘It’s going to be accountability for them. It’s going to be my mission for sure in launching those investigations.’

And if Republicans take back the majority in the House of Representatives in November, the congressman vowed their probes would go further than the recently-created Afghanistan War Commission.

The latest defense spending bill, known as the National Defense Authorization Act, mandates the creation of a Congressionally-approved panel to study the 20-year war in its entirety.

But Waltz joins a litany of his fellow Republicans who believe it’s over-broad.

‘I could fill a warehouse with think tank reports and studies and commissions on what went wrong in the war,’ he said. ‘We need a focused look at the withdrawal debacle.’

A committee to investigate the withdrawal effort would have to have oversight over the State Department, Pentagon and intelligence community, Waltz said

He added that the commission’s December 2024 deadline for a final report appears ‘convenient’ – happening just after the presidential election.

‘It’s a classic Washington playbook. Form a commission, take a year to do it, you know, not have a report due for another three years after it’s formed, which, you know, just puts it completely on the backburner,’ Waltz said.

‘These Gold Star families have already waited a year for any kind of answers. Now we want them to wait another three? It’s insulting.’

In the meantime, Waltz demanded that the US stop sending aid dollars to Afghanistan’s Taliban-controlled government and called for continuing relations with the National Resistance Front of Afghanistan.

The military veteran also suggested the creation of a ‘contingency plan’ to take back Bagram Air Base from the Taliban in the event of an imminent threat or ‘strike on the homeland.’

‘It’s commitment to maintain the assets in the Middle East, that they’re going to need to do this long term,’ Waltz said. ‘I can’t get into the details of it, but we’ve seen the opposite of that.’

President Biden released a statement on Friday memorializing the 13 service members who were killed in the Kabul airport attack. 

He remarked on the 2,461 lives lost across the 20-year conflict and commemorated the bravery of those who served, but did not offer any insight on his views of the war.

DailyMail.com has reached out to the White House for comment.