Afghanistan crisis: Former CIA officer blasts Congressmen who made recent trip Afghanistan amidst withdrawal

So far, tens of thousands of Afghans and Americans have already been flown out of Afghanistan to US bases in other countries. Following reports of two Congressmen making a recent trip to the war-torn country, a former CIA officer blasted the lawmakers for making the journey as efforts for a withdrawal are still underway.

Speaking on CNN, former CIA officer Phil Mudd blasted Democratic Rep. Seth Moulton and Republican Rep. Peter Meijer, who made an unannounced trip to Afghanistan to assess the current situation of the withdrawal. The trip by the congressmen ended up with them leaving Kabul on the military plane. Moulton and Meijer’s trip faced backlash from many officials in the Biden administration, and now, Mudd has also criticized the move.

Mudd described the trip as “reprehensible” and said that if it were up to him, Moulton and Meijer would have their committee assignments stripped following their trip to Afghanistan as evacuations are ongoing. Mudd noted that US President Joe Biden has already said that the situation in Afghanistan is dangerous to the extent that the US military must leave. To note, both Moulton and Meijer are veterans and have criticized the Biden administration for its handling of the withdrawal.

“And by the way, ask them for the two seats they took out, for all their concerns about refugees, what happens to the two refugees who didn’t get those seats?” said Mudd. “What do you tell them? Last thing I’d say, evidently, from what I’ve read, whatever brilliant insight they’ve got, the slow start meant we could get fewer people out than we would have gotten out if we started fast. John, I can do oversight from Memphis and give you that. Reprehensible. They ought to go from their committees.”

Meanwhile, Democratic strategist James Carville echoed the comments of former Missouri Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill that there is no good way to leave a war. In his interview with Brian Williams, Carville said that the US lost the war in Afghanistan 15 years ago already. Carville also called out the media outlets for their coverage of the Afghanistan withdrawal as “hysterical” and noted that Biden has been against the war even prior to becoming president.