House Democrats have weighed in on President Joe Biden’s Afghanistan evacuation plan following a series of national security briefings and several high profile Members of Congress — including one of President Donald Trump’s harshest critics, Rep. Adam Schiff (D-CA) — are demanding that the Biden administration keep American forces in Afghanistan past President Joe Biden’s self-imposed August 31st timeline or risk leaving Americans behind.
Schiff spoke about the situation yesterday after receiving a classified briefing and had little good to say about the Biden administration’s plan.
“I think it’s possible but I think it’s very unlikely given the number of Americans who still need to be evacuated,” Schiff said Monday, about the timeline for evacuations, which must end in a week. “It’s hard for me to imagine that all of that can be accomplished between now and the end of the month.”
Unlike President Biden, Schiff, a Democrat, noted the potential need to keep an American presence in Afghanistan for some time.
“I am encouraged to see the numbers of people evacuated increasing readily to the point where we evacuated 11,000 people in a single day. Nonetheless given the logistical difficulties of moving people to the airport and the limited number of workarounds it’s hard for me to see that could be fully complete by the end of the month,” Schiff told reporters. “I’m certainly of the view that we maintain a military presence for as long as is necessary to get all U.S. persons out and to meet our moral and ethical obligations to our Afghan partners.”
Overnight, the Biden administration touted thousands more evacuations, but a leaked State Department cable that surfaced on Tuesday indicated that most of those evacuations were of Afghans, not Americans. Since evacuations began, fewer than 5,000 Americans have been pulled out through the Kabul airport, though the Biden administration estimates that there are between 10,000 and 15,000 American citizens in Afghanistan.
NEW: Leaked State cable with evacuation numbers (as of Aug 23 at 1500 ET):
Total manifested since midnight Kabul AUG 23: 483 AMCITS, 6,425 Afghans natls, 8 3rd country/unknown. Total = 6,916
Total manifested since op began: 4,407 AMCITS, 21,533 Afghans, 642 TCNs. Total = 26,582
— Alex Ward (@alexbward) August 24, 2021
Rep. Jason Crow (D-CO) said Tuesday, following a separate classified briefing that “it is not possible for us to evacuate all American citizens and our Afghan partners and their families by the end of the month.”
He also said that he would pressure the Biden administration to extend their deadline, regardless of Taliban cooperation.
Rep. Adam Smith (D-WA), the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, expressed more optimism than his colleagues, telling reporters that evacuations from Kabul were “much better, flowing effort at this point.”
He, too, though, would not commit to abiding by the Biden administration’s strict, self-imposed withdrawal timeline. “I’m very confident we will get as many as it is possible to get out,” he said.
Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee (D-TX) also said she was already pressing the Biden administration to be more flexible.
“I already sent a letter to the president asking for that time to be extended,” she said. “I have not changed my opinion.”
It is not clear what the Biden administration’s plan is if there are remaining Americans in Afghanistan on September 1st. The administration has refused to comment on the matter, saying only that they will stick to the August 31st deadline.