House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul said he will continue investigating the Biden administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan in the name of “justice” for Gold Star families.
McCaul, R-Texas, vowed to continue his panel’s probe after it was revealed that the Taliban killed the ISIS-K terrorist who directed the August 2021 suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members during the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, discusses President Bidens policies on energy, the economy and border security on “The Faulkner Focus.” (Fox News)
“Any time a terrorist is taken off the board is a good day,” McCaul told Fox News Digital. “But this doesn’t diminish the Biden administration’s culpability for the failures that led to the attack at Abbey Gate, and will in no way deter the committee’s investigation.”
McCaul added, “I will not sleep until every stone is unturned and these Gold Star families have answers—and justice.”
Evacuees wait to board a Boeing C-17 Globemaster III during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport, Kabul, Afghanistan, Aug. 23. (U.S. Marine Corps photo by Sgt. Isaiah Campbell)
FLASHBACK: 13 US SERVICE MEMBERS KILLED IN KABUL AIRPORT BLAST, MORE WOUNDED, OFFICIALS SAY
“Regardless of who carried out the operation, the fact that this result was achieved, and this person who’s had American blood on his hands is himself no longer on the battlefield and able to perpetrate further violence, we think that is a development worth communicating to grieving families,” a senior administration official told Fox News Digital. “We think it’s a development worth conveying to the world. And we think it’s important, frankly, a development as the world continues to seek to degrade ISIS-K and any threat it might try to pose.”
Sgt. Nicole Gee at the Hamid Karzai International Airport escorting evacuees onto a plane on Aug. 22, 2021. (Sgt. Nicole Gee)
However, the father of Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover, 31, a U.S. Marine from Utah killed in the attack, who was notified by the government of the development Tuesday, said the Biden administration needs to be held accountable.
“To me, it feels like it’s a victory lap for them, for the administration – that the Afghanistan debacle is over and done with, we’ve taken out the main planner, or the Taliban’s taken out the main planner, and this whole thing can be put behind us,” Darin Hoover told Fox News Digital. “Well, bullcrap. No, that doesn’t sit well with me.”
Hoover added, “The administration needs to take accountability and responsibility for what happened.”
