Congressman Who Went Missing After Attempt to Enter Afghanistan Announces He’s Returning Home

Rep. Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) announced Wednesday he was returning to the United States after an unsuccessful effort to covertly enter Afghanistan sparked worry among his colleagues and questions from reporters.

“I am heading home,” Mullin wrote in a post on social media. “Have we been helping to get Americans out of Afghanistan, yes. Is the mission continuing yes. Am I missing, no. Did I go dark for a little, yes because it wasn’t safe communicating.”

Mullin reportedly began his sojourn on Monday, calling the U.S. ambassador to Tajikistan with a request to help him smuggle cash into the country. He told the embassy he was planning to fly from Tblisi, Georgia, into Tajikistan, before moving into Afghanistan. It was second attempt in a month to make it to the country, which U.S. forces left on Monday.

Mullin, who was first elected to Congress in 2012, has never served in the military. His absence sparked questions from reporters this week for House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (R-CA), who ended a press conference on Tuesday without disclosing whether he held any knowledge of Mullins’ location or plans.

Rep. Seth Moulton (D-MA), a veteran who served in Iraq and who successfully traveled to Afghanistan with Rep. Peter Meijer (R-MI) in the week leading up to the U.S. military’s departure, said in an MSNBC interview just hours before Mullin’s announcement that he had been asking his “connections” about him because Moulton was “concerned” for his safety.

“I’ve been asking some of my friends and connections about him because I’m concerned for his safety,” Moulton said. “There’s a role for congressional oversight in these wars. There’s a role for us going forward. But we’ve obviously got to be very careful about how we conduct that oversight, especially in places like Afghanistan.”

Watch above via MSNBC.