GOP Members of Congress Hire Former CNN Reporter to Lead Investigation into Afghan Withdrawal

Republican members of Congress reportedly have hired a former CNN reporter to lead an investigation into the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The GOP side of the House Foreign Affairs Committee has brought on Ryan Browne, reported Politico on Tuesday.

The news comes a day after Secretary of State Antony Blinken virtually appeared before the committee in what was a hearing full of fireworks over the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan that ended on Aug. 31. While the Democratic side defended the administration, the GOP side slammed Blinken as a couple of its members, Reps. Lee Zeldin (R-NY) and Brian Mast (R-FL) told the nation’s top diplomat he should resign.

Browne previously served as the director of international security studies at the Center for the Study of the Presidency and Congress. In that role, according to Politico, he examined NATO’s role in Afghanistan. Browne was an embedded U.S. Army contractor advisor to the Afghan National Army from 2011 to 2013 and served as a national security reporter for CNN from December 2015 until this past January.

“It is crucial we discover what led to the chaos of the emergency evacuation, and examine the administration’s failed efforts to evacuate all American citizens, green card holders, local allies and other vulnerable Afghans fearing reprisals from the Taliban,” Browne said, in a statement published by Politico.