GOP Rep. Mullin Accuses State Dept. of Trying to Sabotage Rescue of American Family: They ‘Actually Told the Embassy and the Country Not to Assist Us’

Congressman Markwayne Mullin (R-OK) bashed the State Department by accusing them of politically profiting off of his efforts to evacuate people from Afghanistan by land after first refusing to help him.

Mullin has drawn a great deal of media attention lately due to his attempts last month to fly into Afghanistan and assist people fleeing the country over the Taliban’s takeover. The congressman is disputing reports claiming that he “threatened” the U.S. embassy in Tajikistan into helping him, and he has defended himself from those who criticized his trip as a risky show of political grandstanding.

CNN’s Brianna Keilar spoke to Mullin Tuesday on New Day, where she focused on the State Department’s claim that they just got an American woman and her three children out of Afghanistan. This is supposedly the first time that Americans have been able to leave the country by a land route since the Taliban seized control.

Mullin began by describing how he received a request for help from the woman, so he worked with a non-profit to try flying into Kabul and rescuing her family. He said that as he tried to enter Afghanistan, “We started getting all types of pushback from the State Department, and so we found ourselves not being able to get her out through the Kabul international airport.”

Even though we had her at the gate multiple times, multiple times we were on the phone with the State Department over the last two weeks trying to get her out, and they wouldn’t even open a gate for us…So when the administration says that every American that wanted out could get out, that’s an absolute lie. We’re working with 27 American citizens right now that I assure you all of them wanted out, and we couldn’t get them out.

Keilar asked Mullin to clarify that he was disputing the State Department’s claim that they facilitated the safe departure of these four U.S. citizens overland. Mullin responded by saying the woman and her family were being processed through checkpoints while the State Department was telling him they would not be providing assistance.

“We had her there for 24 hours before the State Department was even aware she was there. They didn’t show up until a few hours after we got her across, so for them to say they facilitated it, that’s a lie.” Mullin said.

The State Department actually told the embassy and the country not to assist us in any way…It was until the second day that we almost had her out that the State Department came in, and when they came in, they did come in to help, I’ll give you that. But for them to take credit and say they negotiated with the Taliban, our guys with the Sentinel Foundation walked across the bridge and was trying to negotiate with the Taliban. Not the State Department, our guys…When I see the State Department come out and try to take credit for this, it is absolutely a lie.

Mullin went on to dispute reports that he threatened the Tajikistan embassy staff. He also responded to the same criticisms Seth Moulton (D-MA) and Peter Meijer (R-MI) received for their Afghanistan trip.

Watch above, via CNN.