House Republicans advance contempt charges against Secretary Blinken over Afghanistan testimony

WASHINGTON (AP) —

Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday advanced contempt of Congress charges against Secretary of State Antony Blinken following a contentious back-and-forth with the Cabinet secretary over an appearance to testify on the chaotic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The 26-25 party-line vote was just the latest friction point between the GOP and the State Department this Congress. Republicans have worked for the last 18 months to hold the Biden administration accountable for what they have called a “stunning failure of leadership” after Taliban forces seized the Afghan capital in August 2021.

“Rather than take accountability for this, the secretary hides from the American people. He would prefer to hide rather than be before this committee today,” said Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the chairman of the committee. “The Secretary’s willful indifference has brought us to this moment.”

The resolution now moves to the full House, which could vote to hold Blinken in contempt of Congress and refer the matter to the Justice Department.

Blinken, in a letter to McCaul, said that he was “profoundly disappointed” in the chairman's decision to advance contempt proceedings and urged him to find a resolution in “good faith.”

"As I have made clear, I am willing to testify and have offered several reasonable alternatives to the dates unilaterally demanded by the Committee during which I am carrying out the President’s important foreign policy objectives,” Blinken wrote in a Sunday letter.

McCaul defended his decision Tuesday, saying that he had “patiently asked for and waited” on Blinken's availability and that the department has been “disingenuous” because it had declined repeated requests to pick a date in September for Blinken to testify.

McCaul had first set a hearing for Blinken to testify last Thursday, while the secretary was in Egypt and France. He then changed the date to Tuesday, when Blinken was at the annual U.N. General Assembly gathering of world leaders in New York and attending President Joe Biden ’s speech at the time of the hearing.

As all secretaries of state have in the past, Blinken will spend the entire week in New York holding dozens of meetings with his counterparts on a variety of issues but this year with a focus on the Mideast situation and the Ukraine-Russia conflict.

Democrats on the committee blasted Republicans' contempt efforts as purely partisan, noting it’s taking place less than two months before a presidential election.

“It’s not difficult for the American people to see this for what it is: political theater,” New York Rep. Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the committee, said in an opening statement. “Another attempt to put another senior Biden administration official name into negative headlines.”

Former President Donald Trump has repeatedly brought up the disastrous exit from Afghanistan in the campaign, trying to link it to his Democratic rival, Vice President Kamala Harris. Several watchdog reviews and a more than 18-month investigation by House Republicans have failed to pinpoint an instance where Harris had a particular impact on decision-making on the withdrawal.

Blinken has testified about Afghanistan 14 times, including four times before McCaul’s committee.

Miller said Blinken was willing to testify again if a mutually convenient time could be arranged but noted that Congress will be in recess from the end of this week until after the November election.

Earlier this month, House Republicans issued a scathing report on their investigation into the withdrawal, blaming the disastrous end of America’s longest war on the Biden administration while minimizing Trump’s role.

The partisan review laid out the final months of military and civilian failures, following Trump’s February 2020 withdrawal deal, which allowed the Taliban to conquer the country even before the last U.S. officials flew out on Aug. 30, 2021. The chaotic exit left behind many American citizens, Afghan battlefield allies, female activists and others at risk from the Taliban.

Rep. Greg Stanton, D-Ariz., attends a House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing "An Assessment of the State Departments Withdrawal from Afghanistan by Americas Top Diplomat," on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

House Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, presides over a House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing "An Assessment of the State Departments Withdrawal from Afghanistan by Americas Top Diplomat," on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

House Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, left, listens while House Committee on Foreign Affairs Ranking Member Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., right, speaks during a House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing "An Assessment of the State Departments Withdrawal from Afghanistan by Americas Top Diplomat," on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

House Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, presides over a House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing "An Assessment of the State Departments Withdrawal from Afghanistan by Americas Top Diplomat," on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

House Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, presides over a House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing "An Assessment of the State Departments Withdrawal from Afghanistan by Americas Top Diplomat," on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

House Committee on Foreign Affairs Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, presides over a House Committee on Foreign Affairs hearing "An Assessment of the State Departments Withdrawal from Afghanistan by Americas Top Diplomat," on Capitol Hill, in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 24, 2024. (AP Photo/Rod Lamkey, Jr.)

ATLANTA (AP) — A new lawsuit seeks to overturn two provisions of a Georgia election law related to voter challenges.

The Georgia State Conference of the NAACP and the Georgia Coalition for the People's Agenda filed suit on Tuesday in federal court in Atlanta, arguing that a law passed earlier this year by lawmakers unfairly discriminates against homeless people and voters registered at nonresidential addresses.

A spokesperson for Georgia Attorney General Chris Carr, who would defend the suit, did not immediately respond to a request for comment Tuesday.

Part of Senate Bill 189, which took effect July 1, lets people file legal challenges to the eligibility of voters registered at nonresidential addresses. County election boards decide whether to reject the challenge or uphold it. Supporters of the law argue many people are incorrectly registered at business addresses or even in empty lots instead of where they live. That means someone may be voting in the wrong precinct and the wrong local government and state legislative elections.

Some voter challengers, for example, argue that no college student should be able to register to vote at their college dormitory because they don’t intend to live there indefinitely, even though voting officials disagree and allowing students to register at college has long been the practice.

Those opposing the law argue that college dormitories, senior and nursing facilities and homeless shelters may be zoned as nonresidential, saying there's no basis in state or federal law for challenging a voter solely because they provided a nonresidential address.

“Residing at a premises deemed to ‘residential’ in character is not required by the Georgia Constitution or any other Georgia law respecting voter eligibility in the state of Georgia,” the lawsuit states.

The plaintiffs also seek to overturn a separate section of the new law that takes effect Jan. 1 that governs where homeless people register. That section mandates that homeless people use their county's election office to receive election-related mail. That could, in some cases, mean long journeys for people to retrieve mail including absentee ballots and challenges to their eligibility. The lawsuit says the law is unfair because all other Georgia voters can receive mail at their address of choice, even if it's not where they reside.

The suit warns that it's unclear whether counties will hold mail for homeless people, that there isn't a special homeless category on voter registration forms, and that counties may unilaterally change mailing addresses for existing voters or reject new applications from homeless people who don't list the county office.

“Eligible voters who are unhoused, housing-insecure or otherwise living at a location with a nonstandard address — or no address at all — retain their right to vote regardless of the nature or status of their residence,” the suit states.

An Associated Press survey of Georgia’s 40 largest counties found more than 18,000 voters were challenged in 2023 and early 2024, although counties rejected most challenges. Hundreds of thousands more were challenged in 2020, 2021 and 2022.

Republican activists are challenging tens of thousands of Georgia voters as part of a wide-ranging national effort coordinated by Donald Trump’s allies to take names off voting rolls. Most of the people they are targeting have moved away from their old addresses, and the activists argue that letting those names stay on the rolls invites fraud. But Democrats and liberal voting rights activists argue Republicans are challenging voters either to remove Democrats or to sow doubt about the accuracy of elections in advance of 2024 presidential voting.

FILE - Voters depart an election center during primary voting, Tuesday, May 21, 2024, in Kennesaw, Ga. (AP Photo/Mike Stewart, File)