Category: All

CNN
 — 

Pentagon officials have held multiple high-level meetings in recent months in preparation for a barrage of Republican-led House investigations into issues varying from the US withdrawal from Afghanistan withdrawal to what conservative lawmakers have deemed “woke” military policies, according to a senior defense official.

House Republicans have long signaled their intent to launch a series of probes if and when they gained the majority. Some of those priorities were flagged by Republicans on the House Judiciary Committee in November last year, when they released a 1,000 page report on what they said was the politicization of the Justice Department and FBI, complete with dozens of letters sent to various government officials – current and former – detailing inquiries about various DOJ and FBI investigations.

After finally winning a protracted battle to be named House speaker in the early hours of Saturday, Rep. Kevin McCarthy suggested the Pentagon would come under scrutiny.

“We will hold the swamp accountable, from the withdrawal of Afghanistan, to the origins of covid and to the weaponization of the FBI,” McCarthy said.

Pentagon leaders are well aware that the investigations could begin soon after House members are sworn in.

Asked about the potential probes on Thursday, Pentagon spokesman Brig. Gen. Patrick Ryder said that the Defense Department “respects Congress’s important oversight role and as always will continue to work closely with Congress and respond appropriately to legitimate congressional inquiries.”

The Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan has been a top investigative target for Republicans since its chaotic conclusion in August 2021, underscored by the killing of 13 US service members at Kabul’s international airport in the closing days of America’s longest war.

A series of key decisions including the early closure of Bagram Air Base, a perceived lack of security at Hamid Karzai International Airport, the evacuation of the US embassy in Kabul, relations with the Taliban – will likely be examined in an investigation that goes beyond the Defense Department to the State Department and the White House.

Texas Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, who is slated to take over as the House Foreign Affairs Committee chairman, told CNN on Thursday that the Republican majority will “continue to demand answers to why the withdrawal from Afghanistan was such a disaster.”

“The American people deserve transparency from this administration,” McCaul said, “especially when it comes to national security, and we will work to deliver that to them.”

Led by McCaul, Republicans on the committee prepared their own investigation into the withdrawal, released one year after the fall of Kabul. The report, which has yet to be released in its entirety, alleges a severe shortage of State Department personnel at the Kabul airport to process Afghan evacuees.

But the Defense Department has faced questions about Afghanistan already, albeit from a friendly Democratic House that faced criticism for not digging deep enough. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley have testified to Congress about the withdrawal, as has former commander of Central Command, Gen. Frank McKenzie, who openly said that he opposed a complete withdrawal.

Now it will be re-litigated by more hostile GOP-led House committees.

The White House is likely to stick to its position that the withdrawal from Afghanistan was the only feasible option after the Trump administration signed the Doha Agreement with the Taliban a year earlier. Administration members maintain that if the US had stayed longer it would have violated the agreement and would have invited attacks from a resurgent Taliban and other militant organizations.

Republicans may also investigate the effectiveness of the military’s so-called over-the-horizon options in Afghanistan, which officials promised would be a way of tracking and, if necessary, striking terrorist organizations.

FBI Director Christopher Wray said this summer that he was “worried about the potential loss of sources and collection over there.” Some intelligence officials have derided the over-the-horizon strategy as “over-the-rainbow.”

The Biden administration can point to the precision strike that killed al-Qaeda leader Ayman al-Zawahiri in downtown Kabul in August as proof of the viability of the over-the-horizon strategy. But tracking one high-value target is far different than tracking the growth of al-Qaeda throughout the country, and the Republicans may seize on that gap.

Republicans have promised to focus on so-called “woke” initiatives and policies in the military, to include diversity and inclusion efforts and service academy literature and discussions.

The military has at times struggled to find its footing in how best to confront complaints over “wokeness”, as the institution attempts to stay out of politics. That was put on display in October when Army Secretary Christine Wormuth addressed the complaints at the annual Association of the US Army meeting in Washington, DC, saying that the Army had to stay “out of the culture wars” because “we have got to be able to have a broad appeal.”

“When only 9% of kids are interested in serving, we have got to make sure that we are careful about not alienating wide swaths of the American public to the Army,” Wormuth said.

But staying out of the conversation has become increasingly difficult as lawmakers and media pundits alike have pushed officials to respond.

Republican lawmakers have grilled defense officials including Austin and Milley on policies on diversity and inclusion, saying they are negatively impacting retention and recruitment and interfering with the military’s focus on the defense of the nation. Pentagon leaders have rejected that argument as a distraction from the military’s primary function, however, and have not cited “wokeness” as one of the main challenges to recruiting.

Wormuth and Chief of Staff Gen. James McConville, for example, said in a July memo last year that the recruiting shortage – most severe for the Army – was due to a declining number of young Americans who are qualified to serve, Covid-19-related education restraints, and a lack of trust in American institutions.

And in March 2021, Fox News’ Tucker Carlson was rebuked by military officials after mocking women in uniform during his show. Carlson complained that new uniforms meant to fit women properly and updated hair standards made “a mockery of the US military.” Service leaders and Pentagon officials alike pushed back on the rhetoric, pointing instead to honorable service of women around the military.

“They are beacons of freedom and they prove Carlson wrong through determination and dedication,” tweeted Gen. Paul Funk, head of the Army Training and Doctrine Command. “We are fortunate they serve with us.”

The tension over the topic of wokeness in the military resulted in a heated exchange between Milley and Republican lawmakers in 2021, after he was questioned about “critical race theory.” Milley said it was “offensive that we are accusing the United States military, our general officers, our non-commissioned officers of being ‘woke’ or something else because we’re studying some theories that are out there.”

Milley discussed his frustrations with lawmakers’ politicization of the military while being interviewed by the House January 6 Committee. According to the transcript of his interview, Milley acknowledged that he has “become a lightning rod for the politicization of the military,” along with several other senior military officials.

“Some of it is comments that I made in testimony about critical race theory and white rage. You know, so 90 seconds with Congressmen Gaetz and Waltz result in, you know, four, five, six months of this constant drumbeat that is very damaging, in my view, personally, to the health of the Republic, because there is a deliberate attempt, in my view, to smear the general officer corps and the leaders of the military and to politicize the military, for whatever reasons that they think that that’s valuable.”

Republican Rep. Michael Waltz, a member of the House Armed Services Committee, told Politico in November that the Biden administration is pushing a “progressive, socially-driven agenda that is being forced on the military” and that lawmakers will “provide oversight” and “legislate it.”

And just two months earlier, Rep. Mike Gallagher of Wisconsin, ranking member of the House Armed Services Subcommittee on Military Personnel, said in a statement that Republicans would “expose” diversity and inclusion ideology at the military service academies.

“I guarantee you,” Gallagher said, “when Congress is controlled by Republicans, as it will be in the new year, we’re going to push back on this and expose this ideology for the distraction from war fighting that it is.”

Republicans have promised a harder line on US aid to Ukraine, questioning the large amount and the ability of the administration to effectively oversee the massive quantities of weapons and equipment flowing to Kyiv. Since the start of the war, the administration has given more than $24 billion in aid to Ukraine, including the largest ever package of $2.85 billion announced Friday.

In October, before it was clear Republicans had taken control of the House, Rep. Kevin McCarthy vowed there would be no “blank check” for Ukraine. Last month, McCaul, who supports ongoing weapons shipments and aid to Ukraine, said there was still a need for “oversight and accountability.”

But some House Republicans have taken a far harder line on Ukraine, vowing to oppose the high-value weapons packages the Biden administration has been sending.

The Defense Department has a small group of personnel in Kyiv under who carry out inspections of weapons and equipment provided to Ukraine. Though the team cannot visit the volatile front lines, the Pentagon says it has seen no indication that US weapons have been siphoned away from Ukrainian forces and ended up on the black market or elsewhere.

“We have no indication that there has been any type of illicit spread,” said Pentagon press secretary Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder in November.

The $40 billion Ukraine aid package passed in May also contained requirements for oversight of weapons shipments, including from the DoD Inspector General. The package also requires periodic reports from the Secretary of Defense and the Secretary of State to the oversight committees. Last month, the omnibus spending bill dedicated $6 million for oversight and inspections.

The larger and more expensive systems, such as the HIMARS rocket launchers, are easier to track on the battlefield. All of them remain in service and accounted for, according to a defense official. More difficult to track are the lower-cost, high-volume items the US has sent, such as small arms and ammunition or thousands of Javelin anti-tank missiles and Stinger shoulder-launched anti-aircraft missiles.

While lawmakers at times included the military’s Covid-19 vaccine mandate in their criticisms of “woke” initiatives and policies, the fight over that particular complaint appears settled as the requirement was repealed in the new National Defense Authorization Act.

Republicans have said that the vaccine mandate had a negative impact on recruitment, which was a significant challenge for the services last year. Marine Corps Commandant Gen. David Berger also said in December that there are “still myths and misbeliefs about the backstory” of the vaccine, which was impacting recruitment in “parts of the country.”

However, a Marine Corps spokesman later clarified that Berger was not referencing specific data, and Austin said at a press conference that he has not “seen any hard data that directly links the Covid mandate to an effort on our recruiting.”

It’s unclear what lawmakers would investigate in regards to the mandate, though Indiana Republican Rep. Jim Banks, chairman of the Republican Study Committee, told Military.com last year that “[cleaning] up the mess the administration has made with the excessive and dangerous Covid mandates on our troops” would be one of Republicans’ “very top priorities.”

CNN
 — 

President Joe Biden visited the US-Mexico border on Sunday for the first time as president, but he did not appear to see or meet with migrants, including during a trip to a migrant respite center.

Biden spent several hours in El Paso in his first visit to the southern border as president, following growing outcry and criticism that he had not yet seen the crisis created by the record number of migrants trekking to the border first hand. But that brief visit appeared largely focused on enforcement issues and speaking with border enforcement personnel. Reporters on the ground did not see any migrants at the respite center during the president’s visit there, nor along the motorcade routes throughout the afternoon.

Asked to explain the thinking behind having Biden visit this specific center and ultimately not meeting or interacting with any migrants there, a senior administration official told CNN, “There just weren’t any at the center when he arrived. Completely coincidental. They haven’t had any today.”

Biden’s visit was scheduled at a time when border crossings had already dropped drastically in El Paso. Still, CNN’s Rosa Flores reported on Sunday that hundreds of migrants, including children, were living on the street after crossing into the United States in El Paso. And nearly 1,000 additional migrants were in federal custody in detention facilities in El Paso on Sunday, according to the City of El Paso’s migrant dashboard.

The trip came following relentless calls from Republicans who believe the trip is overdue. In addition to Republicans, some border-district Democrats in Congress and even Democratic mayors have criticized Biden for failing to address record levels of border crossings.

Upon arriving, the president’s motorcade drove along a highway that parallels the Rio Grande and the border. An iron-slatted fence with barbed wire at the top was to the left as the motorcade went down the highway. At a quick stop, Biden stood for several minutes along the iron fence separating the US and Mexico as he spoke with officers in green uniforms. The group then walked along the gravel road that abuts the fence. Biden responded to a few questions from reporters, saying that the government would provide every resource needed at the border.

He then visited a migrant processing center, where he did not appear to meet with any migrants, but did discuss the work underway there with several different workers from that facility.

Biden shook each person’s hand and chatted quietly but reporters were unable to hear the exchange. Biden then observed kits containing socks, toothpaste and soap that are given to migrants. He asked if he could wave a wand to help the organizations, what they would look for and the answer appeared to be funding, but reporters covering the visit had trouble hearing him.

With his visit to El Paso, Texas, on Sunday, Biden seized on an issue that’s been a political liability for his administration after calling on Congress to overhaul the US immigration system to meet current needs.

But the patchwork of policies put in place by the administration to manage the border so far has often put Biden at odds with his own allies who argue that the administration’s approach is too enforcement heavy.

“It’s enraging and sad to see a Democratic administration make it harder for vulnerable people to seek asylum all because they’re scared of angry MAGA voters on this issue,” a member of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus told CNN, responding to the latest policy announcements.

The president’s flight was met by Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, a persistent critic of Biden and his administration for the federal response to migration on the US southern border. The Republican governor confirmed to reporters that he gave Biden a letter outlining what he described as “chaos” on the border.

The letter, which has been published online by the governor’s office, reiterates Abbott’s previous criticisms, urges Biden to visit other border communities and includes five steps the Texas governor believes the Biden administration should take. CNN has reached out to the White House for comment on the letter. Biden told reporters he had not yet read the letter.

Escobar, who represents El Paso, insisted that Biden’s visit to the city would not serve solely as a photo opportunity for the president.

“We’ve worked with the White House to make sure that all the folks who are actually doing the work on the ground day-to-day are the ones that the president will meet with,” she said in an interview on CBS’ “Face the Nation” on Sunday. “He needs to hear about how over time, the challenges that we have faced as a country on immigration, on border issues, they have grown exponentially.”

She blamed the Trump-era public health rule known as Title 42 for the rise in border crossings. The restriction allows federal authorities to expel migrants quickly, citing the Covid-19 pandemic.

Escobar predicted, based on her conversations with Department of Homeland Security officials, that the administration would eventually move toward the move punitive Title 8, which allows US authorities to process and remove migrants who do not have a legal basis to be in the country.

“All of these executive branch efforts really are just temporary Band-Aids. Whether it’s Title 8, whether it’s Title 42, we need to make sure Congress acts,” she said. “The administration, in the absence of any legislation from the Congress, has very few tools available.”

Mass movement across the Western Hemisphere has posed an urgent challenge for Biden, who in his first few months in office faced a surge of unaccompanied migrant children at the border and later, the abrupt arrival of thousands of Haitian migrants.

Since 2021, there have been more than 2.4 million arrests along the US-Mexico border, according to US Customs and Border Protection data. That includes people who have attempted to cross more than once. Many have also been turned away under Title 42.

The arrival of thousands of migrants has strained border communities, including El Paso. The city has prided itself on being a welcoming place for migrants but has been overwhelmed in recent months with the sudden arrival of thousands of migrants, straining local resources and prompting pleas for federal assistance.

Anxiety about the scheduled end of Title 42 prompted thousands of migrants in recent weeks to turn themselves in to border authorities or to cross into the United States illegally in a very short period.

The policy was scheduled to lift last month, but a Supreme Court ruling kept the rule in place while legal challenges play out in court.

Federal data shared with CNN indicates that migrant encounters in El Paso have dropped drastically since December, when thousands crossed on a daily basis.

There have been less than 700 daily encounters on average over the last few days, compared to nearly 2,500 at its peak in December, according to the Department of Homeland Security.

DHS said it deployed 100 additional personnel to the El Paso region in December, and this week, the department will open another temporary facility to process migrants. Shelters in Juarez, Mexico, just across the border from El Paso, have also seen a decrease in migrants, DHS said.

Biden has said he wanted to wait until he knew an outcome in the Title 42 legal machinations before traveling to the border and accused Republicans calling for him to travel there of playing political games.

“They haven’t been serious about this at all,” he said.

El Paso has been at the center of the immigration debate dating back to the Trump administration, which piloted the controversial family separation policy in the region.

While Biden has condemned Trump-era immigration policies, his own administration has wrestled with striking a balance between enforcement and holding up its humanitarian promises.

In El Paso, Biden was faced with the history of his predecessor and the challenges he faces as the administration tries to stem the flow of mass migration in the hemisphere.

In recent months, the El Paso sector has surpassed the Rio Grande Valley sector in migrant arrests. RGV has historically been one of the busiest sectors for border crossings. The El Paso sector patrols 268 miles of international border.

Last November, border authorities encountered more than 53,000 migrants in the El Paso sector, according to the latest available data from US Customs and Border Protection.

Last year, El Paso – whose mayor, Leeser, is a Democrat – began sending migrant buses to New York City, following in the footsteps of Republican governors, to try to get people to their destination and decongest the city. That effort has since stopped.

Ahead of Biden’s border visit, the administration also announced plans to expand the policy and include Haitians, Nicaraguans and Cubans while it remains in place. Title 42 has so far largely applied to migrants from Mexico, Guatemala, El Salvador, Honduras and Venezuela.

The announcements Biden made Thursday reflect the administration’s effort to prepare for the end of Title 42, along with putting in place programs to manage the surge of migrants that have coincided with the anticipated end of the rule.

The administration will now accept up to 30,000 migrants per month from Nicaragua, Cuba, Haiti, and Venezuela under a humanitarian parole program geared toward those nationalities. Those who do not come to the US under that program may be expelled to Mexico under Title 42.

The announcement drew criticism from immigrant advocates and Democrats who argued the policies will put migrants who are seeking asylum in harm’s way.

“The expansion of Title 42 to include Cubans, Haitians, and Nicaraguans is a broken promise,” said Dylan Corbett, executive director of Hope Border Institute, in a statement. Hope Border Institute has been assisting migrants who have arrived in El Paso.

“Border communities will continue to work hard to pick up the broken pieces of our nation’s immigration system and show that our future lies not with expulsion and deportation, but with humanity and hope,” he added.

Members of the Congressional Hispanic Caucus grilled top Biden officials, including Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas, over the newly announced border policies in a call Thursday, according to two sources in attendance.

Members felt blindsided by the new policies and frustrated with the lack of engagement prior to their rollout, the sources said.

“It was really heated,” one source said, adding that members were “livid” that the administration didn’t consult with them ahead of time. The call included officials with the Department of Homeland Security and the White House.

One of the sources of tension during the call was a new asylum regulation that could bar migrants who are seeking asylum in the United States from doing so if they passed through another country on their way to the US-Mexico border. The restrictions are reminiscent of limits rolled out during the Trump administration, though officials have rejected the comparison.

This story has been updated with additional information.