{"database": "press", "table": "releases", "rows": [["https://bice.house.gov/media/press-releases/bice-demands-answers-disastrous-afghanistan-withdrawal", "Bice Demands Answers for Disastrous Afghanistan Withdrawal", "2021-09-29", "2021", "2021-09", "Republican", "House", "OK", "Stephanie I. Bice", "B000740", "bice.house.gov", "bice", "https://bice.house.gov/media/press-releases", "scraper", "Washington, D.C. \u2013 Representative Stephanie Bice, a member of the House Armed Services Committee (HASC), today questioned Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mark Milley, and General Kenneth McKenzie, Commander of U.S. Central Command, on the Biden Administration\u2019s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.\n\n\u201cAmericans deserve to know the reasons for the catastrophic withdrawal from Afghanistan and today\u2019s hearings were an opportunity to demand answers for the complete failure of President Biden\u2019s actions,\u201d Bice said. \u201cWe must also hold the intelligence community accountable for their role in this situation and discover if a failure to provide accurate or timely information played a part.\u201d\n\nBice began her line of questioning by discussing the numerous calls from her constituents, including members of the military, veterans and their families, who expressed outrage at the failed withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the abandonment of Afghan allies and American Citizens.\n\n\u201cI, too, am deeply outraged and have been equally stunned by the lack of leadership shown by President Biden throughout all of this. The American people deserve to have a full accounting of the President\u2019s decision making processes and what ultimately led to this disastrous outcome,\u201d Bice said.\n\nBice then pressed the witnesses on the decision to use the Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA) instead of Bagram Air Base to evacuate American citizens.\n\n\u201cDuring the Senate testimony yesterday, Gen. Austin, you said the choice to abandon Bagram was made carefully based on the mission to protect the embassy. What aspect of security at HKIA made it more secure than Bagram? And following that you mentioned in your opening statement that Bagram had little strategic value. If could elaborate on those please,\u201d Bice asked.\n\n\u201c\u2026In the event of an evacuation, we would have to start with evacuating the embassy first, and so Kabul makes all, it provides everything you need to be able to do that,\u201d Austin answered.\n\nBice further questioned Austin and the other witnesses about the level of trust they have with the information being provided by the intelligence community.", 1, "2026-03-30T01:40:41Z", "2026-04-06T20:17:01Z"]], "columns": ["url", "title", "date", "year", "month", "party", "chamber", "state", "member_name", "bioguide_id", "domain", "scraper", "source", "date_source", "text", "has_text", "collected_at", "updated_at"], "primary_keys": ["url"], "primary_key_values": ["https://bice.house.gov/media/press-releases/bice-demands-answers-disastrous-afghanistan-withdrawal"], "units": {}, "query_ms": 1.0298551060259342, "source": "dwillis/congress-press", "source_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press", "license": "MIT", "license_url": "https://github.com/dwillis/congress-press/blob/main/LICENSE"}