The Republican Congressman from Oklahoma who secretly went into Afghanistan after the botched American withdrawal in August to get citizens left behind out, told Newsmax that officials in the administration of President Joe Biden "tried to have me killed" by publicly releasing information that he was "lost" in that country with cash.
"[Our team] never went over there for publicity; we were not going to put out any news out; we were not even going to talk about it," Rep. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., said during "Greg Kelly Reports" on Friday. "The administration released information saying that we were lost in Afghanistan with a bag of cash."
Mullin said up until that time said he purposely grew a beard for the mission to conceal who he was because there were no photos of him with facial hair that could be recognized.
"[The administration] put a picture out, with my face, with a beard, and said we were lost in Afghanistan with a bag of cash," he said. "We were 'dark' for a while because we had been working with the U.S. State Department until this point."
He said at that time, the group was working to get a 3-year-old girl, with a "severe leg infection" out of the country.
He said the girl, unfortunately, died during the efforts to get her out.
Once he was able to reestablish communications with his office, he was told that the state department was going to put out the information, which he said not to do because it would jeopardize the safety of himself and the team.
"[My communication director] called me back in five minutes and said they were releasing it anyway," he said. "I saw my face come across Al-Jazeera [television] as a member of Congress, lost in Afghanistan with a bag of cash. How would you interpret that?"
Mullin said that nothing has happened since his return and that House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, R- Calif., promised him there will be an investigation into the incident once Republicans take back the majority in the House in November.
"When we talked to the intelligence community, they said they knew nothing about it," he said. "This was a call from, I think, Secretary of State [Antony] Blinken."
Mullin said that he doesn't know if President Biden had any knowledge of the incident or the decision by his administration to release the information.
"I doubt [the president] knew, he said. "But Secretary Blinken 100% knew, and they were trying to silence us."
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