Congressional Republicans will get the answers about the Biden administration's $64 million in humanitarian aid to the Taliban, Rep. Dan Meuser said on Newsmax Friday, pointing out that Secretary of State Antony Blinken told him during House testimony earlier this week that the United States wouldn't be sending cash.
"We need transparency here on how things are being managed, because, boy, oh boy, have they been mismanaged all along," the Pennsylvania Republican said on Newsmax's "National Report."
"One thing we can all agree on with Barack Obama is when he said never underestimate Joe's ability to screw things up."
The Republican Study Committee, the largest GOP caucus in Congress, this week demanded the Biden administration turn over documents about the humanitarian aid, saying the payments that are being made while U.S. citizens remain in Afghanistan amount to "ransom."
The committee says it intends to investigate if the money was given on the condition of the release of evacuation flights by the Taliban after it resumed control of Afghanistan.
"We're going to provide the oversight, the Republicans in Congress, and we're gonna hold their feet to the fire," said Meuser. "We've got to get answers for the American people, but more importantly, don't allow these terrible decisions to be made moving forward."
Meuser also on Friday accused the Biden administration of not taking the Afghanistan situation seriously, pointing to the fact that Blinken testified by video rather than in-person to the House Foreign Affairs Committee.
"What we got was a series of rationalizations congratulating themselves on what a wonderful evacuation they engaged in," said Meuser.
"You need to have an understanding of why things went wrong...there's no plan moving forward. We're not heightening our terrorist threat to our national security. We're not closing the southern border. You would think those would be strong or reasonable moves."
Further answers are needed from Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Mark Milley and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, particularly after reports about Milley's phone calls to his Chinese counterparts during the Trump administration, said Meuser.
He also commented about a recent Reuters poll showing Biden at a 44% approval rating, the lowest in his presidency.
"There's not a lot of accountability; there's not much responsibility," he said.
"They are trying to convince the American people they should be rewarded by being allocated $5 trillion of the taxpayers' money that they can spend how the Democrats, the extreme Democrat Party, how they see fit. We need to stop these terrible decisions from being made bring this transparency to light, and put controls over the high level of mismanagement that continues to take place."