Two congressmen traveled to Afghanistan amid frantic evacuation efforts
CNN
Two US congressmen on Tuesday made an unannounced visit to Afghanistan as the US races to evacuate as many people as possible from the country in the remaining days of the US military presence there, taking Democratic leadership by surprise and drawing swift criticism.
Reps. Seth Moulton, a Democrat from Massachusetts, and Peter Meijer, a Republican from Michigan, said in a joint statement Tuesday that they had traveled to Kabul "to conduct oversight on the mission to evacuate Americans and our allies" and that the trip had been conducted in secret "to minimize the risk and disruption to the people on the ground." "As members of Congress, we have a duty to provide oversight on the executive branch," said Moulton and Meijer, both military veterans who had served in the Middle East. The pair said they had traveled to Afghanistan "on a plane with empty seats, seated in crew-only seats to ensure that nobody who needed a seat would lose one because of our presence."
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