Former President Obama’s half brother is backing former President Trump for president and spoke to Fox News Digital about why he left the Democratic Party and why he believes Trump is ‘going to win’ in November.

‘I’m supporting President Trump. I’ve been a supporter, a supporter since 2016. I like him,’ Malik Obama told Fox News Digital on Monday. ‘I like the way he comes across. I like his demeanor. I like his straightforwardness. And I think he’s good for the country. And, he put the country back on course. Yes. I’m a Republican, so he’s my nominee.’

Malik and Barack are both sons of Barack Hussein Obama Sr. and Malik was the best man at Barack’s 1992 wedding, although the two have grown estranged since. 

‘The main thing is making America strong, you know, in the eyes of the world. And Trump is a strong person. He’s known for his mettle, his strength and I like that,’ Malik said. ‘He’s a no-nonsense guy. He’s a businessman, so he knows, you know, how to run a big organization. And the Democrats, I fell out with them because they’re hypocrites.’

Obama explained that the hypocrisy that made him leave the Democratic Party involved the way Democrats have treated Trump and Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign. 

‘They’ve been treating Mr. President Trump horribly,’ Obama said. ‘I’m not seeing anything like that in my life. You know, they’re going after him for, you know, going through tooth and nail. But using the judiciary to try to lock him up and keep him off the ballot, and I’ve not seen anything like that in my life. So the way they’re treating a former president of the United States of America is despicable to me.’

Obama said that in 2024 he believes ‘Democrats will be there doing the same thing they did in 2016.’

‘They did it with Hillary, Hillary Clinton, and they were lying. And, you know, they’re just hypocrites. And, you know, they’re not straightforward and OK, I was a Democrat at that time until, you know, they started lying and, about the emails and I saw through, you know, they’re, they’re trying to put Hillary Clinton through, by devious means,’ he continued. ‘And then Trump came out and called them out. He called them out straight to their face. And I like that. And a light bulb just came on from my head. And I just said, ‘Yeah, this is it.’ So I’ve been a big Trump follower since then.’

Obama also took issue with President Biden and the way his party handled transitioning to VP Harris.

‘Then you had Joe Biden, old man,’ Obama said. ‘He can’t even find the door even if you showed him, and he holds on until the last minute and he is the nominee. And all of a sudden, they drop off and they put Kamala Harris. Come on Harris. She’s like a joke. I see the way she behaves and everything, and I don’t think that she’s the right person. Maybe they should have decided to put Michelle Obama instead.’

Obama said his half brother Barack Obama and Harris are ‘cut from the same cloth’ and ‘wishy-washy,’ especially when it comes to abortion and immigration.

Going around, fooling around with biology and things like that,’ Obama said. ‘I think that is evil. But they stand for that. And I think that is abominable, you know, that they would go ahead and support such things. She’s talking about freedom of, what is it? What she’s talking about reproductive freedom and reproductive freedom is abortion. 

‘You know, giving somebody the right to go ahead and kill a baby,’ he added. ‘I don’t agree with it. I find it really abominable that they would do such a thing.’

‘Even the border issue with the immigration and illegal immigrants coming into the United States. It took me forever to get my children [through] and I came in legally to the United States. I had a green card. The papers were put through, and I went through the process, and I was a legal resident for a long time until I decided to become a U.S. citizen. And that also was a process. You have to go and file and apply and do the things you’re supposed to do,’ Obama continued. ‘And then, my children are now in the USA and had to go put in the papers for them and then legally. And then you got people coming in, illegals and being allowed to vote and things like that. And, and that to me is, you know, that’s a no no. I can’t stand for that. And I can’t support that kind of policy.’

Obama’s half-brother went on to tell Fox News Digital that he believes former President Obama is ‘fake’ and ‘did zilch’ for his family and that’s part of the reason Trump is so appealing in comparison, because he ‘doesn’t beat around the bush.’

‘Yeah, we’re going to win,’ Obama said about what his message to Trump would be. 

‘I just say President Trump, you’re going to win in November 2024,’ he concluded. ‘You’re going to win. And I think you’re going to win by a landslide because all the hype that’s going on with Kamala and she can’t even interview, and I’m waiting for tomorrow, and everybody’s going to see that she can’t interview. All she does is laugh and move.’

The State Department stood by the frenzied 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal in a new statement after House Foreign Affairs Republicans released a scathing 350-page report detailing dysfunction and a lack of planning leading up to the pullout. 

Republicans have ‘issued partisan statements, cherry-picked facts, withheld testimonies from the American people, and obfuscated the truth behind conjecture,’ according to a statement put out by a State Department spokesperson. 

The report, led by Foreign Affairs Chairman Mike McCaul, R-Texas, disputed Biden’s assertion that his hands were tied to the Doha agreement former President Donald Trump had made with the Taliban establishing a deadline for U.S. withdrawal for the summer of 2021, and laid much blame on a lack of planning by the State Department for getting Americans and allies out while there were still troops there to protect them. 

‘There are valid and important criticisms of the two-decade-long war in Afghanistan and how it concluded, which is why the Department has remained focused on evolving and growing from this moment, learning important lessons and making sustainable changes to crisis operations,’ the State Department statement said. 

‘The Department stands ready to work alongside any Member who expresses serious interest in finding legislative and administrative solutions. However, we will not stand by silently as the Department and its workforce are used to further partisan agendas.’

The department said the idea that they lacked a noncombatant evacuation operation (NEO) plan to close operations in Afghanistan is ‘one of the most persistent misunderstandings.’ 

The State Department did not initiate a NEO to begin removing U.S. personnel and American allies until Aug. 14, as the Taliban marched into Kabul, and one day before President Ashraf Ghani fled his country in a helicopter full of cash. 

There were not enough troops present to begin the NEO until Aug. 19.

The report lays blame on former Afghanistan Ambassador Ross Wilson, who instead of shrinking, increased the embassy’s presence as the security situation deteriorated – despite warnings from military officials. 

The statement noted that the U.S. had intended for the embassy in Kabul to remain open after the evacuation – ‘a decision Congress broadly supported.’ 

‘While U.S. military forces would end combat operations, Department personnel planned to operate out of Embassy Kabul to assist Americans and Afghan allies, coordinate diplomatic and development activity and investments, and help protect and advance U.S. national security interests after August 2021.’ 

The U.S. Embassy in Kabul closed officially on Aug. 31, 2021 and has not reopened since. 

The statement said that ‘executing the NEO before [August 15] would have signaled to the people of Afghanistan the U.S. had lost all confidence in the then-Afghan government and precipitated the very collapse we sought to avoid.’

Still, the department admitted it had no idea Afghanistan would fall to the Taliban so quickly. ‘Even the most pessimistic assessments did not predict the government forces in Kabul would collapse while U.S. forces remained.’

McCaul’s investigation found the State Department had been warned repeatedly about the Taliban takeover but refused to draw down its presence in the region. 

The department said it had been recommending Americans living in Afghanistan leave since March of that year.

‘In total, between March and August, the Department sent 19 unique messages with warnings to Americans living in Afghanistan to leave, as well as offers of help, including financial assistance to pay for plane tickets.’

Despite such efforts, nearly 6,000 Americans remained as Kabul fell, mostly dual citizens, prompting an evacuation effort of ‘unprecedented scope and scale.’ 

McCaul contends that the State Department left some 1,000 Americans in Afghanistan, but the State Department said it evacuated ‘almost all’ Americans by Aug. 31. 

The department said it helped another 500 U.S. citizens evacuate between Aug. 31 and the end of the year – and noted that it helped some 120,000 Americans, Afghans and third-country nationals flee the country in the last two weeks of August 2021. 

It also noted that when President Biden took office in January 2021, the special immigrant visa (SIV) program to offer visas to foreign nationals who assist U.S. missions abroad had a backlog of 14,000 and ‘there had not been a single SIV applicant interview in Kabul in nine months, going back to March 2020.’

: Rep. Matt Gaetz, R-Fla., is writing to Attorney General Merrick Garland to question the legitimacy of special counsel Jack Smith’s continued probing of former President Donald Trump.

Gaetz, one of Trump’s closest allies in Congress, asked Garland for ‘any written authorization’ or other documentation regarding Smith’s continued efforts despite his case against the ex-president getting thrown out by a federal judge in July.

‘On August 27, 2024, Special Counsel Jack Smith filed a superseding indictment against former President Donald Trump in federal district court in the District of Columbia. One day later, he was arguing before the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, attempting to overturn a federal district judge’s finding that he was unlawfully appointed by you,’ Gaetz wrote in the brief letter.

‘It is unclear what authority Special Counsel Smith has to file either of these briefs or to provide services to the Department of Justice.’

Smith’s appointment as special counsel was deemed unlawful by Florida-based U.S. Judge Eileen Cannon, who said his lack of Senate confirmation for the role made him illegitimate. 

Cannon, who was appointed by Trump, had been overseeing Smith’s prosecution of the former president over his handling of classified documents found at Mar-a-Lago.

Smith filed a response with the 11th Circuit Court of Appeals, arguing Cannon was wrong in her assessment of the special counsel role, arguing ‘precedent and history’ were on his side, as well as a ‘long tradition of special-counsel appointments by Attorneys General and Congress’ endorsement of the practice.’

Amid that court battle, Smith also filed a superseding indictment in a separate probe he is conducting into the ex-president, investigating whether Trump conspired to overturn the 2020 election. Smith had filed an amended indictment in that prosecution after the recent Supreme Court ruling that presidents are afforded wider immunity privileges.

However, Gaetz questioned whether Smith even had the legal footing to file either of those motions. 

His letter asked Garland whether he consulted the deputy attorney general and existing public integrity guidelines before Smith filed the superseding indictment.

If so, Gaetz asked him to ‘provide any records of the Deputy Attorney General’s Office or the Office of the Attorney General authorizing the Office of Special Counsel to file the Aug. 27, 2024, superseding indictment.’

Trump has so far denied any wrongdoing in any of the prosecutions against him.

His congressional allies like Gaetz have been key defenders – Gaetz has heaped skepticism on Trump’s legal trials, and House GOP Conference Chair Elise Stefanik, R-N.Y., has filed a flurry of ethics complaints against judges overseeing Trump cases in New York.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga., another Trump ally, has spearheaded GOP pressure in the House to defund Smith’s office.

It is not fully clear yet how Trump’s criminal and civil proceedings will affect his bid for re-election, with less than two months until Election Day.

The Department of Justice did not immediately return a request for comment on Gaetz’s letter.

More Black Americans are planning to make their voices heard on Election Day now that Vice President Kamala Harris has replaced President Biden as the Democratic nominee, according to a Monday poll.

The Washington Post-Ipsos poll found that 69% of Black Americans say they are ‘absolutely certain to vote’ on Election Day, compared to 62% in April. Meanwhile, a similar New York Times poll found Sunday that 56% of Black Americans said they were ‘almost certain’ to vote, with an additional 33% saying they were ‘very likely’ to vote.

The Post poll found that Harris’ candidacy has had the largest impact on young Black voters, particularly women. The share of Black Americans under 30 who plan to vote has risen 15 points from April, to 47%. Meanwhile, intent to vote among Black women under 40 rose by 18 points since April, to 57%.

Among Black registered voters, 82% say they favor Harris over Trump, according to the Post, while only 12% say they favor Trump. In the Times poll, 78% of Black Americans said they favored Trump, and Trump scored 14%.

The Post and Ipsos conducted the poll from Aug. 23 to Sept. 3, surveying 1,083 Black Americans. The poll advertises a margin of error of 3.2%.

Harris holds solid or dominating majority support from Black voters when it comes to the issues as well. Only when it comes to Israel’s war with Hamas does she lose out on a majority, with 49% of Black Americans saying they trust her to handle the issue. A striking 28% said neither candidate could be trusted on the topic.

Trump’s best performance is on immigration, where 19% of Black Americans say he is best to handle the issue. Harris maintains a commanding 55% support on the issue, however.

The poll lands just one day before Harris and Trump are set to square off in their first presidential debate on Tuesday. The pair’s campaigns have already laid the groundwork for lines of attack.

Trump is expected to lean into Harris’ role in the 2021 withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, which saw 13 soldiers killed in a suicide bombing. Several relatives of those soldiers have endorsed Trump and criticized Harris in recent weeks.

Meanwhile, Harris’ campaign sought to counter that narrative this week with a letter from 10 retired generals and admirals saying President Biden and Harris had done their best with a poor situation left to them by Trump’s own administration.

Vice President Harris finally added policies to her campaign website for the first time since President Biden dropped out of the race and endorsed her in the presidential race 50 days ago. 

The website breaks Harris and her vice-presidential running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’ policy proposals into four sections: ‘Build an Opportunity Economy and Lower Costs for Families,’ ‘Safeguard Our Fundamental Freedoms,’ ‘Ensure Safety and Justice For All,’ and ‘Keep America Safe, Secure, and Prosperous.’ 

Before the new addition, Harris’ campaign website had pages to buy merchandise, donate and get to know the candidate’s background, but was devoid of any policy plans for weeks even after she formally accepted the nomination at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago 17 days ago. 

Harris’s website now includes a promise to cut taxes for middle class families by ‘ensuring no one earning less than $400,000 a year will pay more in taxes.’ The website promises that Harris and Walz ‘will ensure the wealthiest Americans and the largest corporations pay their fair share, so we can take action to build up the middle class while reducing the deficit,’ including by ‘rolling back Trump’s tax cuts for the wealthiest Americans, enacting a billionaire minimum tax, quadrupling the tax on stock buybacks, and other reforms to ensure the very wealthy are playing by the same rules as the middle class.’ 

The website touts a plan to give more than 100 million working and middle-class families a tax cut by restoring the Child Tax Credit and the Earned Income Tax Credit. It says Harris and Walz will also expand the Child Tax Credit to provide a $6,000 credit to families with newborn children.

‘Under her plan, the tax rate on long-term capital gains for those earning a million dollars a year or more will be 28 percent, because when the government encourages investment, it leads to broad-based economic growth and creates jobs, which makes our economy stronger,’ the website says. 

The website also claims that Harris’ ‘lowering costs agenda is a stark contrast to Donald Trump’s plans to jack up prices, weaken the middle class, cut Social Security and Medicare, eliminate the Department of Education and preschool programs like Head Start, and end the Affordable Care Act.’ 

Much of the Harris website’s policy section focuses on attacking her opponent. Under each policy section, Harris includes a subsection on what she calls ‘Trump’s Project 2025 Agenda.’ 

Former President Trump and his campaign have repeatedly said they are not affiliated with Project 2025, which was created by the conservative think tank the Heritage Foundation as policy recommendations for the next Republican administration. Harris’ website also claims Trump would ban abortion and restrict in vitro fertilization (IVF) treatment, despite the Republican nominee stating the opposite. Trump has said he would not enact a federal abortion ban and recently said he would consider making sure the government or insurance companies cover the fertility treatment.

Regarding the economy, Harris claims that Trump’s ‘plans would increase costs for families by at least $3,900 a year by slapping a Trump sales tax on imported everyday goods that American families rely on, like gas, food, clothing, and medicine’ and would raise rents and add $1,200 a year to the typical American mortgage. 

‘Trump’s economic plans would also trigger a recession by mid-2025, cost America over 3 million jobs, threaten hundreds of thousands of clean energy jobs, increase the debt by over $5 trillion, send inflation skyrocketing, and hurt everyone but the richest Americans,’ according to Harris’ website. 

Under what is intended to be policy proposals to ‘ensure safety and justice for all,’ Harris’ website slams Trump as ‘a convicted criminal who only cares about himself,’ claiming the Republican nominee has ‘proven that time and time again – from caving to the gun lobby and doing nothing to address gun violence to killing the bipartisan border security deal that would secure our border and keep America safe, just to help himself politically.’ It also says Trump will implement the Project 2025 agenda if elected ‘to consolidate power, bring the Department of Justice and the FBI under his direct control so he can give himself unchecked legal power and go after his opponents, and rule as a dictator on ‘day one.’’

Fox News Digital reached out to the Trump campaign for comment, but they did not immediately respond.

Regarding foreign affairs, the website claims that Harris ‘has been a tireless and effective diplomat on the world stage’ and ‘will never hesitate to take whatever action is necessary to protect U.S. forces and interests from Iran and Iran-backed terrorist groups.’ Despite Harris boycotting Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s address to Congress in Washington, D.C., earlier this year, her website states Harris ‘will always stand up for Israel’s right to defend itself and she will always ensure Israel has the ability to defend itself.’ 

‘She and President Biden are working to end the war in Gaza, such that Israel is secure, the hostages are released, the suffering in Gaza ends, and the Palestinian people can realize their right to dignity, security, freedom, and self-determination,’ the website says. ‘She and President Biden are working around the clock to get a hostage deal and a ceasefire deal done.’

The House Democrats on the Foreign Affairs Committee released their own memo on President Biden’s chaotic 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan after committee Republicans released a report criticizing the president for what went down at the time.

Texas Rep. Mike McCaul, the Republican chair of the committee, released a GOP-led report disputing Biden’s claims that his hands were tied to the agreement former President Trump had made with the Taliban establishing a deadline for U.S. withdrawal for the summer of 2021. It also said State Department officials had no plan for helping Americans and allies out while there were still troops in the region to protect them.

McCaul’s report also noted the failure to adequately respond to terror threats ahead of the ISIS-K bombing at Abbey Gate at the Kabul airport that killed 13 U.S. service members and more than 150 Afghan civilians, and that the Taliban likely had access after the withdrawal to $7 billion in abandoned U.S. weapons and up to $57 million in U.S. funds that were initially given to the Afghan government.

But New York Rep. Gregory Meeks, the Democrat ranking member of the committee, released a dueling report in response to the GOP-led report, accusing Republicans of criticizing the Biden administration for the withdrawal for political purposes and failing to offer feasible alternatives.

Meeks also said Republicans did not involve Democrat members in their report and stressed that plans for withdrawing from Afghanistan began under the Trump administration.

He said in the memo’s summary that Republicans sought to avoid facts involving Trump, including ‘his committing the United States to a full, date-specific withdrawal in a deal he negotiated with the Taliban that excluded the Afghan government or any reference to the rights of Afghan women and girls.’

The ranking member also knocked Trump’s ‘unilateral announcements to withdraw troops, often a surprise to many of his own senior officials, which undercut U.S. leverage because those announcements were divorced from Taliban compliance with the deal; and his forcing the Afghan government to release 5,000 Taliban fighters back to the battlefield before a final Taliban offensive ultimately took Kabul.’

‘When former President Trump took office, there were approximately 14,000 American troops in Afghanistan,’ Meeks wrote. ‘Days before leaving office, the former President ordered a further reduction to 2,500. President Trump initiated a withdrawal that was irreversible without sending significantly more American troops to Afghanistan to face renewed combat with the Taliban.’

‘All witnesses who testified on this issue agreed that the United States would have faced renewed combat with the Taliban had we not continued the withdrawal,’ he added. ‘Rather than send more Americans to fight a war in Afghanistan, President Biden decided to end it.’

Addressing the Abbey Gate bombing. Meeks said Republicans ‘knew for months that the attack was not preventable and that, even though a witness told our Committee he thought he had the ISIS-K bomber in his sights, he did not.’

Republicans, Meeks said, made partisan attempts to garner headlines rather than acknowledge the full facts and substance of their investigation during the height of the election cycle. He also said Republicans attempted to tie Vice President Kamala Harris, now the Democrats’ presidential nominee, to the withdrawal even though she is referenced only three times in 3,288 pages of the committee’s interview transcripts.

‘American taxpayers have funded this Committee’s oversight, and the American people deserve the truth,’ Meeks said. ‘We owe it to them to highlight the facts elicited in this investigation without undue spin and with respect for the seriousness of the subject and the witnesses who have voluntarily testified to us about it.’

‘It strikes me now as it did during that hearing that many of those critical of the withdrawal effort simply have a fundamental objection to President Biden fulfilling his pledge to be the last Commander-in-Chief to preside over the war in Afghanistan,’ he added. ‘They are masking their displeasure with criticisms but have failed to offer feasible alternatives. We must continue to wrestle with these matters not to rewrite the past or assign partisan blame, but to identify lessons that can help us better fight and end wars in the future.’

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu blasted what he called Iran’s ‘axis of evil’ in remarks Sunday after a terrorist attack at the West Bank-Jordan border crossing killed three Israelis. 

‘It’s a hard day. A despicable terrorist murdered three of our citizens in cold blood at the Allenby Bridge. On behalf of the government, I send my condolences to the families of the victims,’ Netanyahu said at the beginning of his cabinet meeting Sunday. ‘We are surrounded by a murderous ideology led by Iran’s axis of evil. In recent days, despicable terrorists have murdered six of our hostages in cold blood and three Israeli police officers. The killers do not distinguish between us, they want to murder us all, until the last one; right and left, secular and religious, Jews and non-Jews.’ 

The Israeli military said a gunman approached the Allenby Bridge Crossing from the Jordanian side in a truck and opened fire at Israeli security forces, who killed the assailant in a shootout. It said the three people killed were Israeli civilians. Israel’s Magen David Adom rescue service said they were all men in their 50s.

Jordan, a Western-allied Arab country with a large Palestinian population, is investigating the shooting, its state-run Petra News Agency reported.

Hamas official Sami Abu Zuhri celebrated the attack, connecting the shooting to Israel’s offensive in Gaza. 

‘We expect many more similar actions,’ he said, according to Reuters. 

It marked the first attack of its kind along the West Bank-Jordan border crossing since Hamas terrorists killed approximately 1,200 people, mostly civilians, in their Oct. 7 attack into southern Israel. Another 250 were taken as hostages into Gaza, and Hamas are still holding approximately 100 of them. Around a third of the remaining hostages inside Gaza are believed to be dead.

‘What prevents the elimination of our people as in the past is the strength of the State of Israel and the strength of the Israel Defense Forces,’ Netanyahu continued Sunday. ‘The heroic spirit of the soldiers, the policemen, the men and women of our security forces, the supreme sacrifice of our fallen heroes and the resilience of our people – that’s all the difference. When we stand together – our enemies cannot, so their main goal is to divide us, to sow division within us.’

Over the weekend, Netanyahu noted, ‘the German newspaper Bild published an official Hamas document that reveals its plan of action: to sow division within us, to wage psychological warfare on the families of the hostages, to exert internal and external political pressure on the Israeli government, to tear us apart from the inside, and to continue the war until further notice, until the defeat of Israel.’

‘The vast majority of Israeli citizens do not fall into this trap of Hamas,’ the prime minister said. ‘They know that we are committed with all our might to achieve the goals of the war – to eliminate Hamas, to return all our hostages, to ensure that Gaza will no longer pose a threat to Israel and to safely return our residents in the north and south to their homes.’

‘We will stand together, we will hold on to David’s link together, and with God’s help we will win,’ Netanyahu said. ‘And lastly, some ask – ‘Will you forever hold a sword?’ In the Middle East, without a sword there is no eternity.’

The Allenby crossing over the Jordan River, also known as the King Hussein Bridge, is mainly used by Palestinians and international tourists, as well as for cargo shipments. The crossing has seen very few security incidents over the years, but in 2014 Israeli security guards shot and killed a Jordanian judge who they said had attacked them, the Associated Press reported. 

Israel and Jordan signed a peace treaty in 1994. 

Authorities in Israel and Jordan said the crossing was closed until further notice, and Israel later announced the closure of both of its land crossings with Jordan, near Beit Shean in the north and Eilat in the south.

Fox News’ Yael Rotem-Kuriel and the Associated Press contributed to this report. 

Texas Rep. Mike McCaul, the Republican chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released a scathing report that took a fine-toothed comb to the military’s botched 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal and highlighted areas of serious mismanagement. 

The Republican-led report opens by harkening back to President Joe Biden’s urgency to withdraw from the Vietnam War as a senator in the 1970s. That, along with the Afghanistan withdrawal, demonstrates a ‘pattern of callous foreign policy positions and readiness to abandon strategic partners,’ according to the report.

The report also disputed Biden’s assertion that his hands were tied to the Doha agreement former President Trump had made with the Taliban establishing a deadline for U.S. withdrawal for the summer of 2021, and it revealed how state officials had no plan for getting Americans and allies out while there were still troops there to protect them. 

Here’s a roundup of the findings of the 600-page report, comprised of tens of thousands of pages of documents and interviews with high-level officials that spanned much of the last two years: 

Biden was not bound by deadlines in Trump’s Doha agreement with Taliban

The report found that Biden and Vice President Harris were advised by top leaders that the Taliban were already in violation of the conditions of the Doha agreement and, therefore, the U.S. was not obligated to leave. 

The committee also found NATO allies had expressed their vehement opposition to the U.S. decision to withdraw. The British Chief of the Defense staff warned that ‘withdrawal under these circumstances would be perceived as a strategic victory for the Taliban.’

Biden kept on Zalmay Khalilzad, a Trump appointee who negotiated the agreement, as special representative to Afghanistan – a signal that the new administration endorsed the deal. 

At the Taliban’s demand, Khalilzad had shut out the Afghan government from the talks – a major blow to President Ashraf Ghani’s government. 

When Trump left office, some 2,500 U.S. troops remained in Afghanistan. Biden himself was determined to draw that number to zero no matter what, according to Col. Seth Krummrich, chief of staff for Special Operations Command, who told the committee, ‘The president decided we’re going to leave, and he’s not listening to anybody.’

Then-State Dept. spokesperson Ned Price admitted in testimony the Doha agreement was ‘immaterial’ to Biden’s decision to withdraw. 

The withdrawal: State Department built up personnel, failed to hatch escape plan as it became clear Kabul would fall

The report also details numerous warning signs the State Department received to draw down its embassy footprint as it became clear Afghanistan would quickly fall to the Taliban. It refused to do so. At the time of the withdrawal, it was one of the largest embassies in the world. 

In the end, Americans and U.S. allies were left stranded as the military was ordered to withdraw before the embassy had shuttered.

In one meeting, Deputy Secretary of State for Management and Resources Brian McKeon rejected military officials’ warnings, saying ‘we at the State Department have a much higher risk tolerance than you guys.’

Gen. Austin Miler, the longest-serving commander in Afghanistan, confirmed McKeon’s comments and explained that the State Department did not have a higher risk tolerance but instead exhibited ‘a lack of understanding of the risk’ in Afghanistan.

Asked why McKeon would make such statements, the officer explained, ‘The State Department and the president were saying it. Consequently, [Wilson] and others start saying it, thinking that they will make it work.’ 

The report lays blame on former Afghanistan Ambassador Ross Wilson, who instead of shrinking, grew the embassy’s presence as the security situation deteriorated.

Revealing little sense of urgency, Wilson was on a two-week vacation on the last week of July and the first week of August 2021. 

An NEO, a noncombatant evacuation operation to get personnel out, was not ordered until Aug. 15 as the Taliban marched into Kabul. 

There weren’t enough troops present to begin the NEO until Aug. 19, and the first public message from the embassy in Kabul urging Americans to evacuate wasn’t sent until Aug. 7. 

And while there weren’t enough military planes to handle the evacuations, it took the Transportation Department until Aug. 20 to allow foreign planes to assist. 

Wilson fled the embassy ahead of his entire embassy staff, the report found. He reportedly had COVID-19 at the time but got a foreign service officer to take his test for him so that he could flee the country. 

Acting Under Secretary Carol Perez told the committee the embassy’s evacuation plan was ‘still in the works’ when the Taliban took over, despite months of warning.

Those left behind: Americans and allies turned away while unvetted Afghans got on flights

Wilson testified that he was ‘comfortable’ with holding off on the NEO until Aug. 15, while Gen. Frank McKenzie described it as the ‘fatal flaw that created what happened in August.’

As the Taliban surrounded Kabul on Aug. 14, notes obtained by the committee from a National Security Counsel (NSC) meeting reveal the U.S. government still had not determined who would be eligible for evacuation nor had they identified third countries to serve as transit points for an evacuation.

Fewer cases for special immigrant visas (SIVs) to evacuate Afghan U.S. military allies like interpreters were processed in June, July and August – the lead-up to the takeover – than the four months prior. 

When the last U.S. military flight departed Kabul, around 1,000 Americans were left on the ground, as were more than 90% of SIV-eligible Afghans.

The report found that local embassy employees had been de-prioritized for evacuation, with many turned away from the embassy and airport in tears. On the day of the Taliban takeover, the U.S.’ only guidance for those who might be eligible for evacuation was to ‘not travel to the airport until you have been informed by email that departure options exist.’

And since the NSC did not send over guidelines for who was eligible for evacuation and who to prioritize because they were ‘at risk,’ the State Department processed thousands of evacuees with no documentation. 

The U.S. government had ‘no idea if people being evacuated were threats,’ one State Department employee told the committee.

After the final troops left Afghanistan, volunteer groups helped at least 314 American citizens and 266 lawful permanent residents evacuate the country.

Scenes at Abbey Gate: Terror threat warnings unheeded before bombing

And as the Taliban whipped groups of desperate Afghans at the airport, burned young women and executed civilians, U.S. troops were forbidden from intervening. 

Consul General Jim DeHart described the scene as ‘apocalyptic.’ 

U.S. intelligence, meanwhile, was tracking multiple threat streams, including ‘a potential VBIED or suicide vest IED as part of a complex attack,’ by Aug. 23.  By Aug. 26, the threat was specifically narrowed down to Abbey Gate. It was so serious that diplomatic security pulled back state employees from the gate.

Brig. Gen. Farrell Sullivan ultimately decided to keep the gate open in the face of the threats due to requests made by the Brits.

And on Aug. 26, two bombs planted by terror group ISIS-K exploded at the airport, killing 13 U.S. service members and more than 150 Afghans. CENTCOM records revealed the same ISIS-K terror cell that conducted the Abbey Gate attack ‘established a base of operations located six kilometers to the west’ of the airport in a neighborhood previously used by them as a staging area for an attack on the airport in December 2020. But the U.S. did not strike this cell before the bombing. 

Two weeks later, an airstrike intending to kill those behind the ISIS-K instead killed 10 civilians. The administration initially touted the strike as a success of over-the-horizon capabilities before acknowledging a family of civilians had been killed. 

The U.S. has not struck ISIS-K in Afghanistan since – in stark contrast to the 313 operations carried out by CENTCOM against ISIS in Iraq and Syria in 2022.

The long-term consequences 

In addition to the $7 billion in abandoned U.S. weapons, the Taliban likely gained access to up to $57 million in U.S. funds that were initially given to the Afghan government. 

The Taliban’s interior minister, Sirajuddin Haqqani, proclaimed in February 2024 that relations with the rest of the world, especially the U.S., are ‘irrelevant’ to its policymaking.

A NATO report written by the Defence Education Enhancement Programme found the Taliban was using U.S. military biometric devices and databases to hunt down U.S. Afghan allies.

And in the first six months of Taliban power, ‘nearly 500 former government officials and members of the Afghan security forces were killed or forcibly disappeared,’ according to the report. 

Some 118 girls have been sold as child brides since the takeover and 116 families are waiting for a buyer. Women are now banned from speaking or showing their faces in public. 

In June 2024, the Department of Homeland Security identified more than 400 persons of interest from Central Asia who had illegally crossed the U.S. southern border with the help of an ISIS-related smuggling network. The U.S. has since arrested more than 150 of these individuals. On June 11, 2024, the FBI arrested eight people with ties to ISIS-K who had crossed through the southern border.