Minnesota delegation divided on response in Afghanistan

Minnesota's delegation in Washington is divided over President Joe Biden's handling of the withdrawal from Afghanistan and his decision Tuesday to remove troops by the end of the month.

Biden has faced bipartisan criticism over the evacuation of U.S. troops and allies, with Minnesota Republicans among those saying he "botched" the situation.

But some of the state's congressional Democrats are standing behind the president, who they said inherited a nearly 20-year-old war that three previous administrations have fought and been unable to end.

"In the midst of this really challenging set of events, tens of thousands of Americans have been evacuated," said Sen. Tina Smith, a Democrat who supported Biden's move to withdraw. "The success of that is something that we have to keep in mind and value. Those are people … in some cases, whose lives are being saved through that evacuation."

Others have expressed concerns that the end of August might not provide enough time to evacuate all Americans and Afghan allies from the country. Democratic U.S. Rep. Angie Craig called the Aug. 31 deadline "arbitrary" and said it shouldn't prevent the U.S. from completing the evacuation. And Republican U.S. Rep. Pete Stauber, who represents Minnesota's northeastern Eighth District, said that sticking with the deadline is "quite literally allowing terrorists to call the shots."

"Not only are thousands of Americans and allies currently stuck behind enemy lines, but billions of dollars of American weaponry and equipment are now in Taliban control," he said in a statement Tuesday. "The obstacles put in place by the Taliban, combined with the slow pace in which people are being withdrawn, makes it abundantly clear that this arbitrary August 31 deadline must be extended. We cannot leave a single American or ally behind."

Democratic U.S. Sen. Amy Klobuchar said her office is currently handling over 100 cases that have been referred from Minnesotans, their families and loved ones.

"Our immediate priority must be ensuring we are doing everything possible to evacuate American citizens and our Afghan allies," Klobuchar said in a statement Tuesday. "We have already successfully helped a number of people move to safe locations."

Numerous polls show that while most Americans want the U.S. to leave Afghanistan, a wide majority disapprove of how Biden has handled the withdrawal. His approval rating has dropped, below 50% in some polls.

But the divide on his response to Afghanistan has largely played out along party lines in Minnesota's congressional delegation.

DFL U.S. Rep. Ilhan Omar, who fled Somalia as a child when civil war broke out, said watching the story unfold has been "personally painful." That experience has bolstered her position that "an endless American military occupation of Afghanistan was unacceptable."

"I know what it's like to be the child in the family scrambling for safety in a war-torn country. I also know intimately the difference between making it out and not making it out," said Omar, who represents the Fifth District, which includes Minneapolis. "As with so many moments in this two-decade-long conflict, I have not been able to read the news without seeing myself and my family."

Members of Congress on both sides of the aisle have been pushing to expedite special immigrant visas for Afghans who partnered with the United States during the war, and to get visa applicants out of Afghanistan.

Freshman Republican Rep. Michelle Fischbach said the administration's top priority must be getting American citizens out, keeping every option on the table until that's accomplished.

"This is a mess created by President Biden and his administration," said Fischbach, who represents Minnesota's Seventh District. "There should have been a process already in place to make sure we were extracting American citizens and vetted, confirmed allies."

Sixth District Republican Rep. Tom Emmer sent Biden a letter last month calling for a "tangible plan of action" and raising concerns about the thousands of people awaiting action on their visa applications, including the relatives of families in his district.

And fellow GOP Rep. Jim Hagedorn has repeatedly lambasted Biden's handling of the situation on social media, saying the president is "totally disconnected from the reality in Afghanistan" and that he owes Congress clear answers on how he is going to address the crisis.

The Biden administration had "misplaced confidence" in the capabilities of the Afghan National Defense and Security Forces to hold off the Taliban, said DFL Rep. Betty McCollum, who leads a House subcommittee charged with crafting a defense-spending bill. But she said the ordeal is a "whole of government failure in both Washington and Kabul."

"The Afghan people who trusted us will now be living with the consequences," she said in a statement shortly after the Taliban took control of the presidential palace in Kabul. Rather than blaming the Biden administration, she said, Congress and future American leaders — both Democrats and Republicans — "need to learn some very hard lessons and make sure such a devastating foreign policy failure never happens again."

Briana Bierschbach • 651-925-5042

Jessie Van Berkel • 612-516-0121