House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., criticized two military veteran congressmen for making a “secret” trip to Kabul, the Afghan capital forcefully overtaken by the Taliban last week, characterizing the choice to enter the region as “deadly serious.”
In a press conference Wednesday morning, Pelosi railed against Reps. Seth Moulton, D-Mass., and Peter Meijer, R-Mich.
“There’s a real concern about members being in the region,” Pelosi said, adding later, “We do not want members to go.”
The two congressmen publicly disclosed the trip upon their return after The Associated Press had reported on the clandestine reconnaissance mission.
“Like many veterans, we have spent the last few weeks working without sleep to try to get as many people as we could through the gates and to safety,” Moulton and Meijer wrote in a joint statement.
“We conducted this visit in secret, speaking about it only after our departure, to minimize the risk and disruption to the people on the ground, and because we were there to gather information, not to grandstand,” they continued. “Washington should be ashamed of the position we put our service members in, but they represent the best in America. These men and women have been run ragged and are still running strong.”
