Republicans Up Pressure on Blinken to Release Afghanistan Dissent Cable

Republican Sens. John Thune (S.D.) and Jim Risch (Idaho) are trying again to force the State Department to release a July 2021 document spelling out opposing viewpoints about the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“This legislation would finally provide the American people and Congress with answers about the dire warnings that the administration ignored,” Thune said in a statement Thursday.

This is their second attempt at trying to mandate the dissent cable's release through law. A bill introduced last year never made it out of the Democrat-led Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-Texas) is also upping the pressure on the Biden administration over the document. Earlier this week, McCaul threatened Secretary of State Antony Blinken with a contempt of Congress citation if he didn't comply with a subpoena for the material.

Blinken faced a Thursday deadline to comply with the subpoena.

The State Department briefed the House panel about the cable's contents in April. But it refused to grant the committee access to the actual document, citing confidentiality concerns and a lack of precedent in sharing such information.