Tenn. Republican calls Afghanistan withdrawal ‘abject failure’ on Abbey Gate anniversary

Rep. Matt Van Epps, a Republican congressman from Tennessee and former Army aviator, introduced a resolution marking the five-year anniversary of the bombing near Abbey Gate at Hamid Karzai International Airport and said the Biden-Harris administration “absolutely failed” in its withdrawal from Afghanistan, he said in an interview with Fox News Digital.

The attack at Abbey Gate killed 13 U.S. service members and more than 100 Afghans, according to news reports. Van Epps told Fox News Digital he “vividly” remembered hearing that the U.S. was withdrawing with few plans in place and that he remains upset about how the evacuation unfolded.

Van Epps, who said he served 10 years on active duty with deployments to Iraq and Afghanistan and later served in the Tennessee Army National Guard, said the withdrawal is personal. He told Fox News Digital two close friends were on the ground in Kabul during the evacuation and “served honorably and heroically” but “should never have been put in that situation to begin with.”

Van Epps criticized the Biden administration for not enforcing the 2020 Doha agreement with the Taliban and said the administration prioritized “optics over operations.” He defended the Trump-era deal, saying it provided conditions that could have guided a more deliberate withdrawal, according to the interview. Democrats have largely defended President Joe Biden, saying his team was carrying out a withdrawal timetabled by the Trump administration’s agreement.

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