Foreign Affairs Chairman Rep. Mike McCaul said he still intends to haul in Antony Blinken on the Afghanistan withdrawal even after his sprawling report was completed, and will hold him in contempt of Congress if he does not comply. 

“This was a catastrophic failure of epic proportions,” the Texas Republican told reporters on Monday. “This is a disgrace. I will hold him in contempt if that’s what it takes to bring him before the American people.”

“Secretary Blinken refuses to take one day out of this month to come before the [Gold Star] families.” 

McCaul’s comments came on the heels of a 350-page report he released Monday on the withdrawal that the committee worked on for much of the past nearly two years of the Republican majority. 

It laid much blame on the State Department and detailed how State officials had no plan for getting Americans and allies out while there were still troops there to protect them.  

McCaul subpoenaed Blinken last week, saying he must appear before the committee by Sept. 19. 

HOUSE GOP RELEASES SCATHING REPORT ON BIDEN’S WITHDRAWAL FROM AFGHANISTAN

State Department spokesperson Vedant Patel shrugged off the committee’s threats. 

“The majority isn’t truly interested in legislating on Afghanistan policy. If they were, they would have sought to speak to the secretary long ago,” he told reporters Monday. 

“They would have sought to speak to him to get his input as they make this report,” he said. “Instead they waited until the report was completely finished to come back to us.” 

In May, McCaul asked Blinken to appear at a hearing in September on the committee‘s report on its investigation of the withdrawal from Afghanistan. The State Department failed on several occasions to provide a date for Blinken to appear before lawmakers, McCaul said.

But the State Department said Monday Blinken had testified before House and Senate committees 14 times on the withdrawal, including four times before the Foreign Affairs Committee. 

McCaul also hinted that he believes there should still be a small contingency of U.S. forces in Afghanistan.

HOUSE COMMITTEE SUBPOENAS BLINKEN OVER AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL 

“We cannot see now into Afghanistan except through over the horizon, which doesn’t work. We can’t see Russia, China and Iran, either, because of this tragic failure of foreign policy,” he told reporters.

“We can’t see all of ISIS gathering in the Korazhan region of Tajikistan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, making their way to the United States of America. That is what they did to us,” the chairman went on. 

“They embolden the unholy alliance of Putin, Xi, the Ayatollah and Kim Jong Un,” he said, referring to the leaders of Russia, China, Iran and North Korea. 

Secretary of State Antony Blinken, left, standing with Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, right, speaks during a news conference at the United States Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., Tuesday, Aug. 6, 2024.  (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

The Biden administration has long claimed the president’s hands were tied by the Doha agreement negotiated under President Trump that laid out a deadline for U.S. troops to withdraw from Afghanistan. But the new report detailed how the Taliban had failed to hold up their end of the deal, absolving the U.S. of any obligation to adhere to it. 

“​Biden, for his part, faced a stark choice when he came to office, abide by the flawed agreement and end America’s longest war, or blow up the deal, extend the war, and see a much smaller contingent of American troops back in combat with the Taliban,” White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters on Monday. 

“He chose the former and was able to buy additional time to prepare for that withdrawal all the way into the summer. And we, as a nation are safer for it. Any and every discussion about what happened in Afghanistan has to start right there. Sadly, the report does not dwell on it.”

The damning report claims that while US military personnel were drawing down their footprint in the nation, the State Department was growing theirs. 

And according to the report, U.S. Ambassador Ross Wilson was on vacation the last week of July and the first week of August 2021. He promptly hightailed it out of the country on a flight ahead of his staff in mid-August. He allegedly had COVID-19 at the time and forced a foreign service officer to take his COVID test so he could get on the plane.

Taliban fighters celebrate the third anniversary of the withdrawal of US-led troops from Afghanistan, in Kabul, Afghanistan, Wednesday, Aug. 14, 2024. (AP Photo/Siddiqullah Alizai)

Patel defended Wilson, but did not deny the allegations. 

“I’m just not going to get into a tit-for-tat with the House Foreign Affairs Committee, but what I can say is that it is not my understanding that he was on vacation at the beginning of August. Beyond that, I will just echo what I said previously about Ambassador Wilson, that this is an esteemed individual, a decorated Foreign Service officer.” 

He claimed the GOP-led report chose “scandal over substance” and called it a “collection of cherry-picked comments… designed to paint an inaccurate picture of this administration’s efforts. 

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He claimed the withdrawal was carried out in a way that was consistent with department policy. “The drawdown in Kabul was conducted in a manner which is consistent with our departments and our country’s standards and protocols when faced in those circumstances.” 

He said he did not have a headcount on how many Americans are still in Afghanistan, but touted the more than 18,000 Afghan special immigrant visas (SIVs) for the U.S.’s Afghan allies, such as interpreters, that were processed in 2023.

As former President Trump faces backlash from Democrats over ties to the Heritage Foundation’s “Project 2025,” the Biden-Harris administration has been working hand in hand with a prominent liberal think tank through a revolving door of employees working to turn progressive policy recommendations into executive actions and legislation, which could come back to haunt the Harris campaign.

The Center for American Progress (CAP) has been labeled the “most influential” think tank in the Biden era, while the group publicly boasts that it has turned at least 10 policy recommendations into “executive action and policy legislation.”

Patrick Gaspard, the current president of CAP, has visited the Biden White House at least 20 times between December 2021 and January 2024, which included five solo meetings with high-ranking Biden officials.

CAP’s ties to the Biden White House go even deeper than Gaspard, as at least 60 alumni from the think tank have joined the administration, including Neera Tanden, who previously served as president of CAP and has served in multiple roles in the Biden administration, including senior adviser and staff secretary. 

PETE BUTTIGIEG REGULARLY CONSULTS DARK MONEY-FUNDED GREEN GROUPS, CALENDAR ENTRIES SHOW

She was promoted in May 2023 to the “Assistant to the President and Domestic Policy Advisor” titles, replacing Susan Rice, according to a White House press release.

President Biden also hired CAP founder and chairman John Podesta as a senior White House clean energy czar in 2022. Podesta was tasked with overseeing roughly $370 billion in climate spending appropriated by the Inflation Reduction Act. 

The former Hillary Clinton campaign chairman was then tapped by Biden earlier this year to serve as his top climate diplomat after John Kerry stepped down to help with campaign efforts, which received backlash from top Republicans due to concerns over his ties to China dating back to his CAP days. 

Fox News Digital first reported on his connection to top CCP official Tung Chee-hwa, who he repeatedly referred to as his “friend” and took several calls from.

CAP’s influence within the Biden White House began months before he entered office. In late 2020, a half dozen of the group’s employees joined Biden’s transition team in the Treasury, Federal Reserve, Labor Department, Interior Department, National Security Council and Office of the U.S. Trade Representative. 

White House clean energy czar John Podesta, left, was appointed to “continue to lead our global climate efforts,” White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan said. Podesta effectively replaced climate envoy John Kerry, right. (Getty Images)

CAP’s organization appears primed to push a policy agenda on several key issues on the progressive wish list if the Biden administration, now led by Vice President Kamala Harris on the presidential ticket, were to continue into a second term. 

CAP has voiced support for both setting term limits for Supreme Court justices and packing the court, which are two efforts being pushed by Demand Justice, a left-wing dark money group that Harris’ senior campaign adviser Brian Fallon co-founded and left less than a year ago. 

The liberal think tank has signed onto multiple letters pushed by Demand Justice, which was reportedly planning a $10 million offensive against conservative Supreme Court justices this year “on a range of activities, from conducting opposition research on potential Supreme Court picks to advocating for ethics reforms for the high court,” Politico reported.

“The Supreme Court has taken off its mask this term by creating unconstitutional de facto immunity for future presidents who act illegally and by gutting the ability of public agencies and Congress to protect Americans from abuse by right-wing special interests,” CAP states on its website.

BIDEN OMB NOMINEE NEERA TANDEN RECEIVED $731G OVER 2 YEARS FROM LIBERAL NONPROFIT

President Biden listens during an event in the South Court Auditorium on the White House complex in Washington, Tuesday, Sept. 3, 2024. (AP Photo/Susan Walsh)

CAP has pushed a variety of other left-wing efforts, which include censoring speech it believes to be “misinformation,” taxpayer-funded student loan bailouts, taxpayer-funded reparations, DEI mandates, federal taxpayer funds for abortion by eliminating the Hyde Amendment, and phasing out gas-powered cars.

“With skyrocketing profits and expanding domestic manufacturing, U.S. automakers have everything they need to help the country switch from fossil fuel-powered vehicles to electric,” CAP said in a 2024 post, despite multiple reports highlighting how consumers have complained about the cost and lack of charging stations.

CAP’s influence on Biden also spread to his messaging on the campaign trail before he dropped out of the race. In 2022, the Washington Post reported that Biden’s move to label Trump as “ultra MAGA” was the result of a six-month research project from the CAP Action Fund that was headed by his top aide Anita Dunn, who has performed consulting work for CAP.

CAP Action Fund’s president, Navin Nayak, has visited the Biden White House at least a couple dozen times, a Fox News Digital review of White House visitor logs found.

Biden’s former chief of staff Ron Klain, who was on the CAP Action Fund board for several years, has also repeatedly praised their efforts on his X account.

CENTER FOR AMERICAN PROGRESS SUPPORT COMES FROM ALL CORNERS, INCLUDING YOURS

Vice President Kamala Harris delivers remarks at a campaign rally in Savannah, Georgia, Aug. 29, 2024. (Reuters/Elizabeth Frantz)

VP Harris has worked with the Center for American Progress dating back to her time as California attorney general, when she joined the group for a press conference via telephone. She has also participated in several events hosted by the liberal think tank and her sister, Maya Harris, joined as a senior fellow, according to a 2013 press release. 

Tanden said, “Maya has worked tirelessly in many different arenas to ensure that the United States is a more inclusive country and that all Americans can live up to their potential” and looked forward to her involvement with CAP.

Despite its extensive connections to the Biden White House, CAP blasts Project 2025 on its website as a “far-right assault on America” that it claims will “serve as a road map” for a “far-right presidential administration.”

A CAP spokesperson dismissed the Heritage Foundation as “no longer a think tank” in a statement to Fox News Digital on Sunday.

“When it comes to the Heritage Foundation and their work, one needs to look no further than yesterday’s New York Times story exposing Heritage creating fake digital content and pushing lies about election integrity,” the spokesperson said. “Couple that with Heritage’s embrace of authoritarianism and their president threatening to launch a potentially violent ‘second American Revolution’ if it doesn’t get its way, and I think it’s safe to say that Heritage is on an island of its own. This is no longer a think tank.”

As a presidential candidate, Harris has repeatedly criticized Trump over Project 2025 as recently as last week when she ran an ad linking Trump to the project.

Former President Trump during a news conference at Trump Tower in New York, on Friday, Sept. 6, 2024. (Cheney Orr/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

While Project 2025 is staffed with several high-level individuals who have previously worked with Trump, he has strongly denied having any direct role with the group.

A Project 2025 spokesperson told Fox News Digital on Sunday that “Project 2025 does not speak for Donald Trump or his campaign” and is “continuing our decades-long legacy of preparing policy and personnel recommendations for the next conservative President.”

“The Heritage Foundation has been producing its Mandate for Leadership since 1980, and President Reagan handed out copies of the book to his cabinet at their first meeting,” the spokesperson continued. “The Left always prepares recommendations for liberal presidents, and they are simply upset that two can play this game.”

“The only reason that the Left is in a tailspin over Project 2025 is that it has winning ideas that the American people support, while their own recommendations, which are currently destroying our country, are wildly unpopular,” the spokesperson added.

Trump campaign spokesperson Danielle Alvarez told Fox News Digital earlier this year that “Agenda 47 and President Trump’s RNC Platform are the only policies endorsed by President Trump for a second term.”

“Team Biden and the DNC are LYING and fear-mongering because they have NOTHING else to offer the American people,” she added. “Remember this is the same group that lied to Americans and hid Joe Biden’s cognitive decline all these years.” 

Fox News Digital reached out to the Biden White House and Harris campaign for comment but did not receive a response.

Fox News Digital’s Joe Schoffstall and Thomas Catenacci contributed to this report

In an unprecedented moment in modern American history, the 2024 Republican and Democratic presidential candidates will face off in their first debate after just seven weeks of campaigning against each other.

The New York Times analyzed what the two candidates have said about each other on social media from July 21, when President Biden dropped out of the race and Vice President Kamala Harris became the frontrunner to replace him as the Democratic nominee, through Sept. 6. (For the most part, their statements on social media mirror their public comments at rallies and other events.)

While both candidates attack each other, The Times found that former president Donald Trump targets Ms. Harris much more frequently, an average of more than three times per day, and his posts (on Truth Social) almost always include a personal smear.

What Harris says about Trump in personal terms

Ms. Harris’s posts about Mr. Trump (on X) tend not to go for the jugular. A handful of times, she has drawn attention to his history of legal trouble, saying, for example, that she knows “Donald Trump’s type” because she “took on predators, fraudsters and cheaters” as a prosecutor.

She has also described him in the following ways:

What Trump says about Harris in personal terms

By contrast, Mr. Trump’s attacks on Ms. Harris resemble the name-calling insults of a sexist schoolyard bully. He frequently drops personal slights into political attacks, but he has also attacked Ms. Harris numerous times in personal terms without making any particular reference to her policies or political record. Some of these posts have touched instead on her racial identity or included generic insults referencing her authenticity or capability.

Here is how he has described her:

Mr. Trump told rallygoers in North Carolina last month that he’d had trouble coming up with a “name” for Ms. Harris, but that he was settling on “comrade.”

“I think that’s the most accurate name,” he said.

What the candidates say about each other on the issues

While both candidates also criticize each other on policy matters, Mr. Trump nearly always sprinkles in a personal jab (or two or three) about Ms. Harris.

Mr. Trump’s posts about Ms. Harris frequently include spelling mistakes, falsehoods and his distinctive style of grammar and capitalization. He spent a few days in August frequently calling Ms. Harris “Kamabla,” though he has since abandoned that moniker. Ms. Harris’s posts are more typical of a traditional politician.

The border is an especially contentious issue.

In making immigration a central theme of his campaign, Mr. Trump repeatedly and falsely calls Ms. Harris the Biden administration’s “border czar.” Ms. Harris notes that Mr. Trump pressured Republicans to oppose a bipartisan immigration deal.

Both accuse each other of being extremists.

Ms. Harris ties Mr. Trump to Project 2025, a set of conservative policy proposals that Mr. Trump has recently tried to distance himself from. Mr. Trump (falsely) claims Ms. Harris is a “communist” who will “destroy America.”

Ms. Harris attacks Mr. Trump over abortion rights.

The vice president regularly reminds voters that Mr. Trump appointed the Supreme Court justices who voted to overturn Roe v. Wade. Mr. Trump rarely mentions reproductive rights.

Their barbs on the economy are more classically partisan.

Ms. Harris accuses Mr. Trump of only caring about wealthy Americans. The former president blames Ms. Harris for inflation.