House Foreign Affairs Chair Meeks: ‘We Can’t Go By’ Biden’s August 31 Deadline in Afghanistan

On Wednesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Hallie Jackson Reports,” House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Gregory Meeks (D-NY) said that “we can’t go by” the August 31 deadline to leave Afghanistan set by President Joe Biden and we must ensure that American citizens and those who helped American forces can leave Afghanistan, even if it means staying beyond August 31 or sending in more troops.

Meeks said, “We have to get every American citizen and every — whether it’s an interpreter, but individuals who stood by our proud and strong men and women out of Afghanistan. And that is the focus of what we are looking at right now. Now, in regards to the House Foreign Affairs Committee, it has oversight jurisdiction. … And what we want to do is to make sure that the mission now of getting our people out of Afghanistan — now, I know they have a date of August 31, etc. Look, we can’t go by that. We need to make sure that every one of those individuals that we know put their lives on the line are out. If that means we have to stay longer, in my estimation, we should do that. That means that even if we have to bring more troops in to make sure that we can get them out safely, we need to do that.”

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