During a hearing before the House Armed Services Committee on Wednesday, Rep. Matt Gaetz (R-FL) launched a wild attack against the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Gen. Mark Milley, and Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin over the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Gaetz, who is the target of a sex trafficking investigation, accused Milley of spending more time doing interviews than he did planning for the Taliban takeover of Afghanistan.
“You spent more time with Bob Woodward on this book than you spent analyzing the very likely prospect that the Afghanistan government was going to fall immediately to the Taliban,” Gaetz charged.
Milley fired back, replying: “Not even close, Congressman.”
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“We’re not questioning your personal conduct,” Gaetz told the general. “We’re questioning in your official capacity going and undermining the chain of command, which is obviously what you did.”
“I didn’t undermine the chain of command,” Milley shot back.
“You absolutely did!” Gaetz exclaimed.
“I did not,” Milley insisted.
“You know what? You said yesterday you weren’t going to resign,” Gaetz noted. “And I believe that you guys probably won’t resign. You seem to be very happy failing up over there. But if we didn’t have a president that was so addled, you all would be fired. Because that is what you deserve. You have let down the people who wear the uniform in my district and all around this country.”
“And you’re far more interested in what your perception is and how people think about you in insider-Washington books than you care about winning,” he concluded.
Watch the confrontation in the video below.
