Gregory Meeks: “First, let me just say this because I heard this at the hearing the other day. When we were in charge, we held the first…”

“First, let me just say this because I heard this at the hearing the other day. When we were in charge, we held the first hearing after the withdrawal for a Cabinet Secretary on September 21. Who was that witness? Tony Blinken. The administration sent several Cabinet officials to Congress to discuss the withdrawal. We held hearings with Members because our position was trying to work in a bipartisan way and trying to make sure that we were going to get to the facts and understand so that we would never have this situation again after 20 years. What did we do? We had hearings with people from the Bush administration, from the Obama administration, and from the Trump administration to look at the entire 20-year period of time, not playing politics, not looking at a month or two because they all were interconnected. It wasn't about politics for us. As clearly stated here, there was no delay. The administration was cooperative. The fact of the matter is, this Congress, the 118th Congress, doesn't end until December 31. If it is about the facts, if it is about learning the lessons, the Secretary has already said he is willing to testify. He didn't want to turn his back on his responsibility as the Secretary of State, where he is now in a meeting, unfortunately. I know maybe some of my Republican colleagues don't want him to talk to President Zelenskyy about what is going on in Ukraine and Russia's invasion into Ukraine.…”