Rep. Markwayne Mullin, a Republican from Oklahoma, attempted to launch a rogue mission into Afghanistan to rescue five American citizens, according to a jaw-dropping report in The Washington Post.
Acting against the advice of the White House, the State Department, the Pentagon, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy, Mullin first traveled to Greece, where he asked for permission to enter Kabul. The Pentagon turned him down.
Days later, Mullin was in Tblisi, Georgia. From there, he contacted the U.S. Embassy in Tajikistan with an unusual request. The Post explains:
He needed assistance in transporting a huge amount of cash into the country, saying he was going to neighboring Afghanistan to rescue five American citizens, a woman and her four children, stuck in the country. They planned to hire a helicopter for the effort.
The embassy refused to help Mullin; it would mean skirting Tajikistan’s law on cash limits. Mullin was enraged and reportedly threatened U.S. ambassador John Mark Pommersheim and his staff.
“To say this is extremely dangerous is a massive understatement,” a State Department official told The Post.
On Tuesday night, The Post reported that Mullin was missing. But after their story was published, his office finally responded to a request for comment, saying the five-term congressman “has been and is currently completely safe” and that he and his office “will continue to do anything in our power to bring home all Americans from the war zone that President Biden abandoned.”
Mullin’s attempted foray into Afghanistan follows a similarly unauthorized trip to the country by Reps. Seth Moulton (D-MA) and Peter Meijer (R-MI) last week. Moulton and Meijer, both veterans, traveled to the country to provide “oversight” of the evacuation efforts.
Their trip sparked near unanimous condemnation from U.S. officials. House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy said, “I don’t think it’s smart for others to go. You’re putting yourself — not just yourself, but you’re putting Americans — in harm’s way, if the military has to protect you, which they will do.”
But Mullin ignored the warnings, despite his lack of experience in dangerous combat zones. Before he was elected, he ran a plumbing business and was a professional mixed martial arts fighter.
