House Foreign Affairs Committee Ranking Member Rep. Michael McCaul, the ranking member on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, announced Tuesday he has hired former CNN reporter Ryan Browne assist in Republicans’ efforts to investigate the Biden administration’s botched troop withdrawal from Afghanistan that preceded the rapid fall of the Afghan government to the Taliban. 

The statement announcing Browne’s hiring comes one day after Republicans expressed dissatisfaction with Secretary of State Antony Blinken’s testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the turbulent exit. 

“What we saw in Afghanistan was a systemic failure of the federal government that led to the chaos and horrific devastation. That resulted in the death of 13 American service members and the abandonment of American citizens, green card holders, and our Afghan partners in a country controlled by a brutal terrorist organization,” McCaul (R-Texas) said in a statement.  

“While I appreciate the Secretary testifying before our committee yesterday, he once again provided us with little to no new information. It is time for Congress to use our Article I responsibility and begin a vigorous investigation into how this all went so badly.”

McCaul said he believes Browne’s experience as an investigative reporter and knowledge and experience covering the country will prove to be beneficial in their efforts to gather information on missteps. 

“He’s got extensive experience with the Afghan military and Afghanistan, knows the situation very well,” he told The Post in an interview on Tuesday afternoon.  “He was a CNN investigative reporter on Afghanistan — really good credentials.”

Browne, a graduate of Harvard University with a master’s from Columbia University, has covered international security issues abroad and from the Pentagon for CNN since 2015 and was previously embedded as a contractor adviser to the Afghan National Army from 2011 to 2013. 

Prior to that, he served as director of international security studies for the Center for the Study of the President and Congress, where he conducted multiple studies looking into NATO’s role in Afghanistan. 

McCaul said he would like to see House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) get on board with a bipartisan probe into the turbulent exit, but said Republicans are open to investigating the matter on their own as they did with their probe into the origins of the coronavirus pandemic. The Texas Republican said GOP lawmakers are looking for ways to obtain critical information despite not having subpoena power due to being in the minority. 

“I would hope that the chairman would want to join with us in investigating what happened and how this got so bad, but I’m not optimistic with respect to subpoena powers, so we have sent letters of preservation, to State [Department], DOD [the Department of Defense], and the intelligence community so they have to preserve those documents, otherwise, there would be obstruction of justice,” he said in an interview.  “We’d love to do it with the chairman, but if not we’re going to go forward with our own investigation, just like we do with the origins of COVID-19.” 

McCaul said they are committed to seeking information through a variety of ways on the “missteps, miscalculations” made by administration officials, including why assessments coming from the intelligence community indicating the Afghan army could not withstand without the support of U.S. troops were “disregarded by the White House and the politico’s in the White House.” 

“Whether this rises to the level of high crimes and misdemeanors, we don’t know. But I know as a federal prosecutor, you gotta get all the facts and evidence before you indict a case, and that’s where we are right now,” he continued.  

“We don’t have subpoena power, but we can have FOIA requests, so we’re going to be doing a lot of that. We’re going to be talking to a lot of disgruntled employees from both the State Department, the Department of Defense and the intelligence community. They’re very, very unhappy with the way this was poorly executed,” he added. 

Browne thanked McCaul for enlisting his assistance in the investigation, asserting he feels it’s critical they get answers on how Americans and its allies got left behind in the country and is committed to a facts-driven investigation.

“Oversight is a critical function of Congress, and I look forward to putting together a comprehensive, independent and facts-driven investigation,” Browne said in a statement.

“It is crucial we discover what led to the chaos of the emergency evacuation, and examine the administration’s failed efforts to evacuate all American citizens, green card holders, local allies and other vulnerable Afghans fearing reprisals from the Taliban. I am honored to be selected by Lead Republican McCaul for this investigation.”