Biden alum seeking Mike Lawler's NY swing seat ripped for ties to botched Afghanistan withdrawal

By Fox News · Fox News

A Biden administration alum running for Congress is facing sharp Republican criticism over her role in the botched U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Cait Conley, a Democrat seeking to unseat Rep. Mike Lawler, R-N.Y., in a battleground district, previously served in a senior position on former President Joe Biden's National Security Council focusing on counterterrorism in the Middle East. Conley has sought to elevate her profile in a crowded Democratic primary by highlighting how Russia banned her from the country for her work under Biden, and she's used campaign materials to lean into how she operated from the White House Situation Room. But she has been largely silent on Biden’s controversial evacuation of troops from Afghanistan in August 2021, which coincided with her time on the NSC. EX-BIDEN OFFICIAL SAYS BIDEN SHOULD'VE 'BOWED OUT' AFTER THE 'AFGHANISTAN DEBACLE' The chaotic and violent exit led to the deaths of 13 U.S. service members and more than 160 Afghans in a terrorist attack outside the Kabul airport during the final days of the military departure. Hundreds of American citizens were left behind as the Taliban returned to power. Though Conley’s responsibilities at the NSC have not been publicly detailed, her position would have likely landed her in meetings about the planning and execution of the evacuation. Several Biden administration officials testified during the House Foreign Affairs Committee's probe that the NSC and then-national security advisor Jake Sullivan played an outsized role in the decision-making process leading up to the withdrawal. The Lawler campaign said Conley should have to level with voters about the hurried departure and the horrific Abbey Gate suicide bombing, which it characterized as one of the "worst national security failures in modern history." "That’s her record and if she wants to run on it, she should have to answer for it and apologize for it," Lawler campaign spokesman Ciro Riccardi said in a statement to Fox News Di…