Pelosi Cancels Afghanistan Trip Outright After 'Threat Assessment'
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi pointed the finger at President Donald Trump Friday after she changed course and cancelled a planned trip to Afghanistan.
A White House spokesman called the allegation “a flat out lie.”
The trip was originally part of a trip that the California Democrat and other Congressional Democrats were planning to take, heading first to Brussels and then to Afghanistan. Trump rejected the use of military aircraft for the trip, which he denigrated as a “public relations event.”
President @realDonaldTrump’s letter to @SpeakerPelosi concerning her upcoming travel pic.twitter.com/TtBCvwp080
— Sarah Sanders (@PressSec) January 17, 2019
Pelosi’s team said that White House publicity over the trip was bad enough, but that the White House then leaked the details to the media.
“After President Trump revoked the use of military aircraft to travel to Afghanistan, the delegation was prepared to fly commercially to proceed with this vital trip to meet with our commanders and troops on the front lines,” said Drew Hammill, Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff, according to The Hill.
“In the middle of the night, the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service provided an updated threat assessment detailing that the President announcing this sensitive travel had significantly increased the danger to the delegation and to the troops, security, and other officials supporting the trip. This morning, we learned that the Administration had leaked the commercial travel plans as well,” he said.
“In light of the grave threats caused by the President’s action, the delegation has decided to postpone the trip so as not to further endanger our troops and security personnel, or the other travelers on the flights,” he said.
Trump on Friday said that Pelosi should be in Washington addressing issues with border security and the partial government shutdown.
“Why would Nancy Pelosi leave the Country with other Democrats on a seven day excursion when 800,000 great people are not getting paid. Also, could somebody please explain to Nancy & her ‘big donors’ in wine country that people working on farms (grapes) will have easy access in!” he tweeted.
Why would Nancy Pelosi leave the Country with other Democrats on a seven day excursion when 800,000 great people are not getting paid. Also, could somebody please explain to Nancy & her “big donors” in wine country that people working on farms (grapes) will have easy access in!
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) January 18, 2019
The White House media pool said it was given a statement from the White House in response.
“When the Speaker of the house and about 20 others from Capitol Hill decide to book their own commercial flights to Afghanistan, the world is going to find out. The idea we would leak anything that would put the safety and security of any American at risk is a flat out lie,” the statement said according to a White House media pool report.
Fox News reported that the trip was never going to be shrouded in secrecy. It said that State Department officials in Kabul recommended in a cable that the trip be canceled.
“The cable cited Afghan media reporting about the president’s suggestion to fly commercially. The cable, according to sources, noted the delegation had requested authorization to purchase 17 tickets over unclassified systems and advised that their travel would not be a secret,” Fox News reported.
Fox also said that because very few commercial airlines fly into Kabul, it would have been easy to know when Pelosi’s entourage would be arriving.
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