Former Biden Officials Largely Silent On Afghan Resettlement Vetting After National Guard Shooting

Several former Biden administration officials declined to respond when asked whether they still support the vetting procedures used in Operation Allies Welcome, the Afghan resettlement program tied to the suspect in a Thanksgiving Eve attack that killed one West Virginia National Guard member and seriously injured another.

What Fox News Digital Asked—and Who Didn't Reply

Fox News Digital reached out to multiple former officials and advisers who had direct or indirect roles in the Afghanistan withdrawal and the subsequent resettlement of Afghan evacuees. Messages to or requests for comment from former President Joe Biden’s office, former Vice President Kamala Harris, retired Gen. Mark Milley (former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff), former CENTCOM commander Gen. Kenneth "Frank" McKenzie, Secretary of State Antony Blinken, and former Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin either received no response or were redirected without substantive replies.

Other Notable Contacts

• Messages to National Security Council aides and advisers, including Jake Sullivan and Jon Finer, went unanswered.
• Officials tied to Homeland Security and immigration policy—such as Alejandro Mayorkas, Ur Jaddou, and other DHS and FEMA officials involved with Operation Allies Welcome—also did not provide comment when contacted.
• Tracey Jacobson, who led the interagency Afghanistan coordination task force during the evacuation, and other task-force members did not reply to requests for clarification about today’s view of those decisions.

Context And Consequences

Operation Allies Welcome was the government program to process and resettle Afghan evacuees after the fall of Kabul in 2021. In the wake of the Thanksgiving Eve shooting, critics and lawmakers renewed scrutiny of the vetting and screening procedures used during the evacuation and resettlement efforts.

U.S. Citizenship and Immigration Services (USCIS) announced a review of certain green card and vetting procedures following public questions about the case of the suspect, identified by reporting as Rahmanullah Lakanwal. Separately, congressional Republicans and other observers have opened inquiries into aspects of the evacuation and related immigration policies.

Officials’ Roles, And Where They Stand

Some former officials had publicly defended the administration’s strategic choices at the time. For example, reporting shows that advisers argued the withdrawal decision was intended to prevent continued U.S. military entanglement. Retired Gen. Mark Milley, who served as chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff in an advisory capacity, told senators he recommended maintaining a small force of roughly 2,500 troops in Afghanistan prior to the final withdrawal.

Ongoing Reporting And Investigations

Federal and congressional probes, local reporting and law enforcement inquiries continue to examine both the specific facts of the shooting and broader questions about how evacuees were processed and screened before arriving in the United States. Many former officials who shaped or advised on withdrawal and resettlement policy have remained publicly silent when asked whether, in hindsight, they would change the decisions they supported during that period.

Bottom line: The Thanksgiving Eve attack has renewed scrutiny of evacuation vetting and refugee-processing policies, and many former decision-makers contacted by Fox News Digital did not provide new public answers about whether they would have acted differently.