WASHINGTON — After being stopped by a Republican senator who supports President-elect Donald Trump, the Senate voted Monday to approve the promotion of a general who commanded forces during the U.S. retreat from Kabul, Afghanistan.
The Senate approved Army Lt. Gen. Christopher Donahue’s promotion to four-star general to lead the U.S. military by unanimous consent, which means all 100 senators agreed. European army forces.
According to a Senate aide cited by NBC News last month, Sen. Markwayne Mullin, R-Okla., had rejected Donahue’s promotion. Mullin did not publicly explain his decision, but it coincided with Trump’s promise to remove officials who were engaged in the botched U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and the investigation by the president-elect’s transition team into whether they could be court-martialed.
Mullin’s office did not comment on the lifting of his hold prior to Monday night’s Senate vote on Donahue.
As the final soldier to board a U.S. military aircraft departing Afghanistan in 2021, Donahue, who served as Commander of the 82nd Airborne Division, was featured in a widely shared photo.
During President Joe Biden’s administration, Republicans in Congress have held many hearings regarding the departure from Afghanistan, namely the evacuation of American troops, embassy personnel, and Afghans who assisted American forces from Kabul. In August 2021, 13 American service members were killed in an Islamic State suicide bombing at Abbey Gate, which leads into the Kabul airport.
Both Biden’s and Trump’s actions contributed to the problematic withdrawal from Afghanistan, according to an inspector general report from 2022.
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