House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul (R-TX) apologized to Rep. Darryl Issa (R-CA) on Tuesday after being caught on microphone telling him to “go fuck yourself.”
The awkward moment occurred when the California lawmaker went over his allotted time for questioning during a hearing on the U.S.’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.
As Issa was questioning Mark Milley, who was the Joint Chief of Staff during the 2021 withdrawal, McCaul informed Issa that his time had expired.
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“Oh, I didn’t realize. Thank you,” Issa said initially. McCaul responded by explaining the time limit.
“We’ve been keeping a five-minute—” he said as Issa jumped in.
“I thought I was done! I thought it was the closing act, Chairman,” he said.
McCaul, perhaps not realizing his mic was still on, replied quietly: “Ah, go fuck yourself.”
The Texas congressman later apologized. “It was a long day, and I lost my temper. That is uncharacteristic of me and I apologize to Mr Issa, who I consider a friend,” he said in a statement, according to The Hill.
Issa replied in a social media post on X, claiming, “I’ve been called worse … and by people I don’t like!”
During the hearing, Milley and retired Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, former commander of US Central Command, both faulted the State Department for not being quick enough with ordering the evacuation of U.S. citizens from Afghanistan.
Last summer, the State Department issued a report acknowledging its missteps, including how “there was insufficient senior-level consideration of worst case scenarios and how quickly those might follow.” The stress that the military’s withdrawal placed on State Department personnel was also overlooked, according to the report.
The Biden administration, meanwhile, issued its own report last year saying that the president was “severely constrained” by the policies his predecessor made, including a February 2020 withdrawal agreement that Donald Trump made with the Taliban.
