McCaul: Afghanistan exit, Hunter Biden top targets for Republicans in the majority

FIRST ON FOX: Republicans are laying out plans to investigate the Biden administration's chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan and the shady business dealings of Hunter Biden in anticipation of winning a majority in the House.

Rep. Michael McCaul, R-Texas, who is set to take the top spot on the House Foreign Affairs Committee, told Fox News Digital that getting to the bottom of the deadly Afghanistan exit is a top priority, particularly to support veterans.

"Afghanistan will be a major area of focus, and it's important because of our veterans. They ask me a question, ‘was it worth it?’ And they want to know why things went so badly. And never have had the answers as to why it went the way it did," McCaul said.

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"The Taliban was put in charge of the perimeter, the suicide bomber came in and killed 13 servicemen and women. And then American citizens left behind and a hundred thousand Afghan partners that we promised we would protect them [are] at the mercy of the Taliban. Now China is in there," McCaul said. "But most importantly is that Afghanistan was a turning point of projecting weakness over strength."

The Afghanistan exit and the waiving of Nord Stream 2 sanctions emboldened Russian President Vladimir Putin to stage the largest invasion in Europe since World War II, he told Fox News Digital.

The congressman said Chinese President Xi Jinping is observing the United States' projection of weakness as he considers a move to invade Taiwan, as is North Korea's leader Kim Jong Un, who has fired rockets near Japan recently.

"All of our adversaries are emboldened and empowered now... And it's not by coincidence, it's by design. And they're all interconnected," McCaul warned.

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McCaul stressed that all of these issues are important to American veterans, which is why he plans to aggressively pursue related probes in the majority.

"Again, our veterans deserve this. I talk to a lot of them, and they just feel like they've been betrayed, and they question was it worth it. And I tell them it was because we didn't have another 9/11," he said.

"But it's hard when they look at China is in [Afghanistan] with $1 trillion of lithium and will most likely get access to Bagram Air Base and which were our eyes and ears in Russia, China and Iran."

McCaul, who is chairman emertius on the Homeland Security Committee, said he is interested in looking into DHS and the department's "disinformation" campaign.

Leaked DHS documents recently detailed how the agency is still working with Big Tech to combat misinformation on social media on a variety of topics, sparking concerns from the GOP that the agency "politicizing" itself in the name of dispelling "disinformation."

As for oversight investigations, McCaul says he plans to work with Rep. James Comer, R-Ky., who will lead the House Oversight and Reform Committee to look into the Biden laptop because it involves China.

"Hunter Biden has had all these dealings with China financially and, you know, maybe at the beginning people thought it was a conspiracy theory, but there seems to be some fire to the smoke, if you will, particularly in terms of his father's role with the business dealings and whether his father had a pecuniary gain to that," he told Fox News Digital.

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Federal investigators are weighing whether to charge Biden with various tax and foreign lobbying violations, false statements and more, with a former official telling Fox News in October that an outcome to the case could be "imminent."

The president's son has been under federal investigation since 2018.