Oklahoma Republican Congressman Markwayne Mullin made a second attempt to get into Taliban-controlled Afghanistan this week in an alleged effort to rescue an American family there.
The Washington Post reports Mullin on Monday called the U.S. Ambassador to Tajikistan from Tbilisi, Georgia, asking for help in skirting that country's laws on foreign currency in order to move large sums of money into the country. His plans were to then hire a helicopter to go to Afghanistan to retrieve a family of five Americans.
His requests were denied. The report says Mullin became enraged and threatened U.S. Embassy staff in Tajikistan.
Mullin has been trying to get into Afghanistan since last week. Reportedly, he previously tried and failed to enter Afghanistan last week by flying to Greece. He asked the Pentagon for permission to enter Afghanistan and was denied.
"To say this is extremely dangerous is a massive understatement," an anonymous State Department official said to The Washington Times.
The paper got no response from several attempts to get comments from Mullin’s office, but in a statement, a Mullin spokesperson says the Congressman is safe, but did not reveal his location.
In an Instagram post early this morning, Mullin said he is heading home.
"Have we been helping get Americans out of Afghanistan, yes. Is the mission continuing, yes. Am I missing, no. Did I go dark for a little, yes because it wasn’t safe to be communicating," Mullin said.
It's unclear if Mullin ever made it into Afghanistan.
The United States on Monday completed the withdrawal of its troops in that country, ending America's longest war after 20 years.
The U.S. has evacuated around 5,400 Americans from Afghanistan over the past month, and more than 120,000 people from the country in recent weeks.
Between 100 and 200 Americans remain in the country, many of whom are dual citizens. Yesterday, President Biden said that since March, his administration has reached out 19 times to Americans in Afghanistan "with multiple warnings and offers to help them leave."
Mullin is the third known lawmaker to try to enter Afghanistan this month. Congressmen Seth Moulton (D-Massachusetts) and Peter Meijer (R-Michigan) traveled to the capital of Kabul in secret on Aug. 24 allegedly to conduct oversight on the evacuation.
Their trip was widely criticized by the Pentagon and the U.S. State Department, as well as Democratic and Republican leaders.
