Chairman of the House Armed Services Committee Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., said it was “undemocratic” for President Trump’s decision to cancel Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi’s, D-Calif., overseas trip.
Pelosi, along with other Democrats, were planning to travel to Brussels and Afghanistan where they were slated to meet with military service members and participate in national security briefings. But Trump announced yesterday that he was canceling the congressional delegation in light of the partial government shutdown.
“President Trump’s attempt to deny members of Congress the ability to conduct oversight of military issues by refusing to support official travel is dangerous, and it is undemocratic,” Smith said in a statement Friday.
“The people’s elected representatives must be able to gather information on the ground about military conditions, especially the safety and security of our servicemembers, amid a complex threat environment,” Smith said. “If Congress is not knowledgeable and able to gather information about these conditions, it cannot respond with appropriate resources and authorities to issues that affect our country’s security and the well-being of our servicemembers and their families.”
Pelosi and other Democrats were planning to proceed with their travel plans and fly commercially, but Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff Drew Hammill claimed the Trump administration “leaked the commercial travel plans” — after already disclosing where the delegation was planning to head on military aircraft.
Hammill said that the “grave threats caused by the president’s actions” prompted the lawmakers to postpone their trip “so as not to further endanger our troops and security personnel, or other travelers on the flights.”
In response, the White House rejected that the Trump administration leaked the travel plans, claiming the accusation was a “flat out lie.”
“When the Speaker of the House and about 20 others from Capitol Hill decide to book their own commercial flights to Afghanistan, the world is going to find out,” a White House official said. “The idea we would leak anything that would put the safety and security of any American at risk is a flat out lie.”
Trump and Pelosi have sparred during the partial shutdown resulting from a dispute over border wall funding. While Trump has pushed for more than $5 billion for the project, Democrats have rejected his proposal.
