The Biden administration left key decisions on how to evacuate civilians from Kabul until the final hours before the city fell to the Taliban, a new report from Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee claims.

Why it matters: President Biden acknowledged after the chaotic U.S. withdrawal that his administration had not anticipated that Kabul would fall so quickly, but insisted that "we planned for every contingency." The report, released ahead of the one-year anniversary of Kabul's collapse, contends that delays in that planning proved costly.

• In a lengthy statement to Axios, National Security Council spokesperson Adrienne Watson claimed the report was "riddled with inaccurate characterizations, cherry-picked information, and false claims."

Between the lines: The investigation was conducted only by the committee's Republican minority, which is clearly intent on highlighting Biden's failures on Afghanistan.

• It was led by Ryan Browne, a former CNN national security reporter who works as the lead Afghanistan investigator for the committee's minority.
• Because the White House and State Department were largely uncooperative, the report notes, the main sources are public records, a separate investigation by the U.S. military, and the accounts of whistleblowers.

Zoom in: According to the report, the U.S. military was ordered to begin planning for a civilian evacuation operation in April, four days before Biden announced the unconditional withdrawal.

• Multiple tabletop...

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