Warren presses Trump administration for answers on evacuation of Americans amid Iran war

The Massachusetts Democrat has been critical generally of the Trump administration’s response to Americans stranded in the region since the U.S. and Israel launched an attack on Iran on Feb. 28. But in a letter sent to TRANSCOM Commander Gen. Randall Reed late Tuesday, she questioned whether accurate information about the response had been provided to her office.

According to Warren, TRANSCOM told her office in March it had not been contacted by the State Department to aid in evacuations of Americans working for non-U.S. government entities. On March 12, during an appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee, of which Warren is a member, Reed told the senator that the State Department had made a Feb. 28 request for assistance.

“There was a significant discrepancy between what my office was told prior to the hearing and the information you provided in the hearing,” Warren wrote. “And more than a month after that hearing, my office has yet to receive any information from your command to support your testimony.”

In the days after the war began, Americans in the region reported feeling stranded. Some complained they were getting mixed signals from the U.S. government. 

The State Department on March 2 warned Americans in 14 countries to “DEPART NOW,” setting off a scramble. Some U.S. citizens said they were left to fend for themselves, though the State Department at the time said they were ramping up flights for American to get out of the region.

Congressional caseworkers — the staffers who deal directly with constituents — told CNBC in March that the process of arranging safe transit out of the Middle East had been chaotic and scary in some cases.

“People there that are in the Middle East, just wanting to leave but having absolutely no way to leave, they are scared, they are terrified and they are feeling abandoned,” one Democratic caseworker, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because she is not authorized to speak to the press, said at that time. “Their families here are scared and terrified and wondering why the U.S. government has not already gotten their loved one home.”

Warren in her letter called for detailed information on TRANSCOM’s effort to date in evacuating U.S. citizens, as well as its capacity to evacuate U.S. citizens in Lebanon if a ceasefire there does not hold.

“The American people have a right to know whether the Trump administration used all the tools at its disposal to evacuate Americans out of the Middle East after President Trump launched an illegal and unconstitutional war that put the lives of Americans across the region in danger,” Warren wrote.