House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) on Friday canceled plans for a commercial flight to Afghanistan after the White House leaked the details of her planned trip, a Pelosi spokesman said.
The cancellation comes one day after President Trump sent a letter to Pelosi canceling her planned congressional trip to Brussels and Afghanistan, which he dismissed as a “public relations event.”
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“After President Trump revoked the use of military aircraft to travel to Afghanistan, the delegation was prepared to fly commercially to proceed with this vital trip to meet with our commanders and troops on the front lines,” Drew Hammill, Pelosi’s deputy chief of staff, said in a statement.
“In the middle of the night, the State Department’s Diplomatic Security Service provided an updated threat assessment detailing that the President announcing this sensitive travel had significantly increased the danger to the delegation and to the troops, security, and other officials supporting the trip. This morning, we learned that the Administration had leaked the commercial travel plans as well.”
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JUST IN: Pelosi cancels commercial-flight trip to Afghanistan after White House leaks details of trip https://t.co/YEyJv5ysDY pic.twitter.com/c3GyXIoiMD
— The Hill (@thehill) January 18, 2019
Yes, a president has the authority to cancel Congressional travel on military aircraft at a moment's notice.
Yes, he can violate security protocol and publicize that the Speaker of the House is headed to a warzone.
Past presidents, however, had more class than that.
— Bradley P. Moss (@BradMossEsq) January 17, 2019
Wow. Okay, this WAS a critically important trip, because Lord knows someone needs to affirm the importance of NATO and to thank the US and ISAF troops in Afghanistan. https://t.co/3PmtcykqLm
— Mark Hertling (@MarkHertling) January 17, 2019
This is crazy. https://t.co/pFOVm7JrKp
— Michael McFaul (@McFaul) January 17, 2019
So… the president canceled the Pelosi trip to Afghanistan out of pique and then realized that meant he also had to cancel his own staff's trip to a Swiss ski resort? https://t.co/TYYz6spoE9
— Josh Barro (@jbarro) January 17, 2019
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