Bu Jon King / jking@whmi.com


8th District Democrat Elissa Slotkin was among a group of House members briefed Tuesday by President Biden’s top national security officials on the situation in Afghanistan.

While the President reiterated he is sticking to his Aug. 31 deadline for completing a risky airlift of Americans, endangered Afghans and others seeking to escape Taliban-controlled Afghanistan, Slotkin was among lawmakers from both sides of the aisle who pressed top administration officials, including Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Secretary of State Tony Blinken, to extend the deadline.

Slotkin said “There was strong, bipartisan support to extend the August 31 deadline,” telling CNN “That was a major theme, a major comment a major point we all tried to make, urging them to do more to advocate with the president to extend the deadline.”

Slotkin, who previously served as a CIA analyst in Iraq, has used her social media to urge the Biden Administration to both quicken the pace of evacuations and also expand the ability of Afghans who want to leave the opportunity to get to the Kabul Airport, saying while it may entail risk to U.S. forces, she hopes it is being “debated and not dismissed out of hand, since so many of our brave men and women on the ground are chomping at the bit to help.”