WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) – Former top military leaders who led the U.S.’s withdrawal out of Afghanistan spent hours testifying before Congress Tuesday.

Republicans blamed President Biden for the deadly and chaotic Afghanistan exit. 

“The White House refused to listen to warnings about the situation on the ground,” Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas.) said.

 McCaul chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee. 

McCaul pointed to military leaders’ advice to keep some troops in Afghanistan. Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Mark Milley says that could have prevented the Taliban takeover.

“Without their support, it was my view at the time that it was only a matter of when not if the Afghan government would collapse and the Taliban would take control,” Gen. Milley said. 

The Taliban retook control of Afghanistan just weeks after the last American troops left. During the evacuation in August 2021, an ISIS suicide bomber killed 13 U.S. servicemembers and more than 60 Afghans while thousands were evacuating at Kabul’s airport. 

“Desperate Afghans fell to their deaths from airplanes, and hordes of people surrounded the airport as they tried to flee for their lives,” McCaul said. 

The retired military leaders said that evacuation order should have come earlier.

“It was my judgment that it was far too little too late,” Former CENTCOM Commander Gen. Kenneth McKenzie said. 

“Was that your assessment General Milley?” McCaul said.

“It was,” Milley said.

But Democrats on the committee blamed former President Trump for agreeing to withdraw troops while he was in office.

“Trump promised the American people every single American soldier would be out,” Rep. Brad Sherman (D- Calif.) said. 

Milley said the 20-year war should be looked at in its entirety. He said no one could actually say when a withdrawal could safely be completed.

“It was a process of withdrawal that spanned a decade. The fundamental tension facing the president, in fact, two presidents was that no one could satisfactorily explain when or even if those conditions would ever be met,” Milley said. 

During questioning, Milley also said it’s unclear how many Americans were left behind in the evacuation. He said the number there to begin with was never known.