Biden’s Counterterrorism Chief During the Kabul Withdrawal Is Running for Congress and Dodging the Question

Thirteen American service members died in the Abbey Gate bombing during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan.

The National Security Council official who ran counterterrorism through that entire withdrawal is now asking Hudson Valley voters for a promotion.

Ask her campaign what she thinks about those thirteen deaths and the answer disappears entirely.

The Woman Who Ran Counterterrorism During America's Worst Week

Cait Conley served as Director for Counterterrorism on Biden's National Security Council from April 2021 to March 2023.

That window covers the entire withdrawal from Afghanistan, including the August 2021 collapse that killed thirteen U.S. troops at Abbey Gate and left more than 160 Afghans dead.

Conley has now cleared a crowded Democratic primary field and will face Republican Rep. Mike Lawler for New York's 17th Congressional District.

She is also an Army veteran, and her campaign leans on that record heavily.

That makes the silence on her NSC record stand out even more.

She will talk about the uniform she wore.

She will not talk about the desk she sat behind two years later.

Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez and Rep. Pat Ryan have already endorsed her campaign.

J Street, the group that lobbies to condition and cut aid to Israel, is backing her too.

Families of the Abbey Gate victims are still demanding a full accounting from the officials who ran that withdrawal.

Conley was one of those officials while the plan fell apart in real time.

The World Got More Dangerous While She Held the Counterterrorism Desk

The withdrawal itself is not the only backdrop to Conley's tenure.

Iranian funding to Hamas climbed from roughly 100 million dollars a year to 350 million dollars a year by 2022, the same stretch during which Conley oversaw counterterrorism policy at the National Security Council.

Antisemitic incidents in America jumped from 3,697 in 2022 to 8,873 in 2023.

Iran's Shahed-136 drones, unveiled during that same period, went on to become one of the defining weapons of the regional conflicts that followed.

None of that proves Conley personally caused any of it.

What it proves is simpler: the threats her desk was built to track got worse on her watch, not better, and voters get to weigh that record for themselves.

Pete Buttigieg Showed Up, and the Résumé Still Never Came Up

Pete Buttigieg rallied with Conley at the Tarrytown Music Hall on September 16, 2026, and the Afghanistan withdrawal did not come up once.

Conley told the crowd, "All that time when I was putting my life on the line defending this country, Mike Lawler was profiting off of it as a political operative and utility lobbyist."

Buttigieg used his time to attack Lawler's votes on Iran policy and rising gas prices tied to the Strait of Hormuz.

Lawler fired back that "my opponent Cait Conley is paid for by these AI companies," pointing to her donor rolls rather than her old job.

Neither campaign wants to talk about Kabul, and only one of them has an obvious reason why.

A Campaign That Will Not Answer for the Résumé It Is Running On

Conley has not publicly addressed the Afghanistan withdrawal since launching her campaign for Congress.

Cale Brown, chair of POLARIS National Security, put it plainly: candidates "who cite their service in the Biden-Harris Administration as a qualification for higher office should be prepared to answer for the defining national security decisions made during their tenure."

"Experience matters," Brown said, "but judgment matters more."

Conley wants Hudson Valley voters to hire her for a bigger job based on a résumé that includes the worst national security failure in a generation.

She has not said whether she would have run the withdrawal differently.

She has not said whether she supports the same allies now pushing to cut off aid to Israel while backing her campaign.

Voters in New York's 17th District deserve an answer before they promote her.

A campaign built on silence about the defining failure of a candidate's own career is not a campaign asking to be trusted with a harder job.

It is asking voters to forget the résumé and vote on the ad.

Sources:

• Breitbart Staff, "Biden's Counterterrorism Director During Disastrous Afghanistan Withdrawal Running for NY House Seat," Breitbart, September 17, 2026.
• Fox News Staff, "Dem Candidate Clears Crowded Field to Face Trump-Backed Incumbent in NY," Fox News, 2026.
• Townhall Staff, "This Democrat Advised Biden's Botched Afghanistan Withdrawal – Now She Wants Your Vote," Townhall, August 26, 2026.
• Washington Examiner Staff, "As a Marine, Abbey Gate Wasn't a Military Disaster. It Was a Biden Betrayal," Washington Examiner, 2026.
• NRCC, "BREAKING: Democrat Cait Conley Was Key Architect of Biden's Botched Afghanistan Withdrawal," National Republican Congressional Committee, May 6, 2026.
• State of Politics Staff, "Buttigieg, Cait Conley Rally Against Mike Lawler in Hudson Valley House Race," NY State of Politics, September 17, 2026.