‘Significantly Increased the Danger’: Pelosi Cancels Afghanistan Trip After Trump Also Leaks Commercial Flight

In addition to leaking her travel plans via military transport to visit troops in Afghanistan on Thursday by announcing publicly he was “postponing” her trip, President Donald Trump also leaked her subsequent commercial travel plans, Speaker Nancy Pelosi says.

By doing so, Pelosi says the threat assessment, according to the U.S. State Dept., rules her trip too dangerous, forcing her to postpone the trip.

President Trump refusing to allow the Speaker to use military aircraft during the shutdown was a direct response to her disinviting him to deliver the State of the Union Address before a joint session of Congress. The President did not refuse to allow the First Lady to use military aircraft when she traveled to Mar-a-Lago Thursday afternoon.

“The United States Congress is a co-equal branch of government in our system of checks and balances. The Congress has a constitutional responsibility to conduct oversight in the war zone where our men and women in uniform are risking their lives every day,” Speaker Pelosi’s Deputy Chief of Staff, Drew Hammill, said in a statement.

“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.”

“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.”

News that high-level government officials are traveling to war zones is never released until they arrive, for obvious reasons of security and safety, to them and to the troops.