Secretary of State Antony Blinken defied a subpoena Tuesday demanding he appear before Congress to talk about the failures of the 2021 Afghanistan troop withdrawal. Republicans said they will move to hold him in contempt.

House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul gaveled the hearing to order with the witness table empty. He waited a few moments, then announced that Mr. Blinken was an official no-show and adjourned the hearing.

He then led the committee in a 26-25 party-line vote to send contempt proceedings to the House floor.

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Mr. Blinken is in New York City this week for events surrounding the U.N. General Assembly, where he has been keeping up a steady pace of meetings with other foreign ministers and has several speeches scheduled.

“Secretary of State Antony Blinken brought this upon himself,” said Mr. McCaul, Texas Republican.

The proceedings are the culmination of years of fury over the botched withdrawal, the deaths of 13 American troops, the chaotic migration of tens of thousands of Afghans and the abandonment of thousands of other Afghans who helped the U.S. war effort.

Mr. McCaul said Mr. Blinken hindered the probe from the start, withholding access to documents and witnesses, delaying the committee’s final report until earlier this month.

The chairman said he gave Mr. Blinken a choice of any day in September for testimony on Afghanistan, but the State Department wouldn’t agree to any time.

“He would prefer to hide rather than be before this committee today,” Mr. McCaul said, calling it an affront to the families of the 13 troops that died in a bombing at the airport in Kabul.

The State Department on Tuesday pointed to a spokesman’s comments last week informing Mr. McCaul that Mr. Blinken was busy for much of the month with negotiations on the Israel-Hamas conflict, the Ukraine-Russia war and other international issues.

“They can’t just set a date when he has scheduled meetings to go participate in a Security Council meeting or convene this meeting to address fentanyl any more than he could be there today when he was in the Middle East trying to reach a cease-fire,” said spokesperson Matthew Miller. “That is not the type of accommodation that the Supreme Court has said the Congress must carry out under the Constitution.”

Rep. Gregory Meeks of New York, the top Democrat on the committee, called the contempt proceedings a “political stunt made for Fox News.”

He said Mr. Blinken has responded to questions about the Afghanistan withdrawal during more than a dozen other appearances on Capitol Hill, and has allowed access to some documents and department officials.

“There is no obstruction here,” Mr. Meeks said.

He said Mr. Blinken offered alternative dates that Mr. McCaul “denied.”

Mr. Meeks said the Justice Department has concluded that a congressional subpoena cannot supersede Mr. Blinken’s duty to carry out President Biden’s foreign policy directives.

Afghanistan would have likely loomed even larger as an issue had Mr. Biden still been Democrats’ presidential candidate. Vice President Kamala Harris’ ascent has defused that.

It does remain a sore spot for both parties, however, and they traded blame Tuesday for decades of effort with little to show for it.

Rep. Brad Sherman, California Democrat, weighed the bloodshed under both Mr. Biden and former President Donald Trump.

“Thirteen of our soldiers died in the withdrawal but at least we accomplished an incredibly difficult withdrawal and got 100,000 others out,” Mr. Sherman said. “What did we accomplish under Trump except to delay the surrender from 2017 to 2020, and during that time period 63 Americans died, not to accomplish a withdrawal but for nothing. They died for nothing.”

The GOP-led House has previously voted to hold Attorney General Merrick Garland in contempt, and voted to impeach Homeland Security Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas.

Both have proved to be little more than political stains on the two men. The Senate voted to acquit Mr. Mayorkas, and the Justice Department has declined to pursue the contempt charge against its boss, Mr. Garland.