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Former President Donald Trump honored those who died in the Afghanistan withdrawal three years after the chaotic Kabul withdrawal, joining families of the fallen in a private event at Arlington cemetery – while President Biden vacationed away from the White House for the second week in a row.
Monday marked the third anniversary of the day 13 service members died in a terror bombing during the Biden administration’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal. On Aug. 26, 2021, ISIS-K suicide bomber Abdul Rahman al-Logari detonated an explosive vest outside Hamid Karzai International Airport’s Abbey Gate, killing the troops and nearly 200 Afghans.
The White House had not published a statement at the time of publication on the anniversary on Monday. Biden is spending the week at his beach house in Rehoboth, Del., after spending the better half of last week vacationing in California. Vice President Kamala Harris has no public events on her schedule.
The Trump team has heavily criticized Biden for how they handled the evacuation – and skewered the president for never honoring the families of the service members who perished in an official ceremony.
The private event at Arlington was meant to stress Biden’s – and Harris’ – roles in the withdrawal, especially after Harris said she was the last person in the room when the pullout was directed.
“Today is a solemn day and terrible reminder of the failure of Harris and Biden to protect our standing in the world and the cost of that failure. Harris has proudly declared she was the last person in the room when she and Biden directed the botched withdrawal that cost the lives of Americans and our allies,” Trump adviser Brian Hughes told The Post in a statement.
Hughes added, “so the message to Americans is they should see the stark contrast of the Trump record to the Harris/Biden record on how we use the nation’s military might in the world.”
The Gold Star families have spoken to Trump in the past. Several family members, including Christy Shamblin, took to the stage at the Republican National Convention to speak about the response to the bombing by Trump vs that of the Biden administration.
“While Joe Biden has refused to recognize their sacrifice, Donald Trump spent six hours in Bedminster with us,” Shamblin, the mother-in-law of Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee, said at the RNC.
“He allowed us to grieve. He allowed us to remember our heroes,” she added.
Trump has alleged that the chaotic withdrawal was a catalyst for other countries to launch conflicts around the world in the wake of American weakness.
“This is the third anniversary of the BOTCHED Afghanistan withdrawal, the most EMBARRASSING moment in the history of our Country. Gross Incompetence – 13 DEAD American soldiers, hundreds of people wounded and dead, AMERICANS and BILLIONS OF DOLLARS OF MILITARY EQUIPMENT LEFT BEHIND,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Monday.
“You don’t take our soldiers out first, you take them out LAST, when all else is successfully done. Russia then invaded Ukraine, Israel was attacked, and the USA became, and is, a laughing stock all over the World. THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA REMAINS SILENT IN ORDER TO PROTECT THE WORST ADMINISTRATION IN THE HISTORY OF OUR COUNTRY! MAGA2024.”
During the disastrous debate that kicked off a nearly monthlong coup to get Biden off the Democratic ticket, the president boldly claimed that he was “the only president this century that doesn’t have any this – this decade, that doesn’t have any troops dying anywhere in the world, like [Trump] did.”
The remark enraged the Kabul Gold Star families, who told The Post it was more proof of Biden failing to acknowledge their losses.
“It took all self restraint not to put my fist right through my TV,” Mark Schmitz, whose son Marine Cpl. Jared Schmitz was among the fallen 13, told The Post at the time.
“I was beyond ticked off, disrespected. That’s all we’ve ever gotten out of this president,” he added.
