WASHINGTON: Several “Gold Star” military families ripped into Kamala Harris on Sunday, holding her administration responsible for the death of their beloved in the botched US withdrawal from Kabul three years ago even as the fierce controversy over Donald Trump‘s visit to the Arlington cemetery last week brought attention to his role in the American debacle in Afghanistan.
Pushing back at the MAGA narrative that the Biden-Harris administration alone was responsible for the fiasco that culminated in the death of 13 US military personnel in a suicide bombing, Gen H.R.McMaster, who served as Trump’s National Security Advisor before resigning in 2018, underscored the former President’s role in the disaster by negotiating with the Taliban, including inviting them to Camp David, and throwing the Afghan government under the bus.
Compounding that mistake the Trump administration released 5000 of the most heinous people and literally handing over the country to Taliban, McMaster said in a TV interview, while other critics said his decision to reduce US troops to 2500 was an invitation to disaster.
Those released in the Trump deal included Abdul Ghani Baradar, Afghanistan’s current deputy Prime minister, whom Trump frequently refers to only by his first name, while claiming that his threat to bomb “Abdool” by sending him a satellite photo of his house prevented US casualties.
Meanwhile, the Trump campaign tapped into the anger of eight of the 13 Gold Star family members to release a video in which they excoriated Harris for not reaching out to them, and said they had invited Trump for the memorial and were honoured he attended the event. “Are you in my shoes? I invited him. My son was murdered under the Biden-Harris administration,” Gold Star mom Kelly Hoover told NBC when asked if it was “appropriate” for Trump to visit Arlington National Cemetery.
Trump surrogates also sought to pin Harris to the tragedy citing her statement that she was the “last person in the room” — a vice-presidential template to assert their inclusion when crucial decisions are made.
“The media tried to make a story out of Trump showing up. The real story is that these families lost their loved ones because Kamala Harris is incompetent, and they’re rightfully pissed off about it,” Trump’s running mate JD Vance tweeted.
But there were also family members of other military personnel killed in Afghanistan who were critical of what they saw as Trump’s grandstanding on the issue. “You can’t stand on the graves of better men who fought and died for this country while you rip apart that country with your incompetence,” Marine Widow Kait Wyatt, who lost her husband in Afghanistan, said on an emotive issue that is dividing the US service personnel.
In a counteroffensive, the anti-Trump veteran’s group VoteVets released an ad listing some of Trump’s most offensive and egregious comments on the military, including calling fallen soldiers “losers” and “suckers,” which Trump denies even though he has publicly disparaged war heroes and service in the military, including flippantly claiming a civilian medal is better than a military honour because it did not involve sacrifice. White House officials also told NBC News that contrary to the claim of some Gold Star families, they had not invited President Biden or Vice-President Harris for what was a private event.
Pushing back at the MAGA narrative that the Biden-Harris administration alone was responsible for the fiasco that culminated in the death of 13 US military personnel in a suicide bombing, Gen H.R.McMaster, who served as Trump’s National Security Advisor before resigning in 2018, underscored the former President’s role in the disaster by negotiating with the Taliban, including inviting them to Camp David, and throwing the Afghan government under the bus.
Compounding that mistake the Trump administration released 5000 of the most heinous people and literally handing over the country to Taliban, McMaster said in a TV interview, while other critics said his decision to reduce US troops to 2500 was an invitation to disaster.
Those released in the Trump deal included Abdul Ghani Baradar, Afghanistan’s current deputy Prime minister, whom Trump frequently refers to only by his first name, while claiming that his threat to bomb “Abdool” by sending him a satellite photo of his house prevented US casualties.
Meanwhile, the Trump campaign tapped into the anger of eight of the 13 Gold Star family members to release a video in which they excoriated Harris for not reaching out to them, and said they had invited Trump for the memorial and were honoured he attended the event. “Are you in my shoes? I invited him. My son was murdered under the Biden-Harris administration,” Gold Star mom Kelly Hoover told NBC when asked if it was “appropriate” for Trump to visit Arlington National Cemetery.
Trump surrogates also sought to pin Harris to the tragedy citing her statement that she was the “last person in the room” — a vice-presidential template to assert their inclusion when crucial decisions are made.
“The media tried to make a story out of Trump showing up. The real story is that these families lost their loved ones because Kamala Harris is incompetent, and they’re rightfully pissed off about it,” Trump’s running mate JD Vance tweeted.
But there were also family members of other military personnel killed in Afghanistan who were critical of what they saw as Trump’s grandstanding on the issue. “You can’t stand on the graves of better men who fought and died for this country while you rip apart that country with your incompetence,” Marine Widow Kait Wyatt, who lost her husband in Afghanistan, said on an emotive issue that is dividing the US service personnel.
In a counteroffensive, the anti-Trump veteran’s group VoteVets released an ad listing some of Trump’s most offensive and egregious comments on the military, including calling fallen soldiers “losers” and “suckers,” which Trump denies even though he has publicly disparaged war heroes and service in the military, including flippantly claiming a civilian medal is better than a military honour because it did not involve sacrifice. White House officials also told NBC News that contrary to the claim of some Gold Star families, they had not invited President Biden or Vice-President Harris for what was a private event.