On the third anniversary of the suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport, which killed 13 U.S. service members, gold star families vented their frustrations that there has yet to be any accountability for what Rep. Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) called “one of the largest foreign policy debacles that’s taken place in the history of our country.”
During a press call hosted by the Trump campaign and the RNC, Cheryl Juels, aunt of Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole Gee, said history will repeat itself if the government cannot admit its failures.
“There’s never even been condolences,” she said. “[The Biden-Harris administration] just want to pretend it didn’t happen. They want to take credit for ending the war, but don’t want to take responsibility for how it went down.”
Mark Schmitz, father of Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, emphasized that one of the main goals now is ensuring this never happens again—“that any gold star family is left for three years just waiting for their child’s name to be read by the leader of this country. Or get the honest truth…”
When asked whether any of the families had heard from President Biden or Vice President Harris, both of whom released statements Monday marking the anniversary, not a single person on the call said yes. On the contrary, former President Trump and his campaign have reached out to all of the families on numerous occasions, and on Monday laid wreaths with grieving family members at Arlington National Cemetery.
Republican Vice Presidential nominee J.D. Vance said Trump’s actions on Monday were a big contrast to Harris.
“A lot of families appreciate that he showed up,” Vance said. “Thank God for President Trump for doing that. At least hopefully it made them feel seen and heard.”
The Biden-Harris administration, meanwhile, has treated the Afghanistan withdrawal "like the plague," Schmitz said.
"I’m not surprised in the least bit that neither one of them would show up for this event," he said.
On several occasions Vance recalled how Harris bragged about being the last person in the room when Biden made the call to evacuate all U.S. troops from the country, which he said is a “slap in the face to these families” since she’s offered nothing in terms of what she will do to get to the bottom of what happened that day.
“She needs to do better, right now,” he argued. As vice president, she doesn’t need to wait.
He promised that if elected, the Trump-Vance administration will bring the answers and accountability these gold star families, and all Americans, are demanding.