Just in time for the upcoming presidential debate on September 10, Vice President Kamala Harris has unwittingly thrust the Afghanistan debacle back into the national spotlight and insulted Gold Star families in the process.
Last weekend, Harris issued a blistering statement on social media criticizing former President Donald Trump for laying a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington Cemetery. Along with repeating the offensive and thoroughly debunked “suckers and losers” hoax, Harris accused Trump of being “unable to comprehend anything other than service to himself” because his campaign posted a video of the former president at the ceremony – despite the fact that Harris herself has appeared in multiple videos filmed at the cemetery.
Harris also alleged that she “will always honor the service and sacrifice of all of America’s fallen heroes, who made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of our beloved nation and our cherished freedoms.”
But as Harris’s actual record proves – and the families of fallen service members have attested – the exact opposite is true. It is Biden and Harris who have shown callous disregard for service members, while Trump has been a great champion for veterans and men and women in uniform.
Trump traveled to Arlington at the request of Gold Star families on the occasion of the anniversary of the U.S. evacuation from Afghanistan that left 13 American service members dead at the hands of a suicide bomber. As many observers were quick to note, Trump was there in person honoring their memory, while Harris was campaigning and Joe Biden was vacationing on the beach in Delaware.
Neither Harris nor Biden has ever taken responsibility for the failure of the withdrawal, or even said any of the names of the fallen.
To the contrary, Biden has continued to insist that the operation which resulted in 13 Americans being killed by a terrorist was an “extraordinary success.” Harris, meanwhile, just this week described Biden’s actions as “courageous and right.” Harris has also said that she was the “last person in the room” with Biden before he made the final call to pull out of Afghanistan.
Harris’s poor attempt at a political jab backfired on her further as the Trump campaign released a statement signed by family members of 7 of the 13 fallen service members asserting that it was Harris who had “disgracefully twisted” Trump’s visit “into a political ploy.”
“If he were still Commander in Chief, our children would be alive today,” the statement read.
The Trump campaign also released a series of videos from Gold Star families expressing shock and outrage at Harris’s comments.
“Here we are on a beautiful holiday weekend day,” Mark Schmitz, father of fallen Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz, says in one video. “I have to stop what I am doing spending time with what is left of my family to address a heinous, vile, and disgusting post put out by Kamala Harris. Trying to incite those that don’t follow the truth that President Trump was in Arlington as a political stunt. Shows you how much she knows about the 13 families.”
“Why did we want Trump there? It wasn’t to help his political campaign,” Schmitz added. “We wanted a leader.”
“How do you sleep at night knowing it was you, this administration, you and Biden, you, being the last one in the room, are responsible for the death of our 13 kids,” Jim McCollum, Gold Star father of Lance Corporal Rylee McCollum, says in another video. “You have failed for three years and eight months to acknowledge our kids, to acknowledge me. You don’t know me, you’ve never spoken to me, You’ve never reached out to me, you have failed in your duty as vice president.”
The backlash against Harris continued this week during an appearance on Steve Bannon’s show War Room by Christy Shamblin, mother-in-law of Sgt. Nicole L. Gee. Shamblin said Harris’s statement shows “she believes our service members are disposable, and that’s exactly the feeling that we’ve got from the White House,” adding that Biden and Harris were also invited to the memorial service, but did not show up.
Biden had already angered these Gold Star families by claiming during his ill-fated debate appearance in June that no service member had been killed under his watch. He also infamously repeatedly checked his watch during the dignified transfer ceremony of the 13 service members’ bodies in 2021. Having the memories of their children insulted and forgotten by the Commander-in-Chief led several parents of the fallen to speak out at the RNC Convention in July.
To date, Vice President Kamala Harris has never met with the families of the fallen service members, and she has now thrust the Afghanistan debacle back into the national spotlight. As she prepares to take the debate stage next week, she could now be forced to answer for her statement and the pain of 13 families who will never see their loved ones again. All because she couldn’t resist a cheap, ill-informed swipe at Trump.
Andrew Shirley is a veteran speechwriter and AMAC Newsline columnist. His commentary can be found on X at @AA_Shirley.
