By THOMAS BEAUMONT and ADRIANA GOMEZ LICON, Associated Press
DETROIT (AP) — Former President Donald Trump on Monday linked Vice President Kamala Harris to the chaotic withdrawal from the Afghanistan war, calling the attack a “humiliation” on the third anniversary of the suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. soldiers.
Trump, the Republican presidential candidate, laid wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery in honor of Sergeant Nicole Gee, Staff Sgt. Darin Hoover and Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, who were killed alongside more than 100 Afghans in the suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport on August 26, 2021. He then traveled to Michigan to speak at the National Guard Association of the United States conference.
“The humiliation in Afghanistan caused by Kamala Harris and Joe Biden triggered the collapse of American credibility and respect around the world,” Trump told an audience of about 4,000 people, including National Guard members and their families in Detroit.
The administration of President Joe Biden adhered to a withdrawal commitment and timetable that the Trump administration negotiated with the Taliban in 2020. A review by a government-appointed special counsel in 2022 concluded that decisions by both Trump and Biden were the primary factors that led to the rapid collapse of the Afghan military and the Taliban’s takeover of power.
In his speech to the National Guard in Detroit, Trump said the withdrawal from Afghanistan was the right thing to do, but the implementation was poor. “We wanted to do it with dignity and strength,” he said. He called the attack “the most shameful day in the history of our country.”
Since Biden ended his re-election campaign, Trump has focused on Harris, now the Democratic presidential nominee, and her role in foreign policy decisions. He has particularly highlighted the vice president’s statements that she was the last person in the room before Biden made the decision on Afghanistan.
“We hope that voters will fire Kamala and Joe on November 5th, and when I take office, we will demand the resignation of every single official,” Trump said in Detroit. “We will have the resignations of every single senior official who had anything to do with the disaster in Afghanistan on my desk by noon on Inauguration Day. You know, you have to fire people. You have to fire people when they do a bad job.”
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In her own statement on the anniversary of the attack on Kabul airport, Harris said she mourned the 13 US soldiers killed. “My prayers are with their families and loved ones. Their pain and loss breaks my heart,” she said.
Harris said she honors and remembers all Americans who served in Afghanistan.
“As I have said before, President Biden has made the bold and right decision to end America’s longest war. Over the past three years, our administration has proven that we can take out terrorists, including the leaders of al-Qaida and ISIS, without troops in combat zones,” she said. “I will never hesitate to take any action necessary to counter terrorist threats and protect the American people.”
Biden said in a statement on Monday that the 13 Americans who died were “patriots in the highest sense” who “embodied the best of what defines us as a nation: courageous, committed, selfless.”
“Every day since I became vice president, I have carried a card with me listing the exact number of American soldiers killed in Iraq and Afghanistan – including Taylor, Johanny, Nicole, Hunter, Daegan, Humberto, David, Jared, Rylee, Dylan, Kareem, Maxton and Ryan,” Biden said.
Relatives of some of the slain American soldiers appeared on stage at the Republican National Convention last month and spoke to the media on a conference call Monday, along with Trump’s running mate, Senator JD Vance of Ohio. They said they are still trying to find answers about how their loved ones died.
“The fact that they think this is OK and treat it as just another page in a book that they’re just turning to read the next chapter makes me sad and terrifies me at the same time,” said Alicia Lopez, the mother of Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez, who added that she has another son serving in the military. “I pray that this doesn’t come knocking on my door again because of this administration’s lack of accountability for our military.”
When asked why Biden and Harris did not mark the anniversary of the Abbey Gate attack at Arlington National Cemetery like Trump, White House security spokesman John Kirby told reporters that Trump was personally invited by family members and described it as a way to honor the dead.
“Another option is to keep working,” Kirby said. “Maybe not with a lot of fanfare, maybe not with a lot of publicity, maybe not in front of TV cameras, but working every day with all our might to ensure that the families of the fallen and the injured and wounded – not just at Abbey Gate but over the 20-plus years that we have been in Afghanistan – get the support that they need.”
Also on Monday, Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson announced that Congress would honor the 13 service members posthumously by presenting their families with the Congressional Gold Medal next month, the highest civilian award Congress can bestow.
Under Trump, the United States signed a peace deal with the Taliban that would end America’s longest war and bring U.S. troops home. Biden later referred to that deal as he sought to deflect blame for the Taliban’s invasion of Afghanistan, saying it committed him to withdrawing troops and set the stage for the chaos that engulfed the country.
A review of the withdrawal by the Biden administration acknowledged that the evacuation of Americans and their allies from Afghanistan should have begun sooner, but attributed the delays to the Afghan government and military, as well as assessments by the U.S. military and intelligence agencies.
The two highest-ranking U.S. generals overseeing the evacuation said the administration had inadequately planned the withdrawal. The country’s highest-ranking military officer at the time, Gen. Mark Milley, then chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, told lawmakers earlier this year that he had asked Biden to keep a residual force of 2,500 troops for reinforcements. Instead, Biden opted for a much smaller force of 650 that would be limited to securing the U.S. embassy.
Gomez Licon reported from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani contributed to this report from Washington.
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