Trump honors Afghan dead while Biden stays in Delaware

Former President Donald Trump on Monday honored the 13 soldiers who died in the botched Afghanistan withdrawal three years ago, joining the families of the fallen at a private event at Arlington National Cemetery – while President Biden stayed away from the White House for the second week in a row.

On August 26, 2021, ISIS-K suicide bomber Abdul Rahman al-Logari detonated an explosive vest outside the Abbey Gate of Hamid Karzai International Airport, killing the soldiers and nearly 200 Afghans.

The White House released separate statements from Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday, although the president had no public events planned as he spends the week at his beach house in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

Harris also had no public events scheduled for Monday.

“These 13 Americans – and the many more who were wounded – were patriots in the highest sense,” Biden said. “Some were born the year the war in Afghanistan began. Some were on their second or third deployment. But all raised their hands to serve a cause greater than themselves – risking their own safety for the safety of their fellow Americans, allies and Afghan partners. They embodied the best of who we are as a nation: brave, dedicated, selfless. And we owe them and their families a sacred debt that we can never fully repay, but that we will always work to fulfill.”

The Trump team sharply criticized Biden for the way the evacuation was carried out – and accused the president of never paying their last respects to the families of the deceased soldiers with an official ceremony.

The private event in Arlington was intended to emphasize Biden and Harris' role in the withdrawal after the vice president explicitly agreed with CNN anchor Dana Bash in August 2021 that Harris was the “last person in the room” when the withdrawal was ordered.

“As I have said, President Biden has made the bold and right decision to end America's longest war,” Harris said Monday. “Over the past three years, our administration has proven that we can still eliminate terrorists, including the leaders of al-Qaida. [sic] and ISIS without deploying troops into combat zones. I will never hesitate to take any action necessary to counter terrorist threats and protect the American people and the homeland.”

“Today is a solemn day and a terrible reminder of Harris and Biden's failure to protect our reputation in the world and the cost of that failure. Harris proudly declared that she was the last person in the room when she and Biden ordered the botched withdrawal that cost the lives of Americans and our allies,” Trump adviser Brian Hughes said in a statement to the Washington Post.

Hughes added: “The message to Americans is that they should recognize the stark contrast between the Trump record and the Harris/Biden record in how we use our country's military power in the world.”

The Gold Star families have spoken to Trump in the past. Several family members, including Christy Shamblin, took the stage at the Republican National Convention last month to praise Trump's response to the tragedy.

“While Joe Biden refused to acknowledge their sacrifice, Donald Trump spent six hours with us in Bedminster,” said Shamblin, the mother-in-law of Marine Sergeant Nicole Gee, in Milwaukee.

“He allowed us to mourn. He allowed us to remember our heroes,” she added.

Trump claimed the chaotic withdrawal created an impression of American weakness and emboldened adversaries such as Russia and Iran.

“This is the third anniversary of the botched Afghanistan withdrawal, the most embarrassing moment in our country's history. Gross incompetence – 13 DEAD American soldiers, hundreds injured and dead, BILLIONS OF DOLLARS WORTH OF AMERICANS and MILITARY EQUIPMENT LEFT BEHIND,” ​​the 78-year-old posted on Truth Social on Monday.

“They don't take out our soldiers first, they take them out LAST, when everything else has been successfully accomplished. Russia then invaded Ukraine, Israel was attacked, and the USA became and remains a laughing stock around the world. THE FAKE NEWS MEDIA IS SILENT TO PROTECT THE WORST GOVERNMENT IN OUR COUNTRY'S HISTORY! MAGA2024.”

During the disastrous June 27 debate, which kicked off a nearly month-long effort to push Biden off the Democratic ticket, the president boldly claimed that he was “the only president of this century where there are no soldiers dying anywhere in the world in this decade, like [Trump] did.”

The remark angered the families of the Kabul Gold Stars, who told The Post it was further proof that Biden does not acknowledge their losses.

“It took all my self-control not to punch my television,” Mark Schmitz, whose son, Marine Corps member Jared Schmitz, was among the 13 fallen soldiers, told the Washington Post at the time.

“I was beyond annoyed and disrespected,” he said. “That's all we've ever gotten from this president.”