Former President Donald Trump commemorated the three-year mark of the terrorist attack in Afghanistan by visiting Arlington National Cemetery on Monday alongside family members of the 13 American soldiers killed in the Abbey Gate bombing on August 26, 2021.
Trump laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier as relatives of the slain U.S. troops looked on at the ceremony, which included the “Taps” bugle call.
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This is what a Commander in Chief looks like:pic.twitter.com/LqwV3WMYi6
— Karoline Leavitt (@kleavittnh) August 26, 2024
After the ceremony, Trump spoke to the press in Falls Church, Virginia, saying, “Today, we had a celebration of some great, great people who passed away, who were killed in the most embarrassing moment in the history of our country: Afghanistan. Because we had an incompetent president with incompetent people leading, and every one of those people should have been fired.”
“And we have a president who’s not even around,” Trump added. “He went to California for a vacation because they threw him, essentially, out of the party, and then he came back home … and is he going to go to the White House? No, he went to Delaware to take another vacation.”
The American soldiers who were killed in the attack three years ago are Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, 25; Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, 23; Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover, 31; Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22; Cpl. Daegan W. Page, 23; Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, 22; Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, 20; Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, 20; Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum, 20; Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20; Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, 20; Navy Corpsman Maxton W. Soviak, 22; and Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss, 23.
Three years ago today, 13 American heroes were killed in the botched Harris-Biden Afghanistan withdrawal.
We will NEVER FORGET their service and sacrifice.
Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover
Sgt. Nicole Gee
Sgt. Johanny Pichardo
Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss
Cpl. Daegan Page
Cpl. Humberto… pic.twitter.com/tyGwwvQ52Z— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) August 26, 2024
While Trump was in Arlington, Virginia, to honor the sacrifice of 13 Americans, President Joe Biden remained on vacation at his Rehoboth Beach home in Delaware. Biden released a statement on Monday morning addressing the suicide bombing, saying, “Today, and every day, we honor our fallen.”
Trump ripped Biden in a post on Truth Social before the ceremony, saying he exhibited “gross incompetence” and was responsible for the “BOTCHED Afghanistan withdrawal.”
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Days before an Islamic jihadist set off a bomb near the Abbey Gate at the Kabul airport, killing 13 American troops and 170 Afghan civilians, top Biden administration officials were discussing the chaotic withdrawal of U.S. forces, according to newly released emails. Ten days before the bombing, Pentagon spokesman John Kirby sent a report detailing how U.S. forces were being overrun at the Hamid Karzai International Airport (HKIA) in Kabul.
The Biden-Harris administration released a report in 2023 blaming Trump.
“President Biden’s choices for how to execute a withdrawal from Afghanistan were severely constrained by conditions created by his predecessor,” a 12-page White House summary stated. It added that “the Taliban were in the strongest military position that they had been in since 2001, controlling or contesting nearly half of the country.”
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The White House also shifted blame for the Abbey Gate bombing onto military leaders, claiming that “the President repeatedly asked whether the military required additional support to carry out their mission at HKIA,” but “Senior military officials confirmed that they had sufficient resources and authorities to mitigate threats.”
Leif Le Mahieu contributed to this report.
