(Headline USA) Family members of some of the 13 U.S. soldiers killed during the administration’s disastrous 2021 military withdrawal from Afghanistan alleged this week that President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris still had not reached out, according to the Free Beacon.
Several members of the Gold Star families participated in a call with Sen. JD Vance, R-Ohio, on Monday to commemorate the anniversary of their loved ones’ deaths while attempting to maintain order at the Kabul airport three years ago. The suicide bombing at Abbey Gate by a member of ISIS-K also left more than 150 Afghan civilians dead and maimed many others.
Biden “has never once reached out to any of our families,” Cheryl Juels, who lost her niece, Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole Gee, told Vance.
“Kamala Harris has never once reached out,” she added. “Kamala Harris supported [Biden] this entire time.”
Reports indicated that Biden did meet with some of the family members of the deceased shortly after the fiasco, but it did not go well.
After he was caught checking his watch during the unloading of the caskets, he reportedly spent more time talking about his own dead son, cancer victim Beau Biden, than hearing out the bereaved parents.
“I actually leaned into my son’s mother’s ear and I said ‘I swear to God if he checks his watch one more time…’ and [that] was probably only four times in,” recalled Mark Schmitz, the father of 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, during a follow-up appearance on Sean Hannity’s Fox News show.
“I couldn’t look at him anymore after that, considering, especially, the time and why we were there,” Schmitz added. “I found it to be the most disrespectful thing I’d ever seen.”
Biden has since continued his track record of disrespecting the families of lost soldiers, initially ignoring the parents of three service members killed by a drone attack in Jordan last January.
He again brought up Beau when he finally did meet with them, just as he did when meeting with the survivors of the Lahaina, Hawaii wildfire tragedy.
And during a disasterous June debate with former President Donald Trump, Biden insulted not only the Gold Star families, but the entire American public by blatantly lying about his track-record as commander-in-chief.
Biden says that he's the "only president of the 20th century" who has had no American troops dead since he's been president.
13 American service members killed during his horrible Afghanistan withdrawal were unavailable were comment. pic.twitter.com/zaFMvgetCO
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) June 28, 2024
Trump, who attended a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday to honor the families, was the “only person who has reached out to our family over and over again and to all 13 families,” Juels said
“Him coming out here today and honoring these kids who served, and spending the time talking to all of us and doing this ceremony and showing them honor and respect and dignity,” she added. “We need President Trump back in office.”
During the call with Vance, the Gold Star families also blasted Biden and Harris for not attending the memorial at the Arlington National Cemetery alongside Trump.
“I think this administration has shown they have treated the Afghanistan withdrawal like the plague—they’ve stayed as far away from it as they possibly can,” Schmitz said. “I’m not surprised in the least bit that neither one of them would show up for this event.”
Trump’s presence at the event, on the other hand, “was genuine,” Schmitz added.
“I don’t see this as being part of his political campaign in any way, shape or form,” Schmitz said. “He has always vowed to be there for us—since we met with him early on—and he has never let us down.”
Juels agreed and said Trump was “the only president who kept our men and women safe who were serving this country. We will do whatever we can to get him back into office so that we can keep the men and women serving this country safe again,” she added.
