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DETROIT (AP) — Former President Donald Trump on Monday tied Vice President Kamala Harris to the chaotic Afghanistan War withdrawal on the third anniversary of the suicide bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members, calling the attack a “humiliation.”
Trump, the Republican presidential nominee, laid wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery in honor of Sgt. Nicole Gee, Staff Sgt. Darin Hoover and Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, who were killed alongside more than 100 Afghans in the Aug. 26, 2021, suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport. He then traveled to Michigan to address the National Guard Association of the United States conference.
“Caused by Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, the humiliation in Afghanistan set off the collapse of American credibility and respect all around the world," Trump told an audience of about 4,000, including National Guard members and their families in Detroit.
President Joe Biden's administration was following a withdrawal commitment and timeline that the Trump administration had negotiated with the Taliban in 2020. A 2022 review by a government-appointed special investigator concluded decisions made by both Trump and Biden were the key factors leading to the rapid collapse of Afghanistan’s military and the Taliban takeover.
In his speech to the National Guard in Detroit, Trump said that leaving Afghanistan was the right thing to do but that the execution was poor. “We were going to do it with dignity and strength," he said. He called the attack “the most embarrassing day in the history of our country.”
Since Biden ended his reelection bid, Trump has been zeroing in on Harris, now the Democratic presidential nominee, and her roles in foreign policy decisions. He has specifically highlighted the vice president’s statements that she was the last person in the room before Biden made the decision on Afghanistan.
“The voters are going to fire Kamala and Joe on Nov. 5, we hope, and when I take office we will ask for the resignations of every single official,” Trump said in Detroit. “We’ll get the resignations of every single senior official who touched the Afghanistan calamity, to be on my desk at noon on Inauguration Day. You know, you have to fire people. You have to fire people when they do a bad job.”
In her own statement marking the anniversary of the Kabul airport attack, Harris said she mourns the 13 U.S. service members who were killed. “My prayers are with their families and loved ones. My heart breaks for their pain and their loss,” she said.
Harris said she honors and remembers all Americans who served in Afghanistan.
“As I have said, President Biden made the courageous and right decision to end America’s longest war. Over the past three years, our Administration has demonstrated we can still eliminate terrorists, including the leaders of al-Qaeda and ISIS, without troops deployed into combat zones,” she said. “I will never hesitate to take whatever action necessary to counter terrorist threats and protect the American people.”
Biden said in a statement Monday that the 13 Americans who died were “patriots in the highest sense” who “embodied the very best of who we are as a nation: brave, committed, selfless.”
“Ever since I became Vice President, I carried a card with me every day that listed the exact number of American service members who were killed in Iraq and Afghanistan—including Taylor, Johanny, Nicole, Hunter, Daegan, Humberto, David, Jared, Rylee, Dylan, Kareem, Maxton, and Ryan,” Biden said.
The relatives of some of the American service members who were killed appeared on stage at the Republican National Convention last month and spoke on Monday in a media call along with Trump's running mate, Sen. JD Vance of Ohio. They said they are still trying to get answers on how their loved ones died.
“For them to think that is OK and treat it as another page in a book that they’re just flipping over for the next chapter it saddens me and frightens me all at the same time,” said Alicia Lopez, the mother of Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez, who added she has another son serving in the military. "I pray that I don’t get another knock on my door because of the lack of responsibilities this administration has for our military.”
Asked Monday why Biden and Harris weren’t marking the anniversary of the Abbey Gate attack as Trump did at Arlington National Cemetery, White House national security spokesman John Kirby told reporters that Trump had been personally invited by the family members and he called it one way to honor the fallen.
“Another way is to continue to work,” Kirby said. “Maybe not with a lot of fanfare, maybe not with a lot of public attention, maybe not with TV cameras, but to work with might and main every single day to make sure that the families of the fallen and of those who were injured and wounded, not just at Abbey Gate, but over the course of the 20-some odd years that we were in Afghanistan, have the support that they need.”
Also Monday, House Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., announced that Congress will posthumously honor the 13 service members by presenting their families with the Congressional Gold Medal next month. It's the highest civilian award that Congress can bestow.
Under Trump, the United States signed a peace agreement with the Taliban that was aimed at ending America’s longest war and bringing U.S. troops home. Biden later pointed to that agreement as he sought to deflect blame for the Taliban overrunning Afghanistan, saying it bound him to withdraw troops and set the stage for the chaos that engulfed the country.
A Biden administration review of the withdrawal acknowledged that the evacuation of Americans and allies from Afghanistan should have started sooner, but attributed the delays to the Afghan government and military, and to U.S. military and intelligence community assessments.
The top two U.S. generals who oversaw the evacuation said the administration inadequately planned for the withdrawal. The nation’s top-ranking military officer at the time, then-Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley, told lawmakers earlier this year he had urged Biden to keep a residual force of 2,500 forces to give backup. Instead, Biden decided to keep a much smaller force of 650 that would be limited to securing the U.S. embassy.
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Gomez Licon reported from Fort Lauderdale, Fla. Associated Press writer Aamer Madhani contributed to this report from Washington.