Vice President Kamala Harris, President Joe Biden, and vice presidential candidate Tim Walz were all invited well in advance to attend Monday’s ceremony commemorating the three-year anniversary of the 13 soldiers who lost their lives during the suicide bombing at Abbey Gate during the Afghanistan withdrawal. Despite the invitations, none of them chose to attend. Instead, GOP nominee Donald Trump was present at the event.
According to Human Events senior editor Jack Posobiec, the White House was notified about the ceremony and invited Biden, Harris, and Walz to participate nine days prior. Additional requests were reportedly made on July 28 and August 9 for Biden and Harris’s attendance.
Trump attended the ceremony and later criticized Harris for her role in the Afghanistan withdrawal, a decision she had previously claimed credit for, stating she was the last person in the room with Biden before the pullout was finalized.
“Caused by Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, the humiliation in Afghanistan set off the collapse of American credibility and respect all around the world,” Trump said during a conference for the National Guard Association of the United States. “It gave us Russia going into Ukraine. It gave us the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, because it gave us lack of respect.”
The Trump campaign also commented on the occasion, saying, “Three years ago today, 13 US service members were killed at Abbey Gate in Kabul, Afghanistan — the crescendo of the botched Harris-Biden Afghanistan withdrawal, which ranks among the worst foreign policy debacles in American history. Three years later, Kamala Harris still hasn’t said the names of these 13 heroes out loud — not even once.”
Trump was personally invited to the event by Gold Star family members. When questioned about why Biden and Harris were not present, White House national security spokesman John Kirby stated that there are other ways to honor the fallen without as much “fanfare” or “public attention.”
Kirby also claimed that Harris and Biden have a “track record over the last three and a half years” that demonstrates their commitment to the “men and women of our military, to our veterans, and to their families.”
Both Harris and Biden later issued written statements. Biden mentioned that he carries a card with the names of those killed in Iraq and Afghanistan, including the 13 servicemembers who died in the Abbey Gate bombing. Harris, in her statement, pledged to “fulfill our sacred obligation to care for our troops and their families,” and she also listed the names of the fallen soldiers.