NBC News’ Kristen Welker incorrectly stated that Vice President Kamala Harris met with Gold Star families of servicemen and women killed in the Abbey Gate suicide bombing when the remains of those U.S. Armed Forces members were returned home for the dignified transfer. However, Harris was not present at the dignified transfer ceremony.
Welker made this assertion during a Meet the Press interview with Senator Tom Cotton on Sunday, while defending Harris against criticism for not meeting with the families or attending a memorial on the third anniversary of their deaths. GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump attended the memorial and was criticized for it by the Harris campaign.
“All right, let me ask you about another one of the big headlines this week,” Welker said. “Donald Trump’s visit to Arlington National Cemetery. You’ve been talking about this. He attended a wreath-laying ceremony, obviously, for the 13 service members who were killed during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. He was invited by those family members.
Important to say that he also had campaign staffers with him. Photos, videos were posted on a campaign site. Taking campaign photos and videos at gravesites is forbidden under federal law. You, of course, served at Arlington Cemetery in the Old Guard, so I know that this is a sacred place for you. Bottom line, though, I guess, Senator, is it ever appropriate to make campaign content at military gravesites?” Welker said, without noting that Biden also used photos from the cemetery in his 2020 campaign advertising.
Senator Tom Cotton (R-AR) responded that Harris could have “honored the sacrifice of those young men and women, but she hasn’t. And it’s because of her and Joe Biden’s incompetence that those 13 Americans were killed in Afghanistan.”
“These are Gold Star families whose children died because of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s incompetence,” Cotton continued. “They invited him to the cemetery, and they asked him to take those photos. Because, as they told me yesterday when I spoke to Kelly Barnett and Darren Hoover, the parents of Taylor Hoover, who has Arkansas ties, they don’t get to go to the beach on Labor Day. They don’t get to have barbecues. This is their one chance to have a memory of their children to commemorate their service and honor, their sacrifice.
“They wanted President Trump there,” Cotton added. “They wanted to take those photos. You know who the families also invited? Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Where were they? Joe Biden was sitting on the beach. Kamala Harris was sitting at her mansion in Washington, D.C. She was four miles away, 10 minutes. She could have gone to the cemetery and honored the sacrifice of those young men and women, but she hasn’t. She never has spoken to them or taken a meeting with them.”
At this point, Welker interrupted, saying, “Well, they did meet with them during the dignified transfer, they were there with them at the dignified transfer.”
Cotton replied, “It’s because of her and Joe Biden’s incompetence that those 13 Americans were killed in Afghanistan.” Notably, Harris was not at the dignified transfer of remains in 2021. Biden attended the event, where he was seen checking his watch while standing, masked, alongside First Lady Jill Biden and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.
Former President Donald Trump recently honored the 13 Americans at a ceremony at Arlington, while President Joe Biden’s Afghanistan withdrawal continues to be widely criticized as disastrous.
The Gold Star families have criticized Harris for not honoring the 13 Americans killed at the Kabul airport and for condemning Trump for his actions, calling her response “false, hypocritical, and disgraceful.”
After airing the broadcast, Meet the Press issued a correction, stating, “On our broadcast this morning, we incorrectly implied that both President Biden and Vice President Harris attended the dignified transfer of 13 American service members killed during the Afghanistan withdrawal. Biden was in attendance but Harris was not.”