President Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris “have never once reached out” to the Gold Star families who lost their loved ones in the deadly bombing at Abbey Gate that killed 13 Americans during the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal three years ago.
Members of the Gold Star families participated in a call with GOP Vice Presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance, the Trump campaign and reporters Monday afternoon — three years after the attack.
The suicide bombing by a member of ISIS-K at the Abbey Gate entrance of Hamid Karzai International Airport took the lives of 13 U.S. service members – 11 Marines, one Navy sailor and one Army soldier. Eighteen other U.S. service members were wounded. The bombing also left more than 150 civilians dead.
Pallbearers carry one of the 13 slain soldiers from the Abbey Gate attack at Kabul airport in April 2021. (Stephen Lam/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
Former President Trump held a wreath laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery Monday morning to commemorate and honor the 13 American servicemembers who were killed.
ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA – AUGUST 26: Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump stands alongside Bill Barnett (L), whose grandson Staff Sgt Darin Taylor Hoover died in Abbey Gate Bombing, during a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery on August 26, 2024 in Arlington, Virginia. Monday marks three years since the August 26, 2021, suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport, which killed 13 American service members. (Getty Images )
But neither Biden nor Harris attended, or held any similar events on Monday to honor the fallen soliders.
“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,” Gold Star father Mark Schmitz said in response to a question by Fox News Digital. “I’m not surprised in the least bit that neither one of them would show up for this event.”
Schmitz told Fox News Digital that “it is pretty obvious that when things get tough, they go running.”
“This is yet another spit in the face to the 13 families,” Schmitz told Fox News Digital.
Schmitz added that Trump’s presence at the event “was genuine.”
“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.”
Schmitz lost his 20-year-old son, U.S. Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, that day.
Gold Star Aunt Cheryl Juels, who attended the ceremony Monday at Arlington National Ceremony, said that “it doesn’t matter” what Biden or Harris say, adding “it is not genuine.”
“He has never once reached out to any of our families,” Juels said, “Kamala Harris has never once reached out. Kamala Harris supported [Biden] this entire time.”
Trump participated in a wreath laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on the third-year anniversary of the Abbey Gate bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members during the Afghanistan withdrawal. (POOL)
Juels, the aunt of fallen Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole Ghee, told Fox News Digital that “the only person who has reached out to our family over and over again and to all 13 families is Trump.”
“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,” Juels said. “We need President Trump back in office.”
Juels said Trump “is the only president president who kept our men and women safe who were serving this country. We 100% support him.”
“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,” Juels said.
Fox News Digital had previously reported that the suicide bomber had been a prisoner released from Bagram Air Base on Aug. 15, 2021, after the Taliban seized control of the facility.
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The U.S. service members killed in the suicide bombing as they conducted the massive evacuation effort to save U.S. citizens and Afghan allies include:
Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover, 31, U.S. Marine from Utah; Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20, a U.S. Marine from California; Sgt. Johanny Rosario Pichardo, 25, a U.S. Marine from Massachusetts; Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, 23, a U.S. Marine from California; Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, a U.S. Marine from California; Cpl. Daegan W. Page, 23, a U.S. Marine from Nebraska; Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, 22, a U.S. Marine from Indiana; Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, 20, a U.S. Marine from Texas; Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, 20, a U.S. Marine from Missouri; Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum, 20, a U.S. Marine from Wyoming; Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, 20, a U.S. Marine from California; Navy Hospital Corpsman Max Soviak, 22, a Navy corpsman from Ohio; and Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, 23, a U.S. Army soldier from Tennessee.
