The emotional testimony this week by the families of the 13 U.S. service members killed during President Biden’s chaotic military withdrawal in Afghanistan has cast renewed scrutiny on the president’s past treatment of Gold Star families.
Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., held a congressional forum Monday with the Gold Star families who said they felt misled and betrayed by their own government.
Several called out Biden and his top Cabinet officials by name, calling on them to resign. A father of one fallen U.S. Marine called on the president to “be a grown a– man.”
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden attend the dignified transfer of the remains of a fallen service member at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, Aug. 29, 2021, one of the 13 members of the U.S. military killed in Afghanistan.
AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL: A POLITICAL TURNING POINT FOR WAY PUBLIC FELT ABOUT BIDEN
The Biden administration’s series of missteps during the withdrawal nearly two years ago marked a political turning point for the public’s perception of the president’s competency and ability to lead. His decision faced widespread global backlash after Taliban insurgents retook the country in a matter of days on Aug. 15, 2021, essentially winning the war 20 years after their ouster by U.S.-led forces.
Biden had assured Americans just one month before the collapse that the likelihood of a Taliban takeover was “highly unlikely.”
Then on Aug. 26, 2021, during the U.S. military’s mass evacuation at the Kabul airport, suicide bombers killed 183 people, including 13 U.S. service members.
The U.S. military evacuation, which required thousands of additional U.S. troops on the ground and significant cooperation from the Taliban to complete, ended a day ahead of deadline on Aug. 30, 2021, leaving behind hundreds of U.S. citizens and tens of thousands of Afghan allies despite Biden’s promise days earlier to “get them all out.”
BIDEN REPORTEDLY HAS HISTORY OF DISRESPECTING GOLD STAR FAMILIES
Critics have demanded that heads roll for the Afghanistan debacle with calls for the firings of Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley.
Despite telling Americans after Afghanistan’s fall that “the buck stops with me,” Biden repeatedly blamed former President Trump and the Afghan military for the country’s swift collapse, and he has declined to fire a single official over the withdrawal.
President Biden reacts during a contentious back-and-forth with Fox News’ Peter Doocy during a press conference after a terrorist attack in Kabul, Afghanistan, that left 13 service members dead on Aug. 26, 2021. (Getty Images)
During Monday’s hearing, Kelly Barnett, mother of Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, addressed the panel first and spoke for nearly 15 minutes, accusing Biden officials of lying to her about her son’s death – and saying she was told that he died immediately only for eyewitnesses to tell her he “lived for a little while.”
“We were told lies, given incomplete reports, incorrect reports, total disrespect,” Barnett said. “I was told to my face he died on impact. That’s not true. The only reason that I know this is because witnesses told me the truth. I was lied to and basically told to shut up.”
MOST HEART-WRENCHING MOMENTS FROM GOLD STAR FAMILIES’ TESTIMONY ON KABUL ATTACK
Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui’s father, Steve Nikoui, accused Biden of using his Marine son “as a pawn so we can meet his Sept. 11th deadline and get the optics he wanted.”
“My life and that of my family’s has been on pause since the early morning of Aug. 26, 2021,” the emotional father said. “The difference between the minutes of my life before that and the minutes that passed after that day are contrasted drastically.”
Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, 20, died in the Kabul airport suicide attack in August 2021. (Family of Kareem Nikoui)
Christy Shamblin, the mother-in-law of Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee, held back tears when she described her reaction to Biden officials lauding the evacuation as a success.
“When our leaders, including the secretary of defense and our commander in chief, called this evacuation a success, as if there should be celebration, it is like a knife in the heart for our families and for the people [who] came back,” Shamblin said. “I live [every] single day knowing that these deaths were preventable. My daughter could be with us today.”
“I can’t even begin to piece together the words that would convey to you the devastation that her murder has brought to our family,” she said.
A Defense Department spokesperson’s statement on the Gold Star families’ testimony said, “The Department of Defense expresses our deepest condolences to the Gold Star Families who lost loved ones during the tragic bombing at Abbey Gate. We are forever grateful for their service, sacrifice, and committed efforts during the evacuation operations. We also commend the historic and monumental efforts of all our service men and women who served honorably during the withdrawal period from Afghanistan.”
President Biden, first lady Jill Biden and Secretary of State Antony Blinken look on during a casualty return ceremony at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, on Aug. 29, 2021, for the 13 service members killed in the suicide bombing in Kabul, Afghanistan, on Aug. 26, 2021. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)
Biden received criticism for his treatment of the Gold Star families immediately following the 2021 attack in Kabul.
Following the attack, Biden met in Dover, Delaware, with the family members of the 13 killed, but several of them later spoke out, accusing the president of repeatedly bringing up his late son, Beau, and saying he routinely checked his watch during the dignified transfer of the deceased’s remains.
Cheyenne McCollum, one of the sisters of Marine Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, said she met with Biden alongside McCollum’s pregnant widow and that the president would not look at the family in the eye and spent the three-minute conversation talking about Beau, who served in Iraq with the U.S. Army and died in 2015 from brain cancer.
“I was able to stand about 15 seconds of his fake, scripted apology and I had to walk away,” Cheyenne told “Fox & Friends.”
This undated photo released by the 1st Marine Division, Camp Pendleton,shows Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum.
