Top leaders on Capitol Hill posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to 13 service members killed in a suicide bombing in Afghanistan during the 2021 U.S. withdrawal on Tuesday, renewing scrutiny over the Biden-Harris administration’s handling of the exit in the lead-up to the general election.
House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-LA) opened the ceremony by apologizing to the families of the fallen.
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“I know many of you have yet to hear these words, so I will say them — we are sorry,” Johnson said. “The United States government should have done everything to protect our troops. Those fallen and wounded at Abbey Gate deserved our best efforts.”
“The families who have been left to pick up the pieces continue to deserve transparency and appreciation and recognition to you and the families who are not here. I can promise you this: You are not alone in shouldering the burdens from that day. And although we can never fully measure your loss, we can and we must memorialize the ultimate sacrifice that was paid,” he added.
Both Democrats and Republicans who sponsored legislation to honor the 13 who were killed in the attack spoke at the Tuesday ceremony, including top congressional leaders and the two highest-ranking congressional Democrats. Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-NY) highlighted how the 13 killed “were even younger than the war in Afghanistan itself.”
“As we remember the 13 fallen heroes, we likewise remember every American who served in Afghanistan, including the 2,400 killed, the over 20,000 wounded, and the hundreds of thousands more who wore the uniform,” Schumer said.
In his remarks, House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-NY) said the 13 who died “represent the best of America.”
“They defended freedom and democracy until their last breath. They held the gate,” Jeffries said. “The Gold Medal we are presenting today is the highest honor that can be conferred by the United States Congress. But no honor can truly repay the incredible sacrifice made by our fallen to the families here.”
The ceremony comes days after Rep. Mike McCaul (R-TX), the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, released a 350-page report that casts blame on the Biden administration’s failures that led to the deadly attack, slamming a “pattern of callous foreign policy positions and readiness to abandon strategic partners,” according to the report.
“It’s a historic document. It’s not a political document,” McCaul said ahead of the ceremony, speaking with reporters on Tuesday. “We wrote this, and before you criticize it, read it. Everything is built on facts and evidence, and we made our case. We didn’t draw conclusions in advance. We built the case all the way out.”
Democrats on the committee were not involved in the report and disagreed with its findings. In a memo to Democrats on the panel on Monday, ranking member Rep. Gregory Meeks (D-NY) said that Republicans “did not involve the Minority in this report, nor have they even provided us a draft copy” and said they have taken “pains to avoid facts involving former President Trump” who negotiated the withdrawal as president in February 2020, known as the Doha Agreement.
The Trump campaign has put the withdrawal front and center in the campaign. On the three-year anniversary of the attack, Trump joined the families at Arlington National Cemetery. His campaign distributed a video of him attending a wreath-laying ceremony despite the cemetery’s policy that strictly prohibits campaigning in the area, which led to an altercation with an employee who was working to ensure the campaign adhered to the policy.
Vice President Kamala Harris accused Trump of “disrespecting sacred ground” at the cemetery and went as far as to call it a “political stunt.” However, in the wake of the controversy, the campaign released eight videos in which Gold Star families defended his actions.
“We, the families of the brave service members who were tragically killed in the Abbey Gate bombing, are appalled by Vice President Kamala Harris’ recent attempts to politicize President Trump’s visit to Arlington National Cemetery,” the families said in a joint statement.
At the Republican National Convention in July, several of the families took the stage and slammed President Joe Biden for never saying the names of those 13 service members killed.
“[Biden] let my son down. He let the 13 down. He let the 45 wounded down. He let those 174 civilians down. He let our country down,” Kelly Barnett, the mother of Marine Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, 31, said at the convention when Biden was the Democratic nominee.
As Trump and Harris take the debate stage in Philadelphia on Tuesday, Republicans are attempting to link Harris to the withdrawal. The vice president has said she was the last person in the room when Biden made his decision. Watchdog reviews and the investigation by House Republicans have failed to produce any examples showing the vice president had any significant impact on the decision-making during the exit. However, Republicans continue to argue that Harris must take accountability for the deadly withdrawal.
Coral Doolittle, the mother of Marine Cpl. Humberto Sanchez, spoke last, reflecting on her “ongoing journey of grief” since Aug. 26, 2021.
“As their parents, our grief never truly ends,” she said. “It changes, it transforms, but it remains with us always. A big part of us died with our children on Aug. 26, 2021.”
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She concluded with a plea to America on behalf of the families of the 13 who died in the line of duty.
“Say their names. Speak their names and tell their stories,” she said.
