Gold Star families of several of the 13 U.S. soldiers killed during the Biden-Harris administration’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan slammed President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday, with one of them saying “they just want to pretend nothing happened.”
Marine Sergeant Nicole L. Gee, Marine Lance Corporal Jared M. Schmitz, and Marine Corporal Hunter Lopez, members of the Gold Star family, appeared at a Breitbart News press conference with Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), Rep. Derrick Van Alden (R-Wis.), and Rep. Ryan Zinke (R-Mont.). Monday marked the third anniversary of the Abbey Gate bombing at Kabul International Airport that took the lives of young service members.
Gee’s aunt, Cheryl Juelz, said she has “never received any condolences” from the Biden-Harris administration over her niece’s death.
“They just want to pretend it never happened. They want to take credit for ending the war but don’t want to take any responsibility for how it turned out,” she added.
Juelz added that the report the family received was “flawed.”
“There’s been a cover-up from the beginning. Every report we get is flawed. It doesn’t tell the whole story,” she said. “They just want to take whatever they want to write and say it’s all over and ‘it was all good,’ but it’s not.”
She called for a “truth-finding” and “reforms” to prevent a similar catastrophe from happening, before declaring that America’s military personnel “should know they have a commander in chief like the president.” [Donald] Trump, who will respect and protect them?”
Gold Star Mom Alicia Lopez, Hunter Lopez’s mother, highlighted Harris and Biden’s “lack of responsibility.”
“And it saddens and scares me at the same time that they think it’s OK and treat it as a page in a book to turn to read the next chapter,” she said. “I have a son currently serving in the military and I pray that I never get another knock at my door because of this administration’s lack of accountability towards its military.”
She added that if we elect someone who has America’s servicemen and women’s “best interests at heart and who supports our troops, we can defeat this administration that doesn’t care about them at all.”
Gold Star Father Mark Schmitz focused on the “lies, corruption and cover-ups” that have taken place since the Abbey Gate bombing that claimed the life of his son Jared and the disastrous withdrawal. He spoke directly to Democratic politicians, blasting them for asking “easy questions” of figures like Secretary of State Antony Blinken during committee hearings on the withdrawal.
“My message is directly to all Democratic politicians. I want to thank Mr. Blinken and [Ret. Gen. Mark] Millie, [Ret. General Kenneth] “I’m tired of McKenzie and the boring questions that are being asked out there,” he said. “This isn’t a Republican vs. Democrat issue. This is an American issue. This is a lack of leadership, these are the consequences, and America needs to recognize that when it chooses its leaders.”
“But it’s our congressmen and senators who are supporting that leader, and I’ve seen them time and time again make excuse after excuse, try to victimize Trump, try to blame everything on him,” Schmitz added. “Trump is not perfect, we all know that. Nobody is perfect. But when it comes to the issue of Afghanistan, it seems to have become a partisan issue time and time again, and this has to stop.”
