Republican presidential candidate and former President Donald Trump promised on Monday that if he retakes the Oval Office, on his first day he will demand the resignation of “every official” responsible for the “disaster in Afghanistan.”
“We expect the voters to fire Kamala and Joe on November 5th, and when I take office, I'm going to ask for the resignation of every single staff member. I'm going to have the resignation of every senior official involved in the disaster in Afghanistan delivered to my desk by noon on Inauguration Day,” Trump told an audience at the National Guard Association in Detroit.
“You know, people have to be fired,” Trump said, adding, “We never fire people. We have to fire people like on 'The Apprentice.' You're fired. You did a bad job,” in a nod to his reality TV show.
“You've done so much damage to our country, you get fired. Nobody gets fired,” Trump said of the Afghanistan withdrawal in 2021. “Nobody gets fired in this administration. It's amazing, all the bad stuff that's happened. Nobody gets fired.”
Republicans criticize Harris for being 'last person in the room' when Biden asked for Afghanistan withdrawal
Former President Donald Trump stands alongside his grandson, Staff Sergeant Bill Barnett, of Darin Taylor Hoover, who was killed in the Abbey Gate bombing in Kabul, during a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Virginia, on August 26, 2024. (Getty Images)
Monday marks three years since the Aug. 26, 2021, suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport that killed 13 U.S. troops and more than 100 Afghans. Islamic State terrorists claimed responsibility for the attack.
Nearly four months before the tragic terrorist attack, Vice President Kamala Harris spoke about her role in an interview with CNN, acknowledging that she was the last person in the room before Biden made the deadly decision to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan — a video of which is still circulating on social media three years later.
CNN anchor Dana Bash asked, “Afghanistan, are you the last person in the room?”
“Yes,” Harris replied.
“So do you feel comfortable?” Bash asked, to which Harris replied, “Yes.”
Harris' role in Afghanistan withdrawal remains mysterious despite 'final sit-down' with Biden
Pallbearers carry one of the 13 military personnel killed in the Abbey Gate attack at Kabul airport in April 2021. (Stephen Lamb/San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
Last month, President Biden drew criticism from Gold Star families after falsely claiming during a CNN presidential debate that he was “the only president this century, this decade, to have had no soldier deaths anywhere in the world.”
Darin Hoover, the Gold Star recipient father of Marine Sergeant Darin Taylor Hoover, one of the 13 US service members killed in Kabul, had a strong response to Biden's debate allegations.
Former President Trump promised Monday that if he retakes the Oval Office, on day one he will demand the resignation of “every official” responsible for the “disaster in Afghanistan.” (Getty Images)
“You know, we have a shambling, clumsy clown at school. The White House “Mr. Hoover had the audacity to say that not a single soldier had died under his watch,” he said in an interview with Fox News Digital in June.
The Gold Star father added, “I felt anger and absolute disgust to hear him say that. I screamed back at the TV just out of frustration. He never called out to our kids, never called them by name, and to this day I highly doubt he knows their names.”
Huber said the Biden administration sent letters to 13 families of Afghanistan Gold Star recipients one year after the attack.
Harris doesn't mention fatally botched Afghanistan withdrawal in military-focused speech at DNC
U.S. troops stand guard behind barbed wire on the side of a road near the airport in Kabul on August 20, 2021. (Wakil Kohsar/AFP via Getty Images)
“A form letter was sent to all 13 families, saying the exact same thing, and it was almost like they copied it all, basically saying we're sorry your service member died, and that's it. We never received anything before or since,” Huber added.
Responding to Hoover's criticism, a White House spokesman told Fox News Digital in June that the president “cares deeply about our military personnel and their families and the tremendous sacrifices they have made.”
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“As he believed then and as he believes now, our nation owes them a tremendous debt that can never be repaid, and we will continue to honour their ultimate sacrifice,” the spokesman added.
Fox News Digital's Jasmine Baer and Brian Flood contributed to this report.
