The father of a Marine killed during the U.S. troop withdrawal from Afghanistan expressed astonishment at the extent of the Biden administration's failures after a scathing House Republican report was released on Sunday.
The 350-page report details numerous failures in the 2021 withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan, including the lack of an evacuation plan for Americans and allies.
“To be honest with you, most of what's in the report is not new. We've been in congressional hearings. We've done all the research on the various congressional hearings that have been held over the last year and a half,” Steve Nikoi, father of Corporal Kareem Nikoi, told “America Report” on Monday.
Kareem was one of 13 U.S. soldiers killed on Aug. 26, 2021, when a suicide bomber detonated explosives during a mass evacuation outside Kabul airport.
Corporal Kareem Nikoui's (pictured) father, Steve, commented on Monday about the House Republican report on Afghanistan withdrawal. (Courtesy of the Nicois family)
White House refutes scathing report on Biden's Afghanistan withdrawal
Nikoy said one of the surprises from the report was the efforts the Afghan government had made to solicit and secure support to counter Taliban rule. Nikoy said the Biden administration “probably did not intend” to support the Afghan government during the withdrawal.
“But the good thing about this report is that it's finally out there. There's no more doubt. There's no more arguments like, 'this is a conspiracy.' The report is out there in chronological order so that everyone can understand the failures that led to this failed retreat,” Nikoi said.
Moderator Sandra Smith asked if the report might be brought up at the next ABC News presidential debate, to which Nikoi replied, “It definitely will be.”
“The report was very detailed and had a lot of elements that the American people need to know. The problem is, the administration lied. If it wasn't Kamala Harris, it was Jen Psaki. If it wasn't her, [Karine] “Jean-Pierre is a mouthpiece for the White House and its lies. The manipulation has finally been exposed and the truth has been revealed,” he said.
This photo provided to AFP by human rights activist Omar Haidari on August 20, 2021, shows a US Marine grabbing an infant through a barbed wire fence during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 19, 2021. (Photo by Omar Haidiri/AFP via Getty Images)
Nikoy also responded to attacks by Democrats against former President Donald Trump for his participation in a wreath-laying ceremony for families of Gold Star recipients at Arlington National Cemetery last month.
“It's only the Democrats who are having parades, political parades, and they've been lying from the beginning,” Nikoy said. “If you go all the way back to what happened at Arlington, we're all waiting for the day when we finally get some recognition from our government, where a former president comes to honor his children and lay a wreath at the memorial.” [Tomb of the Unknown Soldier] And they're using it as a tool for political influence. What they were doing was trying to take away what the day was.”
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He concluded: “Everything about the withdrawal from Afghanistan has been made public. It's all in the reports, so I don't know how they're going to spin it. They don't have the power to do that now.”
Shanna Chappell, mother of slain Marine Corporal Kareem Nikoui (pictured), is embraced during his memorial service at Harvest Christian Fellowship Church in Riverside, Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021. (Cindy Yamanaka/MediaNews Group/Riverside Press Enterprise via Getty Images)
The State Department supports withdrawal from Afghanistan and attacked the report as partisan.
A statement from a State Department spokesman said Republicans have “issued partisan statements, cherry-picked facts, suppressed testimony from the American people, and obfuscated the truth behind their speculation.”
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Fox News' Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.
