During the interview Breitbart News SaturdayRep. Mike Walz (R-Fla.) said Gold Star families who lost loved ones during the Biden administration's Afghanistan withdrawal want to hear the administration acknowledge “it did something wrong.”
Waltz was speaking about how following the incident at Arlington National Cemetery, where former President Donald Trump was memorializing 13 U.S. service members who died during Biden's failed withdrawal, the media and Vice President Kamala Harris attacked Trump and claimed there had been an altercation between senior members of the Trump campaign and officials at the cemetery.
The Florida congressman added that Harris has “never called” or “met” with the families and is “speaking out” now.
“He was there at the request of the family. Yes, the family invited her and Biden, but they still didn't show up. And yes, as a veteran, I've been visiting my Green Berets who died where that gravestone is for 20 years. We always take pictures, we always post them online. I want the American people to see the sacrifices that were made for them. It was a beautiful moment. There was no argument. This is a fabricated story and I'm so sick of the families having a special moment with a former President of the United States who went out of their way to show up and listen to their grievances,” Waltz explained.
Host Matthew Boyle explained that the “last thing they want to hear” from Gold Star families is that Harris doesn't have enough “empathy” to pick up the phone and call them.
“I think this is really hurting them,” Walz explained. “All they want to hear is, 'We know we did something wrong. We should have done better. We're learning our lessons so it doesn't happen to future soldiers.' But every time Biden, and now she, says, 'No, no, this was a great success,' it hurts again for these families because the two major parties they lead are saying, 'No, this is the right way to do it. This is how we're going to do it in the future.'”
“The best way to mourn their loss is to say, 'We've learned our lesson, and we're going to do everything we can to make sure this never happens again,' but they're not hearing that. No, they're not hearing anything. What they want to hear is, 'We've learned our lesson, and this won't happen to our future children, our future Marines,' but they don't even have the courage to speak out now. This is just another blow, another devastation for these poor families,” Waltz added.
Families of fallen soldiers issued a statement explaining that they had approved the taking of photos and videos at Arlington National Cemetery, and criticized Harris for making a statement condemning President Trump's visit to the cemetery as a “political ploy.”
Waltz also noted that during the upcoming presidential debate between President Trump and Vice President Harris, the vice president is likely to point out that the Biden administration has implemented President Trump's Doha agreement to withdraw troops from Afghanistan.
“She might say, 'No, no. What Biden did was actually execute your deal, Donald Trump. This is your responsibility to the Doha agreement.' First, President Trump's advisors came to him and said, 'The Taliban didn't honor six of the seven terms of the deal. They didn't fulfill their commitments.' So what did President Trump do? He left 2,500 special forces in, NATO still had troops there, our contractors still had them there, Bagram Air Base still had them. Right? So, yes, President Trump made the deal. The Taliban didn't honor it. And when he left office in 2020, for him, the deal was a throwaway. Second, Biden had no problem throwing away all kinds of Trump policies, including the Keystone XL pipeline, even though there were billions of dollars and 10,000 jobs involved. “The Paris Climate Agreement, all of the border policy, over 60 executive orders, he's repealed and replaced them, and that means forever. The Iran nuclear deal, they re-agreed and tried to re-agreed it. So he can repeal all of these Trump policies, but he can't throw that one out,” Waltz added.
