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Editor’s Note: A previous version of this article incorrectly stated that all 13 American service members who lost their lives in the Abbey Gate bombing were Marines. This article has been updated to appropriately recognize all of the U.S. soldiers who heroically lost their lives in Kabul on August 26, 2021.
CV NEWS FEED // Former President Donald Trump blasted the Biden-Harris administration’s botched 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal on Monday, the third anniversary of the death of 13 U.S. military service members: one soldier (Army), one sailor and 11 Marines; and nearly 200 bystanders in a terrorist attack at the Kabul airport.
“America’s future is under threat like never before,” Trump told military personnel at the 2024 National Guard Association General Conference & Exhibition in Detroit, Michigan. “I don’t think we’ve ever been closer to World War III than we are right now.”
He added that his November election opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, “is letting terrorists come into our country” in “record numbers, and letting jihadists pour into our homeland by the thousands.”
Trump discussed the tragic August 26, 2021 ISIS–K attack at Abbey Gate in Kabul International Airport (then known as Hamid Karzai International Airport).
He recounted that the attack “left 13 American service members dead, dozens more badly wounded, and many innocent civilians … hundreds of people killed.”
Trump stated that the Biden-Harris administration “took the soldiers out first and [the terrorists] had a field day at our expense.”
“We will never forget those brave warriors who made the supreme sacrifice for our country,” the 45th president declared. “They will live in our hearts forever … We will honor their memory by restoring a government that puts the American people first.”
>> BIDEN-HARRIS FOCUSED ON ‘CLIMATE CRISIS’ WHILE TALIBAN TOOK AFGHANISTAN <<
“Caused by Kamala Harris, [President] Joe Biden, the humiliation in Afghanistan set off the collapse of American credibility and respect all around the world,” Trump continued. “Our country will never be safe again until we have fired those responsible for this disaster. In my opinion, the most embarrassing day in the history of our country.”
Trump argued that the botched withdrawal “gave us Russia going into Ukraine, it gave us the October 7 attack on Israel, because it gave us lack of respect – we’re not respected.”
“We were respected very much four years ago,” he said, comparing his administration to the current one.
“The voters are going to fire Kamala,” Trump stated as the audience began to applaud. “And when I take office we’ll ask for the resignations of every single official… We’ll get the resignations of every single senior official who touched the Afghanistan calamity to be on my desk at noon on inauguration day.”
“You have to fire people when they do a bad job. We never fire anybody,’ Trump added. “You got to fire them like on ‘The Apprentice.’” Trump here referred to the successful NBC show he hosted prior to running for office.
“You’re fired! You did a lousy job,” Trump continued. “Nobody ever gets fired in this administration.”
>> BIDEN-HARRIS COVID POLICIES SABOTAGED AFGHANISTAN EVACUATION <<
Earlier on Monday, Trump attended a memorial ceremony for the 13 slain service members at Arlington National Cemetery in northern Virginia, just outside of Washington, DC.
Neither Biden nor Harris attended. According to reports, Biden was on vacation in Delaware at the time.
ABC News reported that Trump “participated in a wreath-laying ceremony” at the cemetery in honor of the fallen soldiers.
Other than Trump, none of the other living former U.S. presidents such as Barack Obama, George W. Bush, or Bill Clinton, was present at the ceremony.
Former Democratic Rep. Tulsi Gabbard – an active Army Reserve Lieutenant Colonel who officially endorsed Trump during the conference – also decried the Biden-Harris administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“And I can tell you as we were there, as [Trump] laid a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, joining these Marines’ loved ones, I felt the sorrow that he shared with them in their loss,” Gabbard said onstage with the former president.
“I felt and saw his sincere appreciation for these servicemen and women who paid the ultimate price and their loved ones who continue to grieve to this day,” she added.
“Hopefully,” Trump told the service members in the audience during his speech, “when I’m back in the White House, I’ll get you the support, funding, training, and equipment you need, and I will get you the pay raises that you’ve really deserved for a long time.”
“I’m in this fight to defeat the corrupt political class in Washington that’s hurting you very badly,” he continued:
And to reclaim America’s future as a free and sovereign nation ruled by the American people.
When I’m back in the White House we will expel the warmongers, the profiteers … and we will restore world peace and it will be again peace through strength.
“Under my leadership we will bring back the values that you enlisted your lives to defend,” Trump emphasized.
>> TULSI GABBARD OFFICIALLY ENDORSES TRUMP <<
On August 15, 2022, one year after the Afghani capital fell to the Taliban, the New York Times recounted the events of the botched American withdrawal.
“Afghans fled to the airport in droves,” stated the 2022 Times report. “A suicide bombing killed nearly 200 people. The departure of U.S. forces just days later brought an eerie quiet as the country grappled with its new reality.”
The Times reported:
Kabul fell quickly. Taliban fighters faced little resistance as they entered the capital on the main roads. Afghan officials — including the country’s president — fled. And as the militants took over the presidential palace, so began a new era of Taliban rule.
Intelligence assessments did not predict such a swift collapse. In June, U.S. officials had said Kabul could capitulate within six to 12 months after U.S. withdrawal, leaving many stunned and unprepared when it fell in mere hours.
Within days, billboards depicting women were defaced or torn down. Afghan flags were lowered. Cafes stopped playing music.
Biden’s approval ratings began to plummet following the series of shocking events. The president never recovered from the dramatic loss of support – ultimately culminating in his decision to drop out of the presidential race last month.
On the same day as Trump’s Detroit speech, the socially conservative think tank the American Principles Project (APP) unveiled a trailer for its upcoming documentary, which aims to highlight the Biden-Harris administration’s failure in Afghanistan.
FOX News reported:
The documentary, “Culture War: The Deadly Consequences of a Woke War Machine” looks at the 2021 suicide bombing at Abbey Gate, the third anniversary of which was marked on Monday. The bombing, which occurred during the frantic U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, killed 13 American service members and 180 people in total.
…
The documentary alleges that the Biden administration was focused on a “culture war.” The trailer highlights decisions made over COVID-19 vaccinations and recruitment efforts using drag queens.
APP President Terry Schilling wrote on X (formerly Twitter) that he is “super proud of this documentary … detailing the woke culture war that Biden and Harris waged on our servicemen and women.”
