CNN host Phil Mattingly asked White House national security spokesman John Kirby on Monday whether he thought Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden's failure to attend the third anniversary of the Kabul bombing was damaging to the administration's reputation.
Former President Donald Trump marked the third anniversary of the bombing that killed 13 U.S. soldiers. Visit President Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery on Monday to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier and at the graves of soldiers who died during the Biden administration's withdrawal from Afghanistan, while Biden and Harris only issued statements. Mattingly asked Kirby on “The Lead with Jake Tapper” about the difference between Trump's actions and those of the Biden-Harris administration, and whether the current administration's statements have gone far enough. (RELATED: 'Him and him alone': Gold Star mother claims Biden is responsible for terror attack that killed 13 soldiers in Kabul)
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“I know we're not going to touch on the campaign and I'm not asking about anything political, but the footage this morning and the former president attending the wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery,” Mattingly said. “Both the current president and the current vice president have issued statements, but I wonder if that's enough given what happened three years ago.”
“Going to Arlington or writing individual letters will not be enough to repay these families and let them know that they are supported and loved and respected and admired for what they are going through,” Kirby said. “And nothing will ease their grief. No matter what we say, do, or offer flowers, that pain will not go away.”
Biden Written The president named the fallen soldiers and called them “patriots in the highest sense of the word” in a White House statement on Monday, the anniversary of the terrorist attacks. The president is scheduled to stay in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware, through Friday.
“Today and every day, I mourn and honor them, and my prayers are with their families and loved ones,” Harris said. Written The White House released a separate statement Monday: “Our hearts are broken by their pain and loss.”
“I was shocked to hear about the many families of those killed at Abbey Gate and their grievances against the current president, and in my conversations with advisers over the past three years I understand that it has been a personally painful issue for the president,” Mattingly said. “But I am also aware that he has not reached out to them since taking office.” [there] “He did not release the names of the deceased when their bodies were brought to his house. Does he understand the pain the families feel towards him?”
Kirby argued that Biden, more than any other president, “understands what grief is like, what mourning is like, what grief is like, what frustration is like.”
The Biden administration's April 2023 review argued that President Trump was responsible for the failed withdrawal from Afghanistan because he had not previously ordered communications with the Taliban, negotiated a withdrawal date and provided the Biden administration with a comprehensive plan for the operation.
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