Three Years of Silence: Biden and Harris Still Ignoring the Deaths of 13 U.S. Heroes

Gorodenkoff / shutterstock.com
Gorodenkoff / shutterstock.com

Well, isn’t this just the cherry on top of the Biden-Harris administration’s forgetfulness sundae? Three years after the catastrophic mess that was the Afghanistan withdrawal, the families of the 13 U.S. service members killed at Abbey Gate are still waiting for that long-promised call from President Joe Biden or Vice President Kamala Harris. But, surprise, surprise—it never came. Because why bother facing the consequences when you can just pretend they don’t exist, right?

Cheryl Juels, the aunt of Marine Sergeant Nicole M. Gee, who was just 23 when she was killed, isn’t buying what the administration is selling. “There’s never even been condolences [from Biden or Harris]. They just want to pretend it didn’t happen,” Juels said, throwing shade at the two leaders who seem more interested in taking credit for “ending the war” than actually owning up to how they ended it. And who could blame her? Three years of radio silence would make anyone question the sincerity of those in charge.

Juels isn’t alone in her frustration. Alicia Lopez, the mother of Marine Corporal Hunter Lopez, who was also just 22 when he died, slammed the administration’s apparent “lack of responsibility” and the glaring absence of any real investigation into the disaster. “For them to think that it’s okay and to treat it as another page in the book that they’re just flipping over for the next chapter, it saddens me and frightens me, all at the same time,” she said. And really, who can argue with that? It’s like the administration is trying to speed-read through a book they should’ve taken the time to understand.

The families aired their grievances during a phone conference organized by—you guessed it—the Trump campaign. This wasn’t just any day; it was the third anniversary of the Abbey Gate bombing, an attack that claimed the lives of 13 U.S. service members and over 100 Afghan civilians, all while the U.S. scrambled to meet Biden’s rushed withdrawal deadline.

To add insult to injury, former President Donald Trump was busy at Arlington National Cemetery, helping place wreaths on the soldiers’ graves; meanwhile, Harris was nowhere near a memorial, opting instead to release a statement that honored the fallen soldiers and defended the administration’s withdrawal as the “courageous and right decision.” Because nothing says “I care” like a press release, right?

Not to be outdone, Trump’s running mate J.D. Vance, a Marine veteran himself, didn’t mince words, labeling Harris as “incompetent” during the call with the Gold Star families. “It is incompetent not to get to the bottom of why this disaster happened in the first place and what breakdown in authority led to this disaster,” Vance said. And you know what? He’s got a point.

The criticism didn’t stop there. Mark Schmitz, the father of Marine Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz, called out Biden and Harris for treating the Afghanistan withdrawal “like the plague.” Apparently, avoiding accountability is easier when you can just avoid the people who remind you of it. “They have stayed as far away from us as they possibly can,” Schmitz said, noting that neither Biden nor Harris attended the wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington. Biden, in true form, was reportedly vacationing at his family’s beach house in Delaware. Because when the going gets tough, the tough get… a tan?

As if to drive the point home, the Pentagon recently confirmed that the Abbey Gate suicide bomber was an ISIS-K terrorist who had been freed from a prison that the U.S. military had essentially discarded during the chaotic withdrawal. So, not only did the administration fail to reach out to grieving families, but they also left the door wide open for the very attackers who caused this tragedy.

Here we are, three years later, with families still waiting for a call that’s probably never going to come. Because in the end, it seems easier for Biden and Harris to flip the page and pretend this chapter never existed.