Gold Star Families Commemorate Abbey Gate Anniversary, Rip Admin for Lack of Outreach: ‘Kamala Harris Has Never Reached Out’

The most stirring moment from last month’s Republican convention occurred when Gold Star family members took the stage to share tragic testimony about the family members they lost during the suicide bombing at Abbey Gate on August 26, 2021.

Some of those Gold Star families joined the Trump campaign for a press call Monday afternoon to commemorate the third anniversary of Abbey Gate and criticize the Biden-Harris administration’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal, which led to the deaths of 13 American troops that day and left 18 more wounded. Pressed by reporters during the call about the extent of the White House’s personal outreach, several family members of fallen soldiers said that all they’ve gotten in the past three years is radio silence.

President Joe Biden has “never once reached out to any of our families. Kamala Harris has never reached out,” said Cheryl Juels, aunt of Marine Corps Sergeant Nicole Gee. “The only person who has reached out to our family over and over again — and all 13 families — is Trump.”

“I personally have never heard from Vice President Harris since Day One of her taking office, much less the last month or two,” said Mark Schmitz, father of Marine Corps Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz.

“We haven’t heard anything from her at all,” said Alicia Lopez, mother of Marine Corps Corporal Hunter Lopez. “On the contrary, we have received multiple calls and messages from President Trump and his campaign.”

Also on Monday, former president Donald Trump visited Arlington Cemetery for a private wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier to commemorate the service members who were killed in the suicide bombing that day at the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul. Speaking that day at a National Guard event in Detroit, Trump called the attack on August 26, 2021, “the most embarrassing day in the history of our country.”

Republicans critical of the Biden administration’s botched withdrawal from Afghanistan have for years pointed to Harris’s remarks from a 2021 interview in which she told CNN host Dana Bash that she was the last person in the room when Biden made the call. In a statement on Monday, Harris praised Biden for making the “the courageous and right decision to end America’s longest war” by withdrawing from Afghanistan. “My prayers are with their families and loved ones. My heart breaks for their pain and their loss,” she said in the statement.

The Harris campaign did not respond to a request for comment from National Review about whether the vice president has any plans to call, write to, or meet with any of these Gold Star families in the near future.

“What they’re angry about is the lack of accountability,” said Republican vice-presidential nominee J. D. Vance on Monday’s press call. “They’re angry that we don’t know why we made the decisions that led to these young troops dying unnecessarily. They’re mad that we don’t have any accountability. Why has nobody been fired? Why has nobody suffered any consequences for doing what happened? And again, squandering our most precious resource in this country, the lives of the people who are willing to give it all for public service.”