Donald Trump appeared to deflect the backlash over an alleged Arlington National Cemetery altercation by linking Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign to the 2021 Kabul Abbey Gate suicide bombing that led to the deaths of 13 U.S. service members and 170 Afghans.
On Truth Social, above pictures of the military personnel killed in the bombing during the U.S. evacuation of Afghanistan, the former president wrote: “Harris and Biden are responsible for this! They owe the families, and our Country, a very big apology.”
Trump’s post came in the wake of mounting backlash over an alleged altercation on August 26 between his staff and a cemetery official while the former president attended a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia. The memorial commemorated the service members who died in the Abbey Gate bombing.
( @realDonaldTrump – Truth Social Post )
( Donald J. Trump – Aug 30, 2024, 12:08 AM ET )Harris and Biden are responsible for this! They owe the families, and our Country, a very big apology. https://t.co/w4DMHk5Fdw
— Donald J. Trump 🇺🇸 TRUTH POSTS (@TruthTrumpPosts) August 30, 2024
On Wednesday, Ohio Senator JD Vance, Trump’s 2024 running mate, also accused Harris of “falling asleep at the wheel” and failing to properly investigate the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“To have those 13 Americans lose their lives and not fire a single person is disgraceful. Kamala Harris is disgraceful,” Vance said at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Newsweek has contacted the Trump campaign and the Biden administration for comment via email.
At the memorial on Monday, a cemetery official reportedly tried to prevent Trump’s team from filming the wreath-laying ceremony taking place in Section 60 of the cemetery. Federal law prohibits “partisan political activities” at military cemeteries.
In a statement to NPR, the U.S. Army said its employee was “abruptly pushed aside” by Trump’s campaign staff but has decided not to press charges.
Following the incident, Representative Gerry Connolly, a Democrat from Virginia, branded the behavior of Trump’s staff as “abhorrent and shameful” and called for the cemetery to make the report of what happened public.
Allison Jaslow, the chief executive of the Iraq and Afghanistan Veterans of America, said Arlington was not an appropriate place for politics.
Former Trump staffer Alyssa Farah Griffin, who was an assistant to Trump and press secretary for former Vice President Mike Pence, said a video Trump posted on TikTok of the cemetery visit was “disgraceful and disparaging to veterans.”
Steven Cheung, the Trump campaign’s communications director, told Newsweek earlier this week: “There was no physical altercation as described, and we are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made.”
He continued, “The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony.”
Families of five fallen service members confirmed in a statement that they had given their approval for Trump’s photographer and videographer to attend the ceremony.
Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images
In February 2022, a Pentagon investigation concluded that the suicide bomber responsible for the Abbey Gate blast acted alone. The bomber carried more than 20 pounds of ball-bearing-packed explosives. After the attack, Islamic State claimed responsibility.
The Biden administration has been criticized by those who say the U.S. evacuation of Afghanistan was chaotic and should have started sooner.
On Monday, the White House briefing room released a statement from Biden commemorating the third anniversary of the deaths of the 13 service members.
“They embodied the very best of who we are as a nation: brave, committed, selfless,” Biden said. “And we owe them and their families a sacred debt we will never be able to fully repay, but will never cease working to fulfill.”