NBC News’ Kristen Welker incorrectly asserted that Vice President Kamala Harris met with Gold Star families who lost their loved ones in the Abbey Gate suicide bombing at the Kabul International Airport in Afghanistan when the remains of those servicemen and women were returned home for dignified transfer three years ago.
Welker made this claim in defense of the Democratic presidential candidate during a “Meet the Press” interview with Senator Tom Cotton on Sunday. Cotton had criticized Harris for not meeting with the Gold Star families or attending a memorial on the third anniversary of their loved ones’ deaths. In contrast, GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump attended the memorial and faced criticism from the Harris campaign for his presence. Trump, along with Harris and President Joe Biden, was invited to attend the ceremony on Friday at Arlington National Cemetery. Biden and Harris refused to show up, however.
“All right, let me ask you about another one of the big headlines this week,” Welker said. “Donald Trump’s visit to Arlington National Cemetery. You’ve been talking about this. He attended a wreath-laying ceremony, obviously, for the 13 service members who were killed during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan. He was invited by those family members. Important to say that he also had campaign staffers with him. Photos, videos were posted on a campaign site. Taking campaign photos and videos at grave sites is forbidden under federal law. You, of course, served at Arlington Cemetery in the Old Guard, so I know that this is a sacred place for you. Bottom line, though, I guess, Senator, is it ever appropriate to make campaign content at military gravesites?”
Cotton, an Arkansas Republican who’s a former U.S. Army officer and Ranger, as well as a veteran of the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, said that Harris could have “honored the sacrifice of those young men and women, but she hasn’t. And it’s because of her and Joe Biden’s incompetence that those 13 Americans were killed in Afghanistan.”
“There these families, Gold Star families, whose children died because of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s incompetence,” Cotton responded, “invited him to the cemetery, and they asked him to take those photos. Because, as they told me yesterday when I spoke to Kelly Barnett and Darren Hoover, the parents of Taylor Hoover, who has Arkansas ties, they don’t get to go to the beach on Labor Day. They don’t get to have barbecues. This is their one chance to have a memory of their children to commemorate their service and honor, their sacrifice.
“They wanted President Trump there,” Cotton continued. “They wanted to take those photos. You know who the families also invited? Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Where were they? Joe Biden was sitting on the beach. Kamala Harris was sitting at her mansion in Washington, DC. She was four miles away, 10 minutes. She could have gone to the cemetery and honored the sacrifice of those young men and women, but she hasn’t. She never has spoken to them or taken a meeting with them.”
At that point, Welker interrupted, saying “Well they did meet with them during the dignified transfer, they were there with them at the dignified transfer.” But while the president, first lady Jill Biden, and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin attended, Harris was not there. And Biden caused controversy because, at one point, he appeared to be checking his watch.
After the program ended, the “Meet the Press” program put out a statement acknowledging Welker’s false statement: “On our broadcast this morning, we incorrectly implied that both President Biden and Vice President Harris attended the dignified transfer of 13 American service members killed during the Afghanistan withdrawal. Biden was in attendance but Harris was not.”
During his sole debate with Trump in June, Biden falsely claimed that no U.S. troops had died during his term — completely forgetting about the 13 servicemembers killed during his botched Afghan withdrawal.
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