Family members of Gold Star recipients, including several of the 13 U.S. servicemembers who lost their lives during the withdrawal from Afghanistan under the Biden-Harris administration, expressed strong criticism towards President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday. One family member remarked, “They simply wish to ignore the events that transpired.”
Relatives of Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, and Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez participated in a press call alongside Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance (OH) and Representatives Derrick Van Orden (R-WI) and Ryan Zinke (R-MT). This event coincided with the third anniversary of the Abbey Gate bombing at Kabul International Airport, which resulted in the deaths of these young servicemembers.
Cheryl Juels, the aunt of Sgt. Gee, stated that the Biden-Harris administration has not extended any condolences regarding the tragic loss of her niece.
“They just want to pretend it didn’t happen. They want to take credit for ending the war, but they don’t want to take any responsibility for the way it all went down,” she added.
“It’s been a cover-up from the beginning. Every report we get is flawed. It doesn’t contain everything that happened,” she said. “It’s just cherry-picked — what they want to put in it — and they just want to close the whole thing and wrap it up, say, ‘Everything was a success,’ and it wasn’t.”
After calling for a “truthful investigation” and “changes” to ensure a similar catastrophe does not occur, she declared that America’s servicemembers “deserve to know that there’s a commander-in-chief like President [Donald] Trump, who’s gonna respect them and protect them.”
Gold Star Mother Alicia Lopez, whose son Hunter Lopez made the ultimate sacrifice, emphasized the “lack of responsibility” exhibited by Harris and Biden.
“And for them to think that it’s okay and to treat it as another page in a book that they’re just flipping over for the next chapter, it saddens me and frightens me all at the same time,” she said. “I do have a son that’s currently serving, and I pray that I don’t get another knock on my door because of the lack of responsibility this administration has for our military.”
She added that she wants to see someone elected who has America’s servicemen and servicewomen’s “best interest at heart and will support our military, and we can get rid of this administration that does not care about them at all.”
Gold Star Father Mark Schmitz focused on “the deceit, corruption, and concealment that have occurred since” the Abbey Gate bombing, which resulted in the death of his son, Jared, as well as the disastrous withdrawal. He addressed Democratic politicians directly, criticizing Democratic members of Congress for posing “softball questions” to individuals such as Secretary of State Antony Blinken during committee hearings concerning the withdrawal.
“My message is directly to all Democrat politicians. I have watched these committee hearings with Blinken, with [Ret. Gen. Mark] Milley, with [Ret. General Kenneth] McKenzie, and I’m growing so sick and tired of the softball questions that get lobbed up there,” he said. “This is not a Republican versus Democrat issue. This is an American issue. This is a lack of leadership, and this is the result, and America needs to recognize that when choosing a leader.”
“But, in support of that leader are our congressmen and our senators, and I have watched over and over again as they continually made excuse after excuse, trying to throw Trump under the bus, trying to blame him for everything,” Schmitz added. “Trump’s not perfect — we all know that — nobody is. But, when it comes to this issue of Afghanistan, it seem
