The fathers of two Gold Star service members killed in the botched Afghanistan withdrawal slammed Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden on Tuesday for “gaslighting” families and ignoring them for the last three years.
Harris faced backlash from Gold Star families over the weekend after criticizing former President Donald Trump for filming videos at the third anniversary event at Arlington Cemetery. On Fox Business’ “The Bottom Line,” Gold Star father Darin Hoover, whose son Staff Sergeant Taylor Hoover was killed, called out Harris for taking away the “memories” of fallen service members, stating there’s “no need for it.”
“Well, first of all, let me be clear, that solemn event was a day that has been three years in the coming. And for her to take away, like you played in that montage — for her to take away those memories from us, the only memories that we get to make with Taylor from here on out, and to disparage that is nothing short of disgusting. And all it was, was gaslighting all of us that were there that day,” Hoover said.
“We were there, Sergeant Nicole Gee’s family was there [and] Staff Sergeant Ryan Knauss’ mom and dad were on the phone,” Hoover continued. “I mean, we didn’t see or we didn’t hear we didn’t know about anything until that hit piece came out from NPR while I’m flying to plane to come home the next day. It’s despicable what she has done and there’s absolutely no need for it.”
Gold Star father of Marine Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz, Mark Schmitz, joined Hoover and said the Biden administration has “ignored” the Gold Star families over the last three years.
“Well that’s all we’ve gotten for the last three years — a slap in the face, salt in wound, ignored. You go back to the debate, our kids are apparently still alive. Because according to Biden, he didn’t kill anybody or didn’t have anyone killed on his watch,” Schmitz said.
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“A letter was sent from Darin Hoover’s own governor, Cox, to White House to invite Biden’s administration to participate in this event as well,” Schmitz continued. “There was nothing but crickets, totally unanswered. Same message was delivered to Trump. Trump responded to that call and showed up. And good for him.”
Schmitz continued to state that the families had been “fair” to the Biden administration from the beginning, however, they still have not received “answers” from either Harris or Biden.
“You have to put yourself in our shoes, if you lost your son or daughter to terrible tragedy, especially from this administration, you’d want leadership there, you want a president to be there honoring your child, I mean who wouldn’t want that. We’ve always been pretty fair from the very beginning — wanting to get answers, wanting to talk to this White House and this administration, wanting to talk with Kamala, wanting to talk to Joe. They just ignore us, they literally walk the other direction.”
Eight of the Gold Star families recorded video rebuking the vice president for the pushback on Trump as they explained they had invited the former president.
After Trump attended the ceremony last week, reports claimed a cemetery official tried to stop his staff from filming in a section for U.S. casualties, leading to an alleged altercation, according to NPR.
The Trump campaign has since denied the alleged altercation, with former Democratic Rep. Tusli Gabbard stating Sunday on CNN the campaign had been “approved to bring a camera there to document.”
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