Ohio Sen. JD Vance on Wednesday blasted Vice President Kamala Harris over the Biden administration’s handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying the Democratic presidential nominee “can go to hell.”
Vance’s comments at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, were his harshest language toward Harris on the campaign trail. It came in response to a reporter’s question about the “incident” on Monday, when former President Donald Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery with family members of service members who died in the 2021 attack on Abbey Gate at Kabul Airport in Afghanistan. days from cancellation.
“Three years ago, 13 brave, innocent Americans died, and they died because Kamala Harris refused to do her job, and there has been no investigation, no shooting,” Vance said. “Sometimes mistakes happen – that’s just the nature of government, the nature of military service. But for those 13 Americans to lose their lives and not fire anyone is shameful. Terrible Harris is disgraceful.”
Vance said that if they’re going to discuss the Abbey Gate story, “the fact that Kamala Harris is so asleep at the wheel that she’s not even investigating what happened, and she wants to yell at Donald Trump for showing up. She can, she can go to hell.” “
The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Vance’s remarks. The Harris campaign declined to comment.
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When asked about his comments by NBC News, Vance said he was frustrated.
“Sometimes I’m frustrated and sometimes I’m angry. And I think Kamala Harris’s failure to lead at Abbey Gate is something to be frustrated and angry about,” Vance said.
He also accused the Harris campaign of “trying to make a massive political issue” out of the incident at Arlington National Cemetery in the Virginia suburb of Washington.
“The fact that Kamala Harris wants to make it an issue when she refuses to show up, refuses to even call the families whose children have died because of her leadership, I think that’s something that warrants a little bit of frustration, and I certainly showed that today,” Vance quoth.
In a statement on Monday, Harris marked the third anniversary of the Abbey Gate attack, saying his “heart breaks” for the pain and loss experienced by the families of the victims.
“I fulfill our sacred duty to care for our troops and their families and will always honor their service and sacrifice,” he said, adding, “President Biden made the brave and right decision to end America’s longest war.”
The United States withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021, some 20 years after it invaded under President George W. Bush.
The Biden administration and Congress have conducted multiple investigations into the U.S. withdrawal and the attack at Abbey Gate, when service members were helping people evacuate the country.
For example, in a report last year, the White House largely blamed the Trump administration for the chaotic withdrawal.
The former US commander who oversaw the withdrawal testified at a congressional hearing this year that he alone is responsible for the deaths of 13 American service members at the Kabul airport.
Some relatives of service members have expressed frustration with the Biden administration for not providing all the answers they want.
At this year’s hearing, retired Army Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged that officials were still seeking more information.
Milley said it will take a “significantly long time” to get those answers, especially since he said many of the records are classified.
In a letter last week, Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, R-Texas, urged White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan to testify about the withdrawal to the GOP-led panel.
“He owes Gold Star families, veterans and the American public answers to the disastrous withdrawal,” McCaul wrote Wednesday in a message to X, referring to Sullivan as “one of the chief architects of the administration’s Afghanistan policy.”
Vance, a Marine veteran, has directed much of his criticism of military affairs at Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, whom he accused of misrepresenting his military record.
In 2018, Walz referred to the handling of weapons “in war”, although he was never deployed to a combat zone. The Harris campaign this month said he “misspoke.”
Walz’s 24 years in the army served abroad and supported offensive units. He officially retired from the Minnesota National Guard in 2005.
This article was originally published on NBCNews.com
