With boost from grieving families, Trump sharpens attacks on Harris

Donald Trump’s campaign aimed to turn the controversy over his actions last week at Arlington National Cemetery into an attack on Vice President Kamala Harris this weekend, after she said the former president “disrespected sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt.”

Late Saturday, the Trump campaign posted numerous videos in which family members of some of the 13 U.S. troops killed during a suicide bombing in the 2021 evacuation of Afghanistan accused President Joe Biden and Harris of killing their children by placing them in harm’s way. The bombing — which also killed about 170 Afghans — marked a low point for the Biden administration and has continued to haunt it politically as some of the families have aligned with Trump.

“Don’t forget, Kamala, you were the last one in the room. You and Joe Biden made the final decision on how to pull out of Afghanistan. You created the chaos and mayhem for the military to accomplish our goals,” said Darin Hoover, the father of Staff Sgt. Darin “Taylor” Hoover, in a video that Trump posted on X. Hoover defended the actions of Trump’s campaign team, and accused Harris of politicizing the commemoration.

The sparring stems from an incident on Aug. 26, when Trump and his staff defied requests from cemetery officials to avoid taking photos or videos among the gravestones, with the aim of adhering to a federal law that forbids campaign activities at military cemeteries. A female cemetery worker was “abruptly pushed aside” by male Trump aides as she sought to enforce the guidelines, cemetery officials said.

The campaign went on to post graveside photos and videos of the visit in the days afterward that included criticism of the Biden administration’s handling of the Afghanistan withdrawal.

The debate over the incident has continued as Harris and Trump vie for advantage on military issues — arguing over who would be the better commander in chief and who would best care for the needs of veterans. Trump has been searching for a salient attack on Harris since the race was upended in July after Biden decided not to seek reelection, thrusting Harris to the stop of the ticket. She has raised more than half a billion dollars in donations since Biden stepped aside, spoken to enthused crowds in packed arenas and, perhaps most importantly, closed the polling gap with Trump.

Trump has tried a variety of methods to try to slow her rise — casting her as dangerously liberal, suggesting she started identifying as Black for political expediency and saying she was ducking the news media before her first sit-down television interview last week. In the wake of the Arlington visit, Trump is now circling back to highlight one of the foreign-policy low points of the Biden administration.

As Trump blamed Harris for the tragic exit, his allies amplified the message and defended his Arlington National Cemetery visit. Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) released a statement saying the “real scandal” was the slaying of American troops in Afghanistan, alleging that both Harris and Biden had “condemned” them to death. Trump campaign senior adviser Jason Miller said Harris “has blood on her hands.”

Republicans have long criticized the Biden administration for the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, including during the Republican National Convention in July wit. an appearance onstage by six families who lost loved ones in the bombing. But the attacks have refocused on Harris more recently, and have received a boost from family members.

“We, the families of the brave service members who were tragically killed in the Abbey Gate bombing, are appalled by Vice President Kamala Harris’ recent attempts to politicize President Trump’s visit to Arlington National Cemetery,” families said in a statement released Sunday by Trump’s campaign.

A Harris campaign spokesman declined to comment Sunday. Harris aides, who spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss a sensitive moment in the campaign, said this is the latest in a line of unsuccessful attacks Trump has used against Harris and cast doubt on whether this one would gain traction.

A Harris campaign aide said neither Harris nor Biden had been invited to the Arlington Cemetery commemoration.

Two of the families invited Trump to Arlington to mark the third anniversary of their children’s deaths. Defense officials were wary of the event politicizing the cemetery but did not stand in the way, instead repeatedly communicating guidelines that would allow the Trump campaign to film during a wreath-laying ceremony but not in Section 60, the final resting place for many recent military fatalities.

In a statement last week, Army officials defended the cemetery employee who got into a brief altercation with two employees of the Trump campaign during the visit. The employee, the Army said, acted with professionalism and was “abruptly pushed aside” after attempting to enforce the guidelines that had been communicated to the campaign.

Trump co-campaign manager Chris LaCivita called the woman a “despicable individual,” and campaign spokesman Steven Cheung alleged without evidence that the woman had suffered a “mental health episode.” Defense officials denied that was not the case and said she had been “unfairly attacked” by the campaign.

Jim McCollum, whose son, Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, was killed in the explosion, said in a phone interview Sunday that he and the other families decided to record the new videos supporting Trump and attacking Harris “out of a sense of loyalty.”

They do not think Trump did anything wrong at the cemetery, McCollum said, in part because the cameras that followed the former president to Section 60 did so after the families decided they wanted to be present and not use their phones to take photos.

“He has done so much for us,” McCollum said of Trump. “When somebody does something so decent and so nice for you on so many different occasions, it’s only right that you’re going to stand up and say, ‘Hey, I’ve got your back.’”

McCollum noted that Harris said in April 2021, shortly after Biden decided to order a full military withdrawal, that she was “the last person in the room” before he approved the decision. He acknowledged that as vice president, she may not have “had sway” in what course of action Biden selected.

“But she said it. She claims it. Now you own it,” McCollum said, adding that the Harris campaign is either “lying to us now” by minimizing her role in Biden’s choices, or Harris was putting herself “on a pedestal” then by touting her role in Biden’s decision.

McCollum said that he declined to meet with Biden at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware when the remains of his son arrived three years ago. Other members of his family did, he said, and came away frustrated by how little Biden seemed to know about his son and how quickly he pivoted to talking about his own son, Beau, who served in Iraq and died of cancer.

In the wake of the Kabul airport bombing, the families’ ire was directed at Biden, not Harris. And it is unclear if voters will hold Harris responsible for a decision that Biden ultimately made as commander in chief.

Military officials involved in the Biden administration’s deliberations on Afghanistan said that Harris participated in meetings and asked thoughtful questions, but revealed little about what she was thinking. They also questioned whether she had influence on a subject on which Biden was so deeply entrenched that he did not follow advice from senior Pentagon officials.

Military officials recommended keeping a force of about 2,500 troops in Afghanistan to bolster the U.S.-backed government and continue counterterrorism operations, but Biden elected for a full withdrawal instead, saying that he would not send another generation of U.S. troops into harm’s way.

The families of the 13 service members killed in Kabul will again be thrust into the spotlight next week.

House Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) announced that Congress will honor the 13 American service members killed in the attack by presenting their families with the Congressional Gold Medal on Sept. 10.

“Congress has a duty to ensure these sacrifices are never forgotten, and it is my distinct honor to announce that Congress will bestow the families of these 13 heroes with the Congressional Gold Medal — the highest award Congress can present to any individual or group,” Johnson said in a statement released last week.

The ceremony, and remarks by a bevy of Republican lawmakers, will take place at the U.S. Capitol Rotunda the same day as the presidential debate between Harris and Trump.

McCollum said he hopes to keep politics out of that ceremony.

“You don’t have to like me. You don’t have to like any of the 13 [sets of] parents,” he said. “But respect the 13 kids. That’s why we’re there.”