Kristen Welker, the host of NBC’s weekly Sunday political interview show “Meet the Press,” falsely claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris met with the Gold Star families of 13 U.S. troops who were killed during the ill-fated U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. .
Welker made the comment while interviewing Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who took the Biden-Harris administration to task over its handling of families.
Senator Tom Cotton criticizes Kamala for not speaking or meeting with the families of Gold Star soldiers who died during the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Kristen Welker falsely claims Kamala “met them during the dignified transfer.” pic.twitter.com/09dtXEMiAs
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) September 1, 2024
Cotton noted that Harris, the Democratic presidential candidate, had not yet met with relatives of the 13 service members who were killed when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at an entry point to Kabul airport during the chaotic evacuation in August. 26, 2021.
The blast killed 183 people and wounded at least 150 others — among them American and Afghan personnel, as well as Afghan civilians trying to escape aboard American military aircraft.
The Arkansas senator drew a contrast between Harris and Trump, who was invited by the families to appear alongside them at Arlington National Cemetery on the third anniversary of their deaths.
Trump’s appearance at the Arlington wreath-laying ceremony, which included a photo of the former president smiling and giving a thumbs-up just feet from the headstones of fallen soldiers, prompted Harris and other Democrats to accuse him of that of using the sacred space for a campaign. event – which is prohibited by federal law.
When Welker raised the Democrats’ claim, Cotton pushed back, saying, “They (Gold Star families) wanted President Trump there.”
“They wanted to take those pictures. Do you know who the families also invited? Joe Biden and Kamala Harris,” Cotton said, adding, “Where were they? Joe Biden was sitting on the beach. Kamala Harris was sitting in her residence in Washington, DC.
Harris, according to Cotton, “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 didn’t,” Cotton said.
“She has never spoken to them or had an appointment with them.”
In our broadcast this morning, we mistakenly implied that President Biden and Vice President Harris attended the dignified transfer of 13 American service members killed during the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Biden was in attendance, but Harris was not.
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) September 1, 2024
Welker then spoke in Harris’ defense, telling Cotton, “Well, they met with them at the dignified transfer, they were there with them at the dignified transfer.”
Fact-checkers noted that Harris was not present at the dignified transfer of fallen service members, which took place at Dover Air Force Base on August 29, 2021 – three days after the Abbey Gate attack.
The ceremony was attended by Biden, Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and First Lady Jill Biden.
NBC News admitted that Welker was wrong, writing in an X post: “On our broadcast this morning, we mistakenly implied that President Biden and Vice President Harris attended the dignified transfer of 13 US service members killed during the withdrawal from Afghanistan.”
“Biden was in attendance, but Harris was not,” NBC News wrote on its official Meet the Press X account.
After the 2021 ceremony, Gold Star families were particularly outraged by Biden, who was photographed at the event looking down at his watch.
Jen Psaki, who was the White House press secretary at the time and who eventually left the administration to take a job as a talk show host at left-leaning MSNBC, falsely claimed that Biden was not watching never his watch, according to her book published earlier this year. .
Psaki had said that those who accused Biden of looking at his watch were spreading “misinformation” and that images of him were being used to make him “appear callous, concerned only with how much time had passed.”
But photographs and first-hand accounts from the event argue
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Image Source : nypost.com