During an interview on Breitbart News Saturday, Rep. Mike Waltz (R-FL) spoke about how the Gold Star families who lost their loved ones during the Biden administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, want to hear the administration acknowledge that they “did some things wrong.”
Waltz spoke about how in the aftermath of former President Donald Trump Arlington National Cemetery, honoring the 13 fallen American service members who were killed during the Biden administration’s botched withdrawal, the media and Vice President Kamala Harris have attacked Trump and claimed that there was an altercation between Trump campaign officials and a cemetery official.
The Florida Congressman added that Harris has “not made a single phone call” or “visit” with the families, and now she was “weighing in.”
“He was there at the request of the families. Oh, by the way, the families invited her and Biden too, and they still didn’t show up. And, oh, by the way, as a veteran, I’ve visited my Green Berets that I lost down there where those tombstones are for the last twenty years. We always take photos. We always post them online. I want America to see the sacrifices that were made for them. It was a beautiful moment, there was no altercation. This is a made-up hoax, and it’s really disgusting because those families had a special moment with a former President of the United States who has bothered to show up and hear their grievances,” Waltz explained.
Host Matthew Boyle explained that “the hardest thing to hear” from the Gold Star families was how Harris does not have “empathy enough” to pick up the phone and make a call to them.
“Here’s the thing that I think scars them so deeply,” Waltz explained. “All they want to hear is, ‘We know we did some things wrong. We should have done them better. We’re learning our lesson so this doesn’t happen to future soldiers.’ But, every time Biden and now her, say, ‘No, no, no. This was an outstanding success,’ it’s another stab in the heart for these families, because you’ve got a major political party led by these two that are saying, ‘No, this is the right way to do it. This is the way we would do it again in the future.’
“The best way to honor their loss is to say, ‘We learned our lessons, and we’re going to do everything we can to make sure this never happens again.’ But, they’re not hearing that – well, they’re hearing nothing. But, that’s what they want to hear, is that, ‘We’ve learned our lessons. This is not going to happen to future kids and future Marines.’ But, yet they don’t even have the – just the gall to weigh in now, has just been another – just another punch, just another beat down for these poor families,” Waltz added.
The Gold Star families of the fallen service members have issued statements explaining that they had given the approval for photos and videos to be taken at Arlington National Cemetery, and have criticized Harris for issuing a statement labeling Trump’s visit to the cemetery as a “political stunt.”
Waltz continued to note that during the upcoming presidential debate between Trump and Harris, the vice president may point out that the Biden administration executed Trump’s Doha Agreement of withdrawing from Afghanistan.
“She may go there to say, ‘No, no. What Biden did was actually execute your deal, Donald Trump. This was your – you’re responsible for this, for that Doha Agreement.’ Number one, President Trump’s advisers came to him and said, ‘The Taliban haven’t lived up to six out of seven conditions of the deal. They haven’t lived up to their end.’ And, what did President Trump do? He left 2500 special operators, the NATO still had their troops there, we still had our contractors there, and we still had Bagram Airbase. Right? So, yeah, President Trump entered a deal. The Taliban didn’t live up to it. And, as far as he was concerned when he left office in 2020, that the deal was off. Number two, Biden had no problem tearing up all kinds of Trump policies, like Keystone XL Pipeline, despite the billions and the ten thousand jobs that were involved there. The Paris Climate Accord, all of the policies relating to the border, over 60 executive orders that he tore up and replaced. I mean, we could keep going down the line. The Iran Deal, that they got back into, that they tried to get back into. So, he can tear up all these Trump policies, but he was stuck with that one?” Waltz added.