Kristen Welker, host of NBC's weekly Sunday political interview show “Meet the Press,” falsely claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris meets with Gold Star families 13 American soldiers were killed in this unfortunate attack. US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Welker made this remark as follows He interviewed Senator Tom Cotton (R-Ark.).Who Biden-Harris administration criticized For his dealings with families.
Cotton said Harris, the Democratic presidential nominee, The families of the 13 soldiers have not been met yet People killed in explosive blast carried out by a suicide bomber at the entrance of Kabul airport During the chaotic evacuation on August 26, 2021.
the blast 183 people were killed and at least 150 others were injured – These include American and Afghan personnel as well as Afghan civilians They were trying to escape by boarding American military planes.
Arkansas senator draws contrast between Harris and Trump, who were invited by the families Being present with him at Arlington National Cemetery On the third anniversary of his death.
Trump's Attendance at the wreath-laying ceremony at ArlingtonThat included a photo of the former president smiling and giving a thumbs-up just feet from the graves of fallen soldiers, which inspired Harris and other Democrats He was accused of using a sacred place for a campaign event — which is prohibited by federal law.
When Welker raised the Democrats’ claim, Cotton dismissed it, saying: “They (Gold Star families) wanted President Trump there.”
“They wanted to take those pictures. Do you know who the families invited? Joe Biden and Kamala Harris,” Cotton said, “Where were they? Joe Biden was sitting on the beach. Kamala Harris was sitting in her mansion in Washington, D.C.”
According to Cotton, Harris was “four miles, 10 minutes away.”
“She could have gone to the cemetery and honored the sacrifices of those young men and women, but she didn't do that,” Cotton said.
“He never spoke to them or had a meeting with them.”
Welker then spoke in Harris' defense, telling Cotton: “Yes, he met him during the honorable transfer, he was with him during the honorable transfer.”
Fact-checkers found that Harris was not present at the dignified transfer of deceased military members, which occurred at Dover Air Force Base on August 29, 2021, three days after the Abbey Gate attack.
The ceremony was attended by Biden, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and First Lady Jill Biden.
NBC News acknowledged that Welker made a mistake, writing in an X post: “In our broadcast this morning, we incorrectly indicated that both President Biden and Vice President Harris attended the dignified transfer of 13 U.S. service members who died during the Afghanistan withdrawal.”
“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 upset with Biden, who was photographed looking at his watch during the event.
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 on the left-wing MSNBC, falsely claimed that Biden never looked at his watch, as detailed in her book published earlier this year.
Psaki had said that people who accused Biden of looking at his watch were spreading “misinformation” and that photos of him were used “to portray him as an insensitive person who is only concerned about how much time has passed.”
But photographs and first-hand accounts of the incident contradict that.
