Washington — On Wednesday, Sen. J.D. Vance of Ohio said Vice President Kamala Harris “can go to hell” over the Biden administration’s handling of the 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The remark arose from a “incident” during former President Donald Trump’s visit to Arlington National Cemetery on Monday to mark three years of a suicide attack In Kabul, 13 soldiers were killed during the chaotic withdrawal from the country.
Trump visited a part of the cemetery known as Section 60, which is the final resting place of veterans from the post-9/11 conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan. According to multiple sources, there was an interaction between Trump’s campaign and a cemetery official. The dispute appears to be over whether the Trump campaign photographer had permission to be there.
“Three years ago, 13 brave, innocent Americans died, and they died because Kamala Harris refused to do her job, and there was not a single investigation and not a single firing,” Vance, Trump’s running mate, said in response to a CBS News reporter’s question about the interaction at Arlington National Cemetery while he was campaigning in Erie, Pennsylvania.
Vance called Harris a “disgrace” and said the narrative should be: “Kamala Harris is so asleep at the wheel that she doesn’t even want to investigate what happened, and she wants to yell at Donald Trump for showing up.”
“She can go to hell,” he said.
Vance later said in Green Bay, Wisconsin, that his comments were justified.
“Sometimes I get frustrated and angry,” he said, accusing Harris’ campaign of “trying to make a major political issue” out of the incident at Arlington National Cemetery.
In a statement Monday following the attack, Harris said she would “fulfill my sacred obligation to care for our troops and their families and I will always honor their service and sacrifice.”
“As I said, President Biden made the courageous and just decision to end America’s longest war,” she said.
The U.S. withdrawal comes nearly 20 years after the war began in response to the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The Biden administration and Congress have conducted several investigations into the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan. White House report And another from the State Department Both have partly blamed the Trump administration for the circumstances that contributed to its difficulties.
Eleanor Watson,
And
contributed to this report.
