Relatives of some of the 13 American service members killed during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan appeared on stage at the Republican National Convention Wednesday in an emotional moment that revived one of the low points of President Joe Biden’s presidency.
Many of the Gold Star families have criticized Biden for never publicly naming their loved ones. On stage Wednesday, one of the family members named each of the 13 service members, and the crowd echoed back each name as it was read aloud.
“Joe Biden has refused to recognize their sacrifice,” Christy Shamblin, the mother-in-law of Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee, told the crowd. “Donald Trump knew all of our children’s names. He knew all of their stories.”
The crowd chanted “Never forget!” and “U.S.A.!” as Trump and the entire convention hall stood.
The withdrawal was a pretty solid piece of weasely political wrangling on the part of the trump admin. He gets to take credit for ending the war, kick the implementation down the road to the next term, and even though Biden was just following the plan that was already in place he gets the blame for the inevitable clusterfuck.
I’m really curious how Trump would have handled it if he’d won. My guess is do exactly what Biden did (it was Trump’s plan, after all) and downplay the negatives, swearing that it was the most successful withdrawal in history.