Families who lost loved ones during the disastrous 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan are throwing their support behind Secretary of Defense nominee Pete Hegseth.
Hegseth, who Trump tapped to head the Defense Department, underwent questioning from the Senate Armed Services Committee during his confirmation hearing on Tuesday, where he faced over four hours of questioning from Republican and Democratic lawmakers.
The Abbey Gate Coalition, a group of the parents and families of those who tragically lost their lives in a terrorist attack after President Biden withdrew troops from Afghanistan, penned a letter to senators on Tuesday urging them to confirm President-elect Trump’s defense nominee and doubling down on their criticism of the current administration’s handling of the deadly event.
“We have been sitting by watching the current administration do nothing but attempt to take victory laps and thumb their noses at the sacrifice that our children made on that fateful day,” the letter reads. “They have had no interest in giving us any of those answers that we seek, and have attempted to put Afghanistan in the rear view mirror as was further evidenced yesterday in President Biden’s final address on his foreign affairs and his supposed successes.
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The coalition has been critical of the Biden administration since the withdrawal, writing in the letter that they have been “stonewalled” by his administration.
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“We have been stonewalled at every turn and only given ‘bread-crumbs’ to attempt to make us just go away! We feel that there has been a complete coverup at the department of Defense with the current Secretary of Defense leading the way,” the coalition wrote.
The families said that the process for accountability for Afghanistan begins with the confirmation of Hegseth to lead the defense department.
“We ask that you please hear our words and feel the pain that we do, knowing that it was avoidable in respect to what happened to our children,” the letter reads.
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The Biden administration’s chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan led to the deaths of 13 U.S. service members defending the Kabul airport during the operation, while hundreds of Americans and tens of thousands of Afghan allies were left in the country under Taliban rule. Conservative critics, such as Sen. Ted Cruz, R-Texas, said the withdrawal paved the way for adversaries such as Russia to invade Ukraine.
The Taliban claimed control of Afghanistan following the withdrawal.
The families who lost loved ones during the botched withdrawal have previously and repeatedly slammed Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris over their deaths, including launching a scathing defense attack against Harris — when she was running for president – after the anniversary of the withdrawal last year. Parents and other loved ones claimed that the “administration killed my son” and that they “have not seen any support from you or your administration.”
Trump, meanwhile, has repeatedly remembered the service members who died, and invited their families to the RNC in Milwaukee in July.
“Look at our faces. Look at our pain, and our heartbreak. And look at our rage. [The Afghanistan withdrawal] was not an extraordinary success,” said Cheryl Juels, the aunt of Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee, at the RNC. “Joe Biden owes the men and women who served in Afghanistan a debt of gratitude, and an apology.”
”While Joe Biden has refused to recognize their sacrifice, Donald Trump spent six hours in Bedminster with us,” said the mother-in-law of Nicole Gee at the RNC. “He allowed us to grieve, he allowed us to remember our heroes. Donald Trump knew all of our children’s names, he knew their stories, and he spoke to us in a way that made us feel understood, like he knew our kids.”
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