Surrounded by the surviving family of service members killed in the 2021 Abbey Gate bombing in Afghanistan, President Donald Trump on Monday signed a proclamation honoring the dead.
With the proclamation in front of him and family members on all sides of his desk, Trump said:
"There are some great souls that are looking down on you right now, and they're very proud of their parents and brothers and sisters. But moms and dads especially. That's what I seem to have dealt with mostly. There's nothing tougher."
Trump used his speech to a joint session of Congress in March to announce that the "monster" who set off the bomb that killed 13 U.S. service members at the airport in Kabul had been captured.
Trump has been critical of former President Joe Biden for his handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The Abbey Gate bombing also killed 170 Afghan citizens.
Darin Hoover lost his son in the attack and told Newsmax he hopes the Biden administration is held responsible. The death of Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Darin "Taylor" Hoover should never have happened, he said.
Hoover told Newsmax that he hoped a Trump administration investigation of Biden and his top administration officials would find they should all be "found culpable in this."
Biden described the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan as an "extraordinary success."
But Christy Shamblin, the mother-in-law of Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole Gee, who was one of the 13 Americans who was killed, said it was nothing of the sort. She told Newsmax last August that "it was a catastrophic failure."
Jim Mishler ✉
Jim Mishler, a seasoned reporter, anchor and news director, has decades of experience covering crime, politics and environmental issues.