Darin Hoover, a gold-star father who lost his son, Marine Staff Sergeant Taylor Hoover, at Abbey Gate, expressed frustration over Gen. Kenneth "Frank" McKenzie's testimony regarding the Afghanistan withdrawal.
Hoover told Newsmax on Tuesday, "If he was so forceful with that there were other Abbey Gate attacks that were not because of what happened, then why on Earth were we still at that gate, still moving forward, and you know?"
On August 26, an ISIS-K militant detonated a suicide bomb at the Abbey Gate of the Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, resulting in the deaths of 13 U.S. service members and at least 170 Afghans.
Families of several of the fallen U.S. service members attended Tuesday's hearing.
"It's just he [McKenzie] was full of lies today," he said on "Rob Schmitt Tonight." "It's incredible how much he did lie and got caught in it several times. He wasn't called out very much, but he was caught in several lies, and I can't help but think that this is one of those."
McKenzie, the top U.S. general in the Middle East during the withdrawal, testified before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on Tuesday, conceding a late call to evacuate, placing blame on the State Department, which holds the authority to initiate such operations.
"I believe that the events of mid and late August 2021 were the direct result of delaying the initiation of the NEO for several months," McKenzie said. "In fact, until we were in extremists, and the Taliban had overrun the country — as you are aware of, the decision to begin a NEO rests with the Department of State, not the Department of Defense. Despite this, we had begun positioning forces in the region as early as nine July, but we could do nothing," CBS reported.
McKenzie, who retired in 2022, reaffirmed that he effectively relayed his advice to the president on Tuesday. "I participated in meetings at the very highest level where I expressed the opinion I just stated to you, and it was heard," he said during an exchange on the matter.
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