Vice President Kamala Harris and Democrats have attempted to defame Republican presidential nominee Donald Trump for last month's Arlington Cemetery visit, but that has backfired, Trump wrote in a scathing rebuke Sunday.
"Lightweight V.P. Kamala Harris tried turning it around, because they weren't there, have never spoken to the families, and have no intention to do so," Trump wrote Sunday morning on Truth Social, referring to his visit to the graves of the 13 U.S. service members who were killed in a terrorist attack during the deadly Afghanistan withdrawal in year one of the Biden administration.
"In Afghanistan, you don't take the soldiers out first, you take the soldiers out last. This would be Military 101, the most basic, and the 'leaders' of that disaster should be immediately fired.
"We have fools in the White House, and now, they are trying to solve the hostage crisis in Israel. Guess how that's going to turn out?"
The latter remark was reference to Sunday morning's news of six dead hostages found in Gaza, slaughtered by Hamas terrorists as Israeli Defense Forces closed in to rescue them, according to Israel.
President Joe Biden and Harris have pushed for Israel to agree to a cease-fire in its war with Hamas, but Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanayahu has demanded the return of all hostages as its No. 1 of 3 stated objectives to end the war on Hamas. The other two are destroy Hamas; and demilitarize and deradicalize Gaza.
Harris and Democrats have used Trump's visit to Arlington to suggest he was politicizing the deaths of U.S. soldiers, but Trump said he attended the memorial ceremony at the request of the Gold Star families who have been ghosted by Biden and Harris for political reasons.
"I want to thank the families of our great warriors who have been lost to us for the way they came together as one, and thanked me for attending, at their request, the celebration of their wonderful family members who, because of the incompetence of Kamala Harris and Joe Biden, are no longer with us," Trump's Sunday morning post began.
"Thank you for saying you wanted me to stand with you at Arlington National Ceremony, and take pictures, that it was your request, not mine, but it was my great honor to do so.
"I will never forget!"
Multiple Gold Star parents have gone on Newsmax this week to say it is Harris, not Trump, who politicized the Arlington National Cemetery memorial ceremony.
"If you look back to when we asked the White House to get together and have a family roundtable with them to discuss everything that happened, it was crickets — there was no reply whatsoever," Mark Schmitz told host Lidia Curanaj. "We asked that of Trump, he said, 'Absolutely.' He was going to give us two hours — ended up being six hours. The man was a leader.
"And for them to turn this around and make it look like it was just a political stunt is, quite frankly, a kick in the you-know-what to the families
"They're trying to hurt Trump, ultimately, but what they're doing is just adding more salt to the wound for us. And these families wanted Trump there. And I'm glad that he was there."
Eric Mack ✉
Eric Mack has been a writer and editor at Newsmax since 2016. He is a 1998 Syracuse University journalism graduate and a New York Press Association award-winning writer.
© 2024 Newsmax. All rights reserved.