Decorated Army vet Sen. Tom Cotton slammed President Biden and Veep Kamala Harris on Sunday for turning down invites from Gold Star families to join them and Donald Trump at Arlington National Cemetery last week.
Cotton — a Republican from Arkansas who served combat tours in Iraq and Afghanistan — defended Trump’s visit to the military burial grounds to help commemorate the third anniversary of the deaths of service members killed by a suicide bomber at the Kabul International Airport during the botched US pullout from the country.
Harris, 59, has derided her 78-year-old GOP presidential foe’s appearance at the cemetery as a “political stunt.”
Cotton retorted Sunday, “He didn’t take campaign photos there.
“These families — Gold Star families — whose children died because of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s incompetence, invited him to the cemetery, and they asked him to take those photos” during the wreath-laying event, Cotton said of Trump on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”
The senator said he spoke to the parents of fallen Marine Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover and that they indicated “they wanted President Trump there, they wanted to take those photos.
“You know who those families also invited? Joe Biden and Kamala Harris,” Cotton claimed.
“Where were they? Joe Biden was sitting at a beach. Kamala Harris was sitting at her mansion in Washington, DC,” he said, referring to the 81-year-old president’s vacation in Rehoboth Beach, Del., where he’s been since last Sunday, and Harris’ residence on the grounds of the US Naval Observatory.
“She was 4 miles away — 10 minutes,” Cotton said of Harris. “She could’ve gone to the cemetery and honored the sacrifice of those young men and women, but she hasn’t.
“She never has spoken to them or taken a meeting with them,” he continued.
Cotton also blamed Biden and Harris for the deaths of the 13 service members outside the Kabul airport, which occurred during the chaotic US withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021.
“It is because of her and Joe Biden’s incompetence that those 13 Americans were killed in Afghanistan,” the senator aid.
Cotton’s blistering response follows videos messages released by relatives of seven of the 13 victims of the suicide blast criticizing Harris’ attack on Trump.
“We, the families of the brave service members who were tragically killed in the Abbey Gate bombing, are appalled by Vice President Kamala Harris’ recent attempts to politicize President Trump’s visit to Arlington National Cemetery,” they said in a joint statement released by the Trump campaign.
“President Trump was invited by us, the Gold Star families, to attend the solemn ceremonies commemorating the three-year anniversary of our children’s deaths,” they added. “He was there to honor their sacrifice, yet Vice President Harris has disgracefully twisted this sacred moment into a political ploy.”
