Now, truth be told, there is a lot of duplication between this post and Amy Curtis’ post earlier. Really go read it. It is excellent.
The controversy started when Trump showed up to honor the service members who died at Abby Gate, during the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. As much as Harris is trying to distance herself from the Biden Administration's failures while taking credit for any alleged successes, she owns the Afghanistan withdrawal.
Because the big picture here is that Kamala Harris wanted the world to see her as an important Vice President. She wanted to be seen as an active participant in the Biden administration, hoping that she could then use that association to make her case to be president after Biden. This was her plan from day one as vice president. The problem is that this plan has gone to heck, because Biden was kind of a disaster. But it is precisely because she wanted to be seen as a significant force in the Biden administration that she said things like this:
Kamala Harris was the last person in the room during the Afghanistan withdrawal.
— Rep. Tom Tiffany (@RepTiffany) August 26, 2024
She said she was “comfortable” with her decision that led to 13 Americans dying 3 years ago.
Never forget the 13 heroes who lost their lives and never forget who the last person in the room was. pic.twitter.com/UVz5rbKwKZ
So, she owns the Afghanistan withdrawal, not to mention pretty much every failure of the Biden years. And Trump has been rightfully attacking how the Biden-Harris administration handled that withdrawal. Indeed, as we were writing this, Trump released an ad tying Harris to the disaster in Afghanistan, showing Harris as she praises this disastrous withdrawal as a success:
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2024
And when it came time to honor the fallen of Abby Gate, Trump was there and Biden and Harris weren’t.
And for some reason Democrats have been trying to argue that somehow it was bad and political for Trump to be there, as if former presidents aren’t allowed to honor our nation’s dead. Indeed, it was political for Biden and Harris not to be there. We all know why they didn’t show up even if we can't prove it: Because if Biden or Harris were there, they would be getting an earful from many of the Gold Star families and that might result in some bad political optics.
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Indeed, for some reason, as we also noted earlier, the official @KamalaHarris Twitter/X account decided to chide Trump and, by extension, several gold star families, over Trump’s appearance, with the following:
As Vice President, I have had the privilege of visiting Arlington National Cemetery several times. It is a solemn place; a place where we come together to honor American heroes who have made the ultimate sacrifice in service of this nation.
— Kamala Harris (@KamalaHarris) August 31, 2024
It is not a place for politics.
And…
We’ll get to the cut off text in a moment, but we will start by saying that you are naïve if you think Harris and Biden have not used that place for politics.
And as promised, here is the cut off text, although we are not going to be able to resist fisking her:
And yet, as was reported this week, Donald Trump’s team chose to film a video there, resulting in an altercation with cemetery staff. Let me be clear: the former president disrespected sacred ground, all for the sake of a political stunt.
This is nothing new from Donald Trump. This is a man who has called our fallen service members ‘suckers’ and ‘losers’ and disparaged Medal of Honor recipients.
A man who, during a previous visit to the cemetery, reportedly said of fallen service members, ‘I don’t get it. What was in it for them?’
To break in here, these stories are simply not credible at this point. For instance, are they really going to claim Trump committed assault but wasn’t charged by the Biden Administration? Are they pretending they are reticent about charging Trump with crimes?
And as for the claim that Trump disrespected our troops, the reality is what we can see for ourselves. Trump showed up. Harris and Biden didn’t.
This is a man who is unable to comprehend anything other than service to himself.
Lady, Trump was literally shot and kept going. He has literally risked his life to run for president.
If there is one thing on which we as Americans can all agree, it is that our veterans, military families, and service members should be honored, never disparaged, and treated with nothing less than our highest respect and gratitude.
When have you guys done that with Republicans who served and stood in your way?
And it is my belief that someone who cannot meet this simple, sacred duty should never again stand behind the seal of the President of the United States of America.
Again, you didn’t even show up. Trump was there, you weren’t.
I will always honor the service and sacrifice of all of America’s fallen heroes, who made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of our beloved nation and our cherished freedoms. I mourn them and salute them. And I will never politicize them.
You will honor them by saying you honor them. But apparently you won’t actually do things, such as actually showing up.
Now, to be fair, we are pretty sure Kamala didn’t write any of that. Indeed, that doesn’t even sound like anything she would say. If she was writing it or dictating it, it probably would read more like this:
Arlington Cemetery is a place of national honor. It is a cemetery, so that means it is filled with fallen service members. That means members of our nation who served, with honor. So, we should honor, their service, to this nation.
By comparison, we think Trump writes most of his substantive posts on TruthSocial or Twitter/X and while we tend to assume he might not upload and publish the videos, we suspect that if he has someone else do that for him, it is under his very close supervision. So, we think this is very much Trump’s personal message when he decided to absolutely carpet bomb that long post from Harris, starting about three hours ago as of this writing, with one direct response to her after another:
Christy Shamblin, Mother-In-Law of Sergeant Nicole Gee… https://t.co/CHNRzcTa0J pic.twitter.com/aAtRHE454N
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2024
Herman Lopez, Father of Corporal Hunter Lopez… https://t.co/CHNRzcTa0J pic.twitter.com/4S7Yb1kZeO
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2024
Corporal Hunter Lopez > Hunter Biden. (And it ain’t even close.)
Jim McCollum, Father of Lance Corporal Rylee McCollum… https://t.co/CHNRzcTa0J pic.twitter.com/BQWZIcZjka
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2024
Mark Schmitz, Father of Lance Corporal Jared M. Schmitz… https://t.co/CHNRzcTa0J pic.twitter.com/pRLF9tS7Jn
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2024
Steve Nikoui, Father of Lance Corporal Kareem M. Nikoui… https://t.co/CHNRzcTa0J pic.twitter.com/e7uRJo8ViA
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2024
Jaclyn Schmitz, Mother of Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz… https://t.co/CHNRzcTa0J pic.twitter.com/MeACvB310r
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2024
Coral Doolittle, Mother of Corporal Humberto A. Sanchez… https://t.co/CHNRzcTa0J pic.twitter.com/dz3UfvhVLB
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2024
Darin Hoover, Father of Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover… https://t.co/CHNRzcTa0J pic.twitter.com/ANQaSfjcUs
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 1, 2024
We have to admit, wholly beyond the content of these videos, it is just remarkable that we are seeing Trump force the Harris campaign to deal directly with the anger these families are feeling—including many of them specifically incensed by her post on Twitter. Most of these videos are direct responses to Kamala’s post on Twitter/X and address it by name. Most of them are angry at her for it. We mentioned earlier that she avoided coming to Arlington almost certainly to avoid getting an earful from the Gold Star families, and well … she is getting it now.
Seriously, what a screw up:
Kamala messed up https://t.co/9yj0PnhUjy pic.twitter.com/Yq61TWBlix
— ALX 🇺🇸 (@alx) September 1, 2024
And please, Kamala, spare us any pearl clutching that this is politicizing the death of our fallen service members. You are proposing to be the Commander-in-Chief of the military. There is nothing more appropriate or substantive in a presidential campaign than to ask if a candidate is suited for the job. You're just trying to stop us from asking the question because you know you aren't going to like the answer.
Every time a service member dies, we have to ask ‘was their death worth it?’ or ‘should we have taken steps to avoid it?’ Sometimes in war, there is nothing anyone can do to avoid service members dying. For instance, thousands of Americans died on D-Day and we think that those deaths were mainly necessary. It was a good cause. We did a good job distracting and confusing the Germans from mounting an effective defense when a stronger response might have spelled a complete failure of that invasion. While we have no doubt some mistakes were made, our understanding is that on balance the D-Day invasion went about as well as one could expect. But at other times, it is reasonable to question whether the cause justified any risk to any American service member, and even if the cause is good, we should question if we acted wisely in trying to further this cause. For instance, Operation Market-Garden was carried out to further a good cause (killing Nazis) but it is generally agreed that it was a bad plan that resulted in unnecessary allied deaths, including Americans. Being Commander-in-Chief is one of the most important roles of the presidency, and the question of whether or not Trump or Kamala have shown appropriate judgement in military matters in the past, and will show good judgment in the future is rightfully a part of any presidential campaign.
Indeed, we are personally mystified that anyone thinks these tactics are a winning approach. All they are doing is reminding ordinary Americans that Donald Trump showed up to honor our fallen soldiers, and Harris and Biden didn’t. They are taking a one-day hit and making it into a multi-day controversy. I doubt they will turn a single voter against Trump this way but they might lose a lot for support for Harris.
Or perhaps we should shut up and let them keep making this mistake?
On the other hand, do any of them read Twitchy, anyway?
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