Republican vice presidential pick Senator JD Vance lashed out at Kamala Harris, saying she “can go to hell” if she wanted to criticise former President Donald Trump for attending a ceremony honouring 13 US soldiers who died during the chaotic exit from Afghanistan.
Vance’s comments came in response to a question about a reported “altercation” at Arlington National Cemetery, where Trump visited Section 60, where veterans of the post-9/11 conflicts in Iraq and Afghanistan are laid to rest. The dispute centered around whether the Trump campaign’s photographer had permission to be present.
According to CBS News, Vance dismissed the incident, saying, “The altercation at Arlington Cemetery is the media creating a story where I really don’t think there is one.”
He argued that there was “verifiable evidence” that the campaign was allowed to have a photographer with them.
The Ohio Senator then shifted his focus to Afghanistan, attacking Harris over the handling of the US forces’ withdrawal from the war-torn nation after the fall of Kabul due to a Taliban advance.
“Three years ago, 13 brave, innocent Americans died, and they died because Kamala Harris refused to do her job, and there hasn’t been a single investigation or a single firing,” Vance said.
He called the Vice President “disgraceful” and said the narrative should be that “Kamala Harris is so asleep at the wheel that she won’t even do an investigation into what happened, and she wants to yell at Donald Trump because he showed up.”
“She can go to hell,” he added.
In a statement marking the bombing, Harris said she “will fulfil our sacred obligation to care for our troops and their families and I will always honour their service and sacrifice.” She also defended President Biden’s decision to end America’s longest war.
Her presidential campaign said a reported confrontation between Trump’s campaign aides and an official at Arlington was “pretty sad,” but “not surprising coming from the Trump team.”
The Biden administration and Congress have conducted several investigations into the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, with reports from the White House and the State Department partly faulting the Trump administration for the circumstances that contributed to its challenges.
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