Former president Donald Trump sought to tie Vice President Kamala Harris to the United States\u2019 deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan on Monday, accusing her and President Joe Biden of overseeing \u201cthe most embarrassing day in the history of our country.\u201d<\/p>\n
Days earlier, Harris had taken a not-so-subtle dig at Trump as commander in chief during her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. She said she would \u201cnever disparage [military members\u2019] service and their sacrifice,\u201d a nod to some of Trump\u2019s comments about veterans \u2014 including his former chief of staff\u2019s allegation that he called American war casualties \u201csuckers\u201d and \u201closers,\u201d an account Trump has sharply denied.<\/p>\n
With just over two months until the election, Trump and Harris are vying for the high ground on military issues, debating not just who would keep America safe, but also who would best care for the needs of veterans and who holds the U.S. armed forces in the respect they deserve. Neither candidate has served in the military, and both are stressing their diplomatic and foreign policy successes. Both are also surrounding themselves with veterans to vouch for them, including their running mates, who have engaged in their own fierce back-and-forth about military service.<\/p>\n
On Monday, Trump attended a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery, joining family members of troops slain in the Aug. 26, 2021, attack outside Kabul\u2019s airport as the United States was pulling out of Afghanistan. The former president sought to tie Harris to America\u2019s chaotic withdrawal, a key decision of Biden\u2019s that Harris has said she was consulted on.<\/p>\n
Thirteen U.S. service members and about 170 Afghans died in the attack when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive in the closing days of the grueling U.S.-led evacuation effort. The Biden administration has said the deaths were a tragedy but has stood by the president\u2019s decision to end a 20-year war that he argued was making little progress.<\/p>\n
Democrats spent a large portion of their convention last week playing up Harris\u2019s argument that she is ready to be commander in chief on Day One. She recounted meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in 2022 \u201cto warn him about Russia\u2019s plan to invade\u201d and said she had helped mobilize the global response against the Russian invasion.<\/p>\n
\u201cI have confronted threats to our security, negotiated with foreign leaders, strengthened our alliances and engaged with our brave troops overseas,\u201d she said in the speech. \u201cAs commander in chief, I will ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world. And I will fulfill our sacred obligation to care for our troops and their families, and I will always honor and never disparage their service and their sacrifice.\u201d<\/p>\n
But Harris also warned that Trump would undo the foreign policy progress of the Biden administration and embolden America\u2019s enemies, saying that he \u201cthreatened to abandon NATO. He encouraged Putin to invade our allies. Said Russia could \u2018do whatever the hell they want.\u2019\u201d In February, Trump said he had told a foreign leader he would encourage Russia to \u201cdo whatever the hell they want\u201d to countries he viewed as not spending enough on defense.<\/p>\n
The candidates\u2019 argument over who would stand up better for America\u2019s military comes as tensions are flaring around the world, from Russia\u2019s invasion of Ukraine to Israel\u2019s war with Hamas to China\u2019s aggression against its neighbors. While Harris has limited experience with the armed forces, Trump has alternately praised the military, criticized generals and questioned America\u2019s alliances, leaving each nominee potentially vulnerable on the issue.<\/p>\n
Trump, in an interview released Monday, again disputed years-old reports, including a public statement by his former chief of staff, John Kelly, that he had referred to people killed in combat as \u201closers.\u201d \u201cWho would say it?\u201d Trump said in the interview with podcaster Shawn Ryan, a former Navy SEAL. \u201cWho would say it? Nobody would say it. A stupid person or a person that\u2019s mentally ill.\u201d<\/p>\n
Trump also addressed the National Guard Association of the United States on Monday in Detroit.<\/p>\n
Trump\u2019s campaign has assembled surrogates with military experience to vouch for Trump and attack the Democratic ticket. A Monday press call featured allies such as retired Navy SEAL Ryan Zinke, now a Republican congressman, and family members of the service members killed in the Afghanistan exit. Last week, the Trump campaign released a letter from Republican lawmakers who served in the military and accused Harris\u2019s running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, of misrepresenting aspects of his National Guard service.<\/p>\n
The Harris campaign has turned to its own raft of supporters to stress that the vice president would be a strong commander in chief.<\/p>\n
At the Democratic National Convention, Rep. Ruben Gallego, a Marine who is running for a U.S. Senate seat in Arizona, brought dozens of elected Democratic veterans onstage during his remarks. He pointed out that Trump had spoken ill of a veteran and former prisoner of war, the late Republican senator John McCain. And he said that Project 2025, a blueprint assembled by conservative groups for the next Republican administration, would \u201cslash veteran benefits and force VA hospitals to close across the nation.\u201d Trump has harshly criticized Project 2025.<\/p>\n
Still, both presidential candidates\u2019 self-characterizations omit significant details.<\/p>\n
While Harris clearly played a role in the Biden administration\u2019s efforts to shore up NATO and support Ukraine \u2014 including speeches at the Munich Security Conference and meetings with Zelensky and other allies \u2014 her actions were fully in service to Biden\u2019s vision, as might be expected from a vice president. And while the White House has stressed that Harris was a full governing partner, they have not specified what role she played in key decisions.<\/p>\n
Harris told reporters in 2021 that she was the \u201clast person in the room\u201d when Biden made the decision to pull out of Afghanistan, but people familiar with the deliberations have said she did not appear to have influence with Biden on an issue where he was deeply entrenched.<\/p>\n
Trump, for his part, has pitched himself as a champion of a strong U.S. military, but his comments about service members have repeatedly been criticized as disrespectful. The latest controversy flared when Trump called a civilian medal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, \u201cmuch better\u201d than the Medal of Honor, the top military award recognizing valor in combat, because the latter often goes to people wounded or killed in service, a comment that drew a rare rebuke from the Veterans of Foreign Wars.<\/p>\n
\u201cThese asinine comments not only diminish the significance of our nation\u2019s highest award for valor, but also crassly [characterize] the sacrifices of those who have risked their lives above and beyond the call of duty,\u201d Al Lipphardt, the commander in chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said in a statement.<\/p>\n
During his first presidential campaign, Trump belittled the sacrifice of McCain \u2014 who spent five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam and underwent severe torture \u2014 saying, \u201cI like people who weren\u2019t captured.\u201d<\/p>\n
While the nominees go after each other, much of the debate has been conducted by a pair of vice-presidential candidates who both served in the military.<\/p>\n
Walz and Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), Trump\u2019s running mate, are the first veterans who served after Sept. 11, 2001, to be part of a presidential ticket. Vance served four years in the Marine Corps in public affairs, deploying once to Iraq before departing active duty as a corporal. Walz served 24 years in the Minnesota National Guard, including as a command sergeant major, before retiring in 2005 to run for Congress.<\/p>\n
Their exchanges have turned bitter at times, with Vance accusing Walz of \u201cstolen valor\u201d for the way he has characterized his service. Walz has said he retired as a command sergeant major. While he did reach that rank, he did not hold it long enough, or complete the required coursework, to hold the rank in retirement, instead becoming a master sergeant, Minnesota National Guard officials have said.<\/p>\n
After the issue emerged this month, the Harris campaign corrected its website to remove that Walz was a retired command sergeant major. It also said that Walz \u201cmisspoke\u201d while saying during a campaign event that he had carried weapons \u201cin war,\u201d since he did not serve in a theater of combat.<\/p>\n
Some Republicans have also criticized Walz for retiring in 2005, saying he must have known that his unit was probably going to deploy shortly to Iraq. Democrats counter that Walz was well within his rights to retire when he did and already had extended his military career with a reenlistment after the 9\/11 attacks. And they note that Trump received five draft deferments during the Vietnam War.<\/p>\n
Republicans, they allege, are attempting to \u201cSwift boat\u201d Walz, using a term that harks back to 2004, when Republicans attacked Democratic presidential John F. Kerry by questioning his service in Vietnam and whether he deserved the Purple Hearts he received for injuries he suffered. Many people who served with Kerry took strong issue with the GOP criticisms.<\/p>\n
Patrick Svitek contributed to this report.<\/p>\n<\/p>\n
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