Harris was conspicuously absent from public memorial services honoring the soldiers killed during the withdrawal from Afghanistan that she supported

Vice President Kamala Harris issued a statement Monday morning paying tribute to the 13 U.S. soldiers killed in the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan three years ago, but she was conspicuously absent from public memorial services and events marking the anniversaries of their deaths.

Harris released a statement early Monday morning naming the 13 U.S. service members killed in the terrorist attack at Abbey Gate outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 26, 2021. She mourned their deaths and called on Americans to “come together as one nation to honor those who made the ultimate sacrifice three years ago.”

“Today and every day, I mourn and honor them. My prayers are with their families and loved ones. Their pain and loss breaks my heart. These 13 devoted patriots represent the best of America, putting our beloved nation and their fellow Americans above themselves, putting themselves in harm's way to ensure the safety of their fellow citizens,” Harris wrote in the statement.

Harris also released her statement on her Vice President X account on Monday.

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Fox News Digital reached out to both Harris' campaign and her vice presidential office to ask if she plans to honor military members at live events – public or private – but received no response.

The anniversary of the tragic soldier deaths comes after Harris addressed the Democratic National Convention in Chicago last week, where she formally accepted the Democratic Party's nomination for the Oval Office after President Biden dropped out of the race last month amid growing concerns about his mental health. Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, are scheduled to visit Georgia next week to hold their first public event after the convention, NBC News reported.

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Biden also paid tribute to the 13 fallen U.S. soldiers in an early morning statement. The president is at his beach house in Delaware this week and has no public events planned, Fox Digital reported Monday.

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“These 13 Americans – and the many more who were wounded – were patriots in the highest sense. Some were born the year the war in Afghanistan began. Some were on their second or third deployment. But all raised their hands to serve a cause greater than themselves – risking their own safety for the safety of their fellow Americans, allies and Afghan partners. They embodied the best of who we are as a nation: brave, dedicated, selfless. And we owe them and their families a sacred debt that we can never fully repay but will always work to fulfill,” Biden wrote in his statement, which also listed the names of the 13 soldiers.

In this Aug. 21, 2021, photo provided by the U.S. Marines, U.S. Marines with Special Purpose Marine Air-Ground Task Force – Crisis Response – Central Command provide assistance at an evacuation checkpoint during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. (Staff Sgt. Victor Mancilla/US Marine Corps via AP)

In her acceptance speech last week, Harris touted her foreign policy accomplishments and her support for veterans, but made no mention of the Biden-Harris administration's botched withdrawal from Afghanistan.

“I will never hesitate to take any action necessary to defend our forces and our interests against Iran and Iranian-backed terrorists. And I will not go after tyrants and dictators like Kim Jong Un who support Trump. Because they know he is easily manipulated with flattery and favors. They know Trump will not hold autocrats accountable – because he wants to be an autocrat,” Harris announced in the DNC stage in Chicago Thursday evening.

“As President, I will never slacken in defending America's security and ideals. Because in the ongoing struggle between democracy and tyranny, I know where I stand – and where the United States of America belongs.”

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In addition to the deaths of the 13 U.S. troops defending Kabul airport during the botched withdrawal, hundreds of Americans and tens of thousands of Afghan allies remained in the country under Taliban rule. Critics such as Senator Ted Cruz (R-Texas) said the withdrawal paved the way for adversaries such as Russia to invade Ukraine.

After the withdrawal, the Taliban ultimately took control of Afghanistan.

This image provided to AFP on August 20, 2021 by human rights activist Omar Haidari shows a U.S. Marine snatching a toddler over a barbed wire fence during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 19, 2021. (Courtesy of Omar Haidiri/AFP via Getty Images)

Harris had previously confirmed that she was the “last person in the room” with Biden before he made the decision to withdraw, and also told the media that she was “pleased” with the operation, which ultimately ended in death and chaos.

On the Republican side of the presidential campaign, former President Donald Trump has repeatedly honored fallen soldiers, including the families of those killed during the withdrawal. Last month, he took the stage at the RNC in Milwaukee for 20 minutes to pay an emotional tribute to them. The families also criticized Biden in their speeches from the RNC stage and called on the president to apologize to them.

“Look at our faces. Look at our pain and our sorrow. And look at our anger.” [The Afghanistan withdrawal] was not an extraordinary success,” said Cheryl Juels, the aunt of Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee.Joe Biden owes The men and women who served in Afghanistan deserve gratitude and an apology.”

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On Monday's anniversary, Trump traveled to Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia to lay a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. There, too, he met with the families of those killed in Afghanistan three years ago.

During the ceremony, the 45-year-old president was seen listening to the tattoo, laying a wreath at the grave and meeting with his family members.

ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA – AUGUST 26: Republican presidential candidate and former U.S. President Donald Trump stands next to Bill Barnett, left, whose grandson Staff Sgt Darin Taylor Hoover was killed in the Abbey Gate bombing, during a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery August 26, 2024 in Arlington, Virginia. Monday marks the third anniversary of the August 26, 2021 suicide bombing at Hamid Karzai International Airport that killed 13 American service members. (Getty Images)

Trump has repeatedly criticized the Biden administration for its botched withdrawal from the country in 2021, calling it the “most embarrassing moment” in U.S. history in a Truth Social post on Monday.

“This is the third anniversary of the botched Afghanistan withdrawal, the most embarrassing moment in our country's history. Gross incompetence – 13 American soldiers DEAD, hundreds injured and dead, BILLIONS OF DOLLARS WORTH OF AMERICANS and MILITARY EQUIPMENT LEFT BEHIND. You don't get our soldiers out first, you get them out LAST when everything else is successfully accomplished. Russia then invaded Ukraine, Israel was attacked, and the USA became and remains a laughing stock around the world,” Trump posted on Truth Social.

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Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris, left, raises her hand in the air with President Joe Biden at the Democratic National Convention, Monday, Aug. 19, 2024, in Chicago. (AP Photo/Jacquelyn Martin)

John Kirby, White House communications adviser for national security, answered questions from the media on Monday about the Afghanistan withdrawal. One reporter asked, among other things, why Biden and Harris felt they did not need to “host or attend public events, as former President Donald Trump did today.”

“You don't have to look very closely at the track record of the President and the First Lady and the Vice President over the last three and a half years to see how committed they are to the men and women of our military, our veterans and their families. From Joining Forces to the Pact Act,” Kirby responded.

He added that Trump had been personally invited by the families to join them at Arlington National Cemetery and that there were “many opportunities” for US leaders to pay their final respects to the fallen soldiers without “a lot of fanfare”.

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“Another option is to keep working. Maybe not with a lot of fanfare. Maybe not with a lot of publicity. Maybe not in front of the television cameras, but to work every day with all our might to ensure that the families of the fallen and the injured and wounded – not just at Abbey Gate but over the 20-odd years that we have been in Afghanistan – get the support that they need,” he said.