Vance criticizes Kamala Harris over Afghanistan withdrawal in harshest rhetoric yet

Senator JD Vance of Ohio on Wednesday condemned Vice President Kamala Harris for the Biden administration's handling of the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, saying the Democratic presidential candidate “can go to hell.”

Vance's comments at a rally in Erie, Pennsylvania, were his sharpest remarks toward Harris yet on the campaign trail. They came in response to a reporter's question about an “incident” on Monday when former President Donald Trump visited Arlington National Cemetery with family members of soldiers killed during the 2021 attack at the Abbey Gate at the airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, in the final days of the withdrawal.

“Three years ago, 13 brave, innocent Americans died, and they died because Kamala Harris refused to do her job, and there was not a single investigation or firing,” Vance said. “Sometimes mistakes happen – that's just the nature of government, the nature of the military service. But that these 13 Americans lost their lives and not a single person was fired is a disgrace. Kamala Harris is a disgrace.”

Vance said that if they were to discuss a story related to Abbey Gate, “it would be about how Kamala Harris is so asleep that she doesn't even want to conduct an investigation into what happened, and she wants to yell at Donald Trump for showing up. She can, she can go to hell.”

The Trump campaign did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Vance's remarks. The Harris campaign declined to comment.

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When asked by NBC News about his comments, Vance said he was frustrated.

“Sometimes I get frustrated, and sometimes I get angry. And I think Kamala Harris's failure of leadership on Abbey Gate is something to be frustrated and angry about,” Vance said.

He also accused the Harris campaign team of trying to “make a huge political issue” out of the incidents at Arlington National Cemetery in a suburb of Washington, Virginia.

“The fact that Kamala Harris wants to make this an issue while refusing to show up, refusing to even call the families whose children have died because of her leadership, I think is something that warrants a little bit of frustration, and I certainly showed that today,” Vance said.

In a statement on Monday, Harris commemorated the third anniversary of the Abbey Gate attack and said her “heart breaks” thinking of the pain and loss suffered by the families of the victims.

“I will honor our sacred obligation to care for our troops and their families, and I will always honor their service and sacrifice,” she said, adding: “President Biden has made the courageous and right decision to end America's longest war.”

The United States withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021, about 20 years after its invasion under President George W. Bush.

The Biden administration and Congress have conducted several investigations into the U.S. withdrawal and the attack on Abbey Gate, when soldiers were helping people evacuate the country.

In a report last year, the White House largely blamed the Trump administration for the chaotic withdrawal.

The former US commander who oversaw the withdrawal testified at a congressional hearing this year that he alone bore responsibility for the deaths of the 13 American soldiers at Kabul airport.

Some of the soldiers' families expressed frustration that the Biden administration was not providing them with all the answers they wanted.

At the hearing this year, retired Gen. Mark Milley, the former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, acknowledged that officials were still looking for more information.

Milley said it would take “considerable time” to get those answers, especially because much of the files are classified.

Texas Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, who chairs the Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote a letter last week urging White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan to testify before the Republican-led panel about the withdrawal.

“He owes Gold Star families, veterans and the American public an answer to the disastrous withdrawal,” McCaul wrote in a post on X on Wednesday, calling Sullivan “one of the primary architects” of the administration's Afghanistan policy.

Vance, a Marine veteran, directed his criticism on military matters primarily at Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential candidate, whom he accused of misrepresenting his military career.

Walz spoke in 2018 about his handling of weapons “in war,” although he had never been deployed to a combat zone. The Harris campaign said this month that he had “misspoken.”

During his 24 years in the military, Walz was deployed overseas and supported operational units. He officially retired from the Minnesota National Guard in 2005.