‘Too Little, Too Late’: GOP Rep Rips Biden’s Statement On Anniversary Of Kabul Terrorist Attack That Killed 13 Troops

‘Too Little, Too Late’: GOP Rep Rips Biden’s Statement On Anniversary Of Kabul Terrorist Attack That Killed 13 Troops

Arjun Singh on August 27, 2023

Republican Rep. Darrell Issa of California criticized President Joe Biden on Saturday for a statement he released on the anniversary of the terrorist attack that killed 13 U.S. service members in Afghanistan, telling the Daily Caller News Foundation that it was “too little, too late.”

Issa has been an advocate for the families of the victims who were killed on Aug. 26, 2021, when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive vest outside Abbey Gate of Kabul International Airport, the hub for the U.S. military’s withdrawal from the country. Issa said that Biden was being “characteristically insincere” with his statement, in comments he shared with the DCNF.

“The Biden ‘statement’ isn’t worthy of the word. It’s too little, too late, and characteristically insincere from a president who will neither meet with these Gold Star families nor even say the names of our fallen service members,” Issa said. “Biden sold himself to the nation as an experienced elder statesman and an uncommonly empathetic leader. None of it was true.”

“We can never repay the incredible sacrifice of any of the 2,461 U.S. service members who lost their lives over two decades of war in Afghanistan or the 20,744 who were wounded,” the White House statement read. “Jill and I remember and mourn these 13 brave American service members and the more than 100 innocent Afghan civilians who were killed.”

Issa has written a letter asking Biden to meet privately with the families, several of whom have criticized Biden for his response to the attack. Some of the parents have called for Biden’s resignation, according to reporting by the Daily Caller.

“We have received no response from the White House — which is disappointing but hardly a surprise,” said Jonathan Wilcox, Issa’s press secretary, to the DCNF. “Biden’s callous disregard for these Gold Star families began two years ago and continues with, apparently, no end in sight.”

The 13 victims of the attack included 11 U.S. Marine Corps enlistees, one U.S. Army non-commissioned officer and a U.S. Navy corpsman. Their deaths amounted to the largest loss of life in a single incident by the U.S. in Afghanistan since 2011, when a U.S. Army CH-47 Chinook helicopter was shot down, killing 38.

After the attack, Biden ordered two airstrikes in Afghanistan against suspected ISIS-K members in retaliation. The second of those airstrikes did not kill any terrorists, but instead killed ten Afghan civilians, including an aid worker and seven children, according to The New York Times.

The White House did not immediately respond to the DCNF’s request for comment.