The head of the Congressional Progressive Caucus has come to the defense of the Biden administration, saying that Vice President Kamala Harris and President Joe Biden both deserve “credit” for ending the war in Afghanistan.
Appearing on NBC News on Sunday, Khanna, the Democratic representative from California, admitted there were “mistakes” that were made during the withdrawal of troops from the country, but that shouldn’t make people forget about all the successes of the Biden administration in that regard.
On Monday, Gold Star families went to Arlington Cemetery for a ceremony that was held in honor of the 13 service members who were killed during that botched withdrawal.
Kristen Welker, the host of the “Meet the Press” show, pressed Khanna about the responsibility that Harris had over those deaths that happened just outside of the country’s Kabul International Airport.
Khanna said that Harris was proud of her “record” about the withdrawal, saying:
“I think she is proud of the Biden-Harris record. She deserves credit for ending the war and to the extent that there were mistakes made, of course, she is part of that administration. But, you know the difference, Kristen? No one is perfect in government and President Biden’s team himself has acknowledged certain mistakes, but leaders take responsibility and they’re open and they’re honest.
“Yes, there were certain mistakes made but the war was ended. That is the big decision she deserves and President Biden deserves credit for.”
Of course, the Biden administration didn’t exactly do much to end the war. All of that was put into motion during the Trump administration, and the Biden-Harris team only really saw it through to the end.
In fact, the Biden administration went forward with the withdrawal of troops even though the Taliban wasn’t living up to the expectations that were set in the agreement between them, the U.S. and the Afghan government. Then, not long after American troops left the country, the Taliban took full control of the country once again, rolling back years of progress.
The president and vice president have received much criticism for the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan. Around the time that it happened, in August of 2021, Biden said multiple times that military leaders did not brief him and warned that it wasn’t a good idea to pull all troops out.
That led to many conflicting messages coming out of his administration, since he was indeed briefed about exactly that.
Many of the Gold Star families criticized Harris after she condemned GOP candidate Donald Trump for filming a campaign video at the Arlington Cemetery.
Eight of those families called out Harris on the social media platform X, saying they haven’t heard from her over the last three years, and that they had invited Trump there.
As one father said in a video posted to the platform:
“This is Mark Schmitz, gold star father of Marine Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz. Here we are in a beautiful holiday weekend day, I got to stop what I’m doing, spending time with what’s left of my family, to address a heinous, vile and disgusting post put out by Kamala Harris trying to incite those that don’t follow the truth that President Trump was in Arlington as a political stunt. Shows you how much you know about the 13 families. We invited him to be there.”
