Congress honors troops killed during withdrawal | News, Sports, Jobs

WASHINGTON – House Speaker Mike Johnson on Tuesday presented Congress’ highest award – the Congressional Gold Medal – to 13 U.S. soldiers killed during the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan, even as the event was dominated by political considerations surrounding the presidential election.

Both Democrats and Republicans supported legislation to posthumously honor the 13 U.S. soldiers killed along with more than 170 Afghans in a suicide attack at the Abbey Gate of Kabul airport in August 2021. President Joe Biden signed the bill in December 2021. On Tuesday, top Republican and Democratic leaders from the House and Senate spoke at a ceremony in the Capitol Rotunda, honoring the lives and sacrifices of the soldiers.

Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer urged the assembled lawmakers to “make sure that the sacrifices of all our soldiers were not in vain.”

“We must take care of them and their families and defend the values ​​of freedom and democracy for which they fought so nobly,” said Schumer, a New York Democrat.

But instead of a unifying moment, the event took place against the backdrop of a bitter back-and-forth over who was responsible for the hasty and deadly evacuation from Kabul. Johnson, a Louisiana Republican and ally of Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump, had scheduled the ceremony just hours before the first debate between Trump and Democrat Kamala Harris.

“They have lost their lives because of this government’s disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan,” Johnson said at a press conference minutes before the ceremony.

As the speaker opened the ceremony, he once again criticized the way the Biden administration had defended its handling of the final months of America’s longest war.

“I know many of the families here have not heard these words, so I say them: We are sorry,” Johnson said. “The U.S. government should have done everything it could to protect our troops. The fallen and wounded at Abbey Gate deserve our best efforts, and the families who are now left to pick up the pieces deserve continued transparency, appreciation and recognition.”

Republicans on the House Foreign Affairs Committee also released a scathing investigation into the withdrawal on Sunday, placing blame on the Biden administration and downplaying the role of Trump, who signed the withdrawal agreement with the Taliban.

White House national security spokesman John Kirby on Monday criticized the House report as biased and one-sided, saying it contained little new information and several inaccuracies. He noted that evacuation plans began long before the withdrawal and the fall of Kabul “progressed much faster than anyone could have expected.”

He also acknowledged that during the evacuation, “not everything went according to plan. That never happens.”