On Tuesday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “Morning Joe,” Harris Campaign Co-Chair Sen. Chris Coons (D-DE) said that there’s “plenty of responsibility” to go around for how the withdrawal from Afghanistan went, but “What matters to me is who better respects America’s veterans and those who’ve served.”
MSNBC Contributor and BBC U.S. Special Correspondent Katty Kay asked, “Do you feel that there is any better response that Vice President Harris and Joe Biden, indeed, could be giving on this anniversary to the criticism that this was mishandled by the Biden-Harris administration, and that there has not been, on this anniversary, more of an overt expression of remorse from the White House?”
Coons responded, “Look, Katty, I was at Dover Air Force Base with President Biden when the families of the 13 Americans fallen in that tragic incident were there to greet and welcome home their loved ones, their remains. And no one is as committed to comforting and supporting and sustaining veteran families in moments of grief and day in and day out than President Biden. The PACT Act is the most significant investment in veteran health care in American history, something that the Biden-Harris administration shepherded through Congress and then he signed into law. And as Gen. H.R. McMaster himself has said, former President Trump bears a fair amount of responsibility for the timing and the type of withdrawal that we ultimately went through to get out of Afghanistan, a 20-year conflict. I think there’s plenty of responsibility to go –.”
After getting interrupted by feedback in his earpiece, Coons stated, “I do think there’s plenty of responsibility for what was a tragic incident. What matters to me is who better respects America’s veterans and those who’ve served. And, as you know, former President Trump recently, shockingly, said that he thought the Congressional Medal of Honor was not that significant because the folks who earned it had died in action or were all shot up, when comparing a medal that he gave to a donor to a medal that is earned by America’s servicemembers for valor and sacrifice.”
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