Gold Star Mother Slams Harris

Paula Knauss Selph, the mother of one of the 13 service members killed in Kabul, Afghanistan, slammed Vice President Kamala Harris on Monday for the chaotic U.S. withdrawal on August 26, 2021.

Selph’s son, Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Christian Knauss, lost his life during a suicide bombing by an ISIS member at Hamid Karzai International Airport amid the U.S. military withdrawal from Afghanistan.

In an interview with CNN’s Brianna Keilar on the third anniversary of the withdrawal, Selph accused the Biden-Harris administration of trying to “sweep it under the rug” rather than acknowledging their mistakes.

“It would be great if the administration would start out by saying ‘we made a mistake. We made several mistakes. We did not make the best decisions.’ Instead, this administration has tried to sweep it under the rug, and that’s absolutely not going to work for this nation nor this world who watched this live on television. You can’t deny what we all knew and saw,” Selph said.

Selph called on Harris to take responsibility for the attack, highlighting her involvement in the administration’s decision-making process on the issue.

Prior to the withdrawal, Harris had confirmed that she was the “last person in the room” when President Joe Biden decided to withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan by September 11, 2021, as she mentioned in an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash on April 25, 2021.

“You were with the administration during all of this. You hold the same accountability as President Biden does. You were right aside him in making all of these decisions,” Selph said regarding Harris. “And if you say you’re not, then what kind of leader are you going to be in the future if you didn’t have the same decision making with him on this?”

A gold star mother of Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Christian Knauss, one of the thirteen service members killed in Afghanistan three years ago, tells CNN that Kamala Harris is responsible for the botched withdrawal pic.twitter.com/EoxbYXUFSY

— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 26, 2024

Selph recounted that President Biden displayed a lack of sympathy when she cried in front of him at the White House, urging that “better character” should be present in the Oval Office. She mentioned that Republican nominee Donald Trump personally called her on Monday and expressed his regret over the events that had occurred.

“What Trump said to me was that he was sorry. He was so sorry that all of this happened and that it should’ve never happened,” the gold star mother said. “And he’s right, it should’ve never happened.”

Trump paid tribute to the fallen service members during a three-year anniversary ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery on Monday while President Biden was on vacation in Rehoboth Beach, Delaware.

The Biden administration has not fired anyone involved in the operation, nor have there been any resignations. A 2023 report from the Biden administration primarily placed the blame on the Trump administration, citing the agreement Trump signed with the Taliban in 2020 to withdraw U.S. forces by 2021.