Gold Star father Mark Schmitz held nothing back during his Tuesday testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, taking direct aim...
Gold Star father Mark Schmitz held nothing back during his Tuesday testimony before the House Foreign Affairs Committee, taking direct aim at military leadership in addition to President Joe Biden and former Pentagon spokesman John Kirby.
Schmitz lost his son, Lance CPL Jared Schmitz, in the suicide bomb attack on Hamid Karzai International Airport’s Abbey Gate in Kabul on August 26, 2021. Two years later, he and a number of other Gold Star family members are still looking for answers after the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan left 13 American service members dead and dozens more wounded.
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“Two years has gone by, and where are we? To be frank, we’re knee deep in bulls***, is where we are,” Schmitz began his remarks by laying into those who had been in leadership positions during the troop drawdown and then withdrawal from Afghanistan.
“Everyone who held a key position in the military still has that position or has been promoted. John Kirby still sits on his perch, which apparently faces in the opposite direction from where all the action was,” Schmitz said. “Blinken continues to delay key evidence by ignoring or delaying subpoenas. Not a single general slapped down their stars, which should have happened two years ago when Biden ignored reliable intelligence. Not a single person has been held accountable.”
Schmitz then turned his attention to President Joe Biden, noting as several of the other Gold Star family members have that Biden has not mentioned their loved ones by name even once in the two years since they fell in service to the country.
“Mr. Biden has run his entire political campaign for 50 years as ‘the family man.’ Well, I’ve got news for you, Sir. The curtain has been lifting, and that campaign slogan will never work again,” Schmitz continued. “We have seen what’s going on in your family. And even worse, we’ve seen the way you’ve been treating us as Gold Star families. And there couldn’t be anything more disgusting and cowardly than the way you have treated us. You are a disgrace to this nation. You have no business having ultimate command over our military, and I regret not saying that to your face when I had the opportunity in Dover.”
Schmitz went on to say that he had initially opted to hold back out of respect for the other grieving family members who were also there to collect their loved ones’ remains.
“While I stood there on the tarmac, watching you check your watch over and over again, all I wanted to do was shout out, ‘It’s 2-f***ing-thirty, a**hole.’ But out of respect to the other grieving families, I bit my tongue once again,” he said. “As you can probably tell by now, I’m done biting my tongue. You, Sir, stole their lives, their futures, their dreams — and have ripped apart thirteen families. You cannot even man up and admit that. You, Sir, gave us all the title ‘Gold Star Family.’ You, Sir, discredit honor and integrity.”
Other family members have also criticized Biden both for his handling of the exit from Afghanistan and his treatment of those who lost loved ones in the final days, calling him “heartless” and noting that he had attempted to make their meetings all about himself and his late son, Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer.
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