Leaders awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to the families of 13 military service members killed during the evacuation, as Republicans seek to use the attack to tarnish Vice President Kamala Harris.
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Family members of troops who died during the American withdrawal from Afghanistan listened during a Gold Medal ceremony in the Capitol on Tuesday.
Top lawmakers on Tuesday presented the Congressional Gold Medal to the families of 13 U.S. service members killed in a terrorist attack during the evacuation of Afghanistan, as Republicans make an election-season push to blame Vice President Kamala Harris for their deaths.
The House and Senate voted unanimously three years ago to award Congress’s highest civilian honor to the 11 Marines, one sailor and one soldier who were killed by a lone bomber outside the Kabul airport on Aug. 26, 2021.
But Republicans’ timing of the award ceremony, weeks before the presidential election, was fraught with politics. It unfolded just hours before former President Donald J. Trump and Ms. Harris were to square off in a high-stakes televised debate. And it came after a contentious back and forth between the two after Mr. Trump recorded a campaign ad with families of the victims in a restricted portion of Arlington National Cemetery. He drew rebukes from the U.S. Army and from Ms. Harris, who accused him of desecrating a sacred space for the sake of politics.
Congressional leaders largely kept politics out of their speeches as they stood shoulder to shoulder in the Rotunda to present the medals to the families of those killed.
“We will never forget the sacrifice of the fallen 13 service members,” said Senator Chuck Schumer, Democrat of New York and the majority leader, adding that it now falls on Congress “to ensure the sacrifices of all our service members were not in vain.”
Speaker Mike Johnson, Republican of Louisiana, opened the proceedings by focusing on the honorees.
“Our nation owes a profound debt of gratitude to these service members,” he said. But in the next breath, he implicitly criticized the Biden administration for allowing the attack to happen and for failing to apologize for it.
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