Gold Star mother calls out lack of accountability, leadership during Afghanistan withdrawal
Paula Knauss Selph remembers her late son, Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, three years after the Abbey Gate terror attack and reacts to the moment former President Trump laid flowers on her son's grave.
Gold Star mom Paula Knauss Selph lambasted the Biden administration for continuing to evade accountability as she and other Gold Star families Monday marked three years since the terrorist attack at Afghanistan's Kabul airport that claimed the lives of 13 U.S. service members.
"On this day in particular, we are all grieving over something that should have never, ever happened the way it did," Selph, whose son, Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss, died in the botched withdrawal, said on "America Reports."
Staff Sgt. Ryan Knauss died Aug. 26, 2021, in the suicide bombing attack on Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan. (U.S. Army Special Operations Forces Command)
"It’s the lack of accountability that has really upset the nation on this. It is the lack of empathy and sympathy for a situation…at least say I’m sorry," she added. "At least apologize for a lack of leadership."
The grieving mother said Biden's chaotic Afghanistan withdrawal cost the United States its credibility on the world stage, echoing former President Trump who told a crowd earlier Monday that foreign leaders and bad actors no longer "respect us."
"He’s right. We lost a lot of credibility in our nation and in our world powers," she told Fox News co-anchor Sandra Smith. "We have lost it. And the only way we will gain it back is if we become a world power again."
GOLD STAR DAD SENDS MESSAGE TO VP HARRIS 3 YEARS AFTER ABBEY GATE ATTACK: ‘SHE OWNS THIS’
Moments earlier, Trump laid wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery Monday to honor the fallen soldiers killed in the suicide bombing at Afghanistan's Hamid Karzai International Airport. A clip on "America Reports" showed the former president placing flowers at the grave of Selph's son.
ARLINGTON, VIRGINIA - AUGUST 26: Republican presidential nominee, former U.S. President Donald Trump stands alongside Bill Barnett (L), whose grandson Staff Sgt Darin Taylor Hoover died in Abbey Gate Bombing, during a wreath laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery on August 26, 2024 in Arlington, Virginia. (Getty Images )
"He [Trump] called me right after that, and he expressed his sorrow at the fact that he would have to do that," Selph revealed. "He reminded me that there are good leaders in our nation who will step up when the time comes [and] we will all be grateful when the change of hand happens."
House Speaker Mike Johnson announced Monday that he will present the Congressional Gold Medal to the families who lost loved ones in the Kabul airport attack.
Selph said the decision "brings honor" to the 13 grieving families.
"It brings honor to our nation," she told Smith, adding, "we will not forget."
Vice President Harris issued a statement Monday addressing the anniversary of the attack by listing the names of those lost and making a pledge to "fulfill our sacred obligation to care for our troops and their families" and "always honor their service and sacrifice." She wrote that while her "heart breaks" with their "pain and loss," she believes "President Biden made the courageous and right decision to end America’s longest war."
Pallbearers carry one of the 13 slain soldiers from the Abbey Gate attack at Kabul airport in April 2021. (Stephen Lam/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images)
Gold Star mom Shana Chappell, who also spoke to Fox News on Monday, said her son would not be proud of the current state of the country he died protecting.
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"The Biden administration is 100% at fault for why my son lost his life, and now I look at the way our country is going, and I think this is not what my son died for. He did not die to watch our country go down the path that it's going," she said.
Fox News' Taylor Penley contributed to this report.
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