Outraged Gold Star father demands answers from Biden officials on Kabul bombing: 'Absolutely despicable'

close

Video

Family honors Marine Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover: 'He led by example'

Gold Star family members Darin Hoover and Taylor Manning remember Staff Sgt. Hoover, who was one of 13 U.S. service members killed in the Afghanistan withdrawal, and demand answers from the Biden administration.

Gold Star father Darin Hoover is still searching for answers after his son, Marine Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, was killed in the suicide bombing in Kabul as the U.S. was withdrawing from Afghanistan.

More than a year later, Hoover said he still hasn’t heard from the Biden administration.

"It’s absolutely despicable," Hoover said on "Fox & Friends" Thursday. "Not one word from anybody in this administration or the D.O.D. as to why this happened the way that it did, or the State Department, for that matter."

Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover was one of 13 U.S. service members who were killed along with more than 170 Afghans in an attack that ISIS later claimed. The Pentagon concluded in February that the attack was "not preventable."

Video

TALIBAN CELEBRATES US AFGHANISTAN WITHDRAWAL WITH PARADE IN FRONT OF US EMBASSY, BAGRAM AIR BASE

Hoover, however, said he still wants answers from Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley and CENTCOM Gen. Kenneth F. McKenzie, who oversaw the pullout operations.

"How in the world did it get to the point that it got to with the chaos and everything else going on?" he asked. "Why did it get there? That our men, our women that were there on a humanitarian effort -- why were they set up?"

Tori Manning said her brother was volunteering his time when he was caught in the attack. She said Hoover’s company was not working at the gate, but he wanted to continue evacuating Afghans and American allies. 

Manning said her brother spoke differently about his deployment to help with the withdrawal than he had about previous deployments. She said it was awful to hear him describe the scene in Kabul.

"He said that he's never seen anything like that before, that he just wanted to get home and ‘feel human again,’" she recalled.

Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover with his two sisters and mother, Kelly Barnett, in Utah. 

Manning said her brother was a natural-born leader, and she views him as her hero. 

"My brother, he led by example every time," Manning told host Brian Kilmeade. "He didn't have to be out there, he wanted to be out there to help people."

CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP

Darin Hoover described his son as a warrior who built a legacy of service. 

"I couldn’t be more proud," he said.

"He was out there helping people, which is what he loved to do. … It's a sense of pride that will not go away."