The father of a Marine killed during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan was surprised by the scope of failure by the Biden administration after a scathing House GOP report was released Sunday.
The 350-page report detailed many failings from the 2021 military pullout from Afghanistan, including having no plan to evacuate Americans and allies.
“To be honest with you, a majority of the stuff in the report is nothing new. We’ve been at the congressional hearings. We’ve done all the research that we have with all the different congressional hearings ongoing for the last one and a half years,” Steve Nikoui, father of Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, said on “America Reports” Monday.
Kareem was one of the 13 American troops who were killed on Aug. 26, 2021, after a suicide bomber detonated an explosive during a massive evacuation effort outside the Kabul airport.
Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui’s (pictured) father Steve commented on the House GOP report on the Afghanistan withdrawal Monday. (Courtesy Nikouis family)
WHITE HOUSE PUSHES BACK AGAINST SCATHING REPORT ON BIDEN’S WITHDRAWAL FROM AFGHANISTAN
Nikoui noted one surprise he found from the report was efforts by the Afghanistan government to reach out and secure support against Taliban takeover. Nikoui remarked that the Biden administration likely “never had any intention” of supporting the Afghan government during the withdrawal.
“What is good, though, about this report, is that it’s finally out. There is no more question. There is no more ‘this is a conspiracy’ or whatever. This is out in a chronological order, and everyone can see the failures that led to this botched withdrawal,” Nikoui said.
Host Sandra Smith asked whether the report could come up in the upcoming ABC News Presidential Debate to which Nikoui replied, “Definitely it will.”
“The report was very thorough and comprised a lot of different elements that the American people need to know. The thing is, the administration lied. If it wasn’t Kamala Harris, it was Jen Psaki. If it wasn’t her, [Karine] Jean-Pierre, the one that is representing the White House and their lies. Manipulations are finally coming out and being shown as what they are,” he said.
This image made available to AFP on August 20, 2021 by Human Rights Activist Omar Haidari, shows a US Marine grabbing an infant over a fence of barbed wire during an evacuation at Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul on August 19, 2021. (Photo by -/Courtesy of Omar Haidiri/AFP via Getty Images)
Nikoui also pushed back against Democratic attacks against former President Trump for participating in a wreath laying ceremony with Gold Star families at Arlington National Cemetery last month.
“The only ones that are doing any parading, political parading is the Democratic Party and they’ve been lying from the beginning,” Nikoui said. “To even go back to what happened at Arlington, there’s a day we are looking for to finally get some recognition from our government. A former president is coming to honor our kids and lay a wreath at the [Tomb of the Unknown Soldier] and they use that as a way to use political leverage. What they were doing was they were trying to take away from what the day was.”
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He concluded, “The Afghanistan withdrawal, it’s all out there now. It’s all in the report, so I don’t know how they can try to spin this in any way. There’s not really any leverage for them to do that now.
Shana Chappell, mom of slain Marine Lance Cpl Kareem Nikoui, pictured, is embraced during a celebration-of-life service for him at Harvest Christian Fellowship Church, Riverside, on Saturday, Sept. 18, 2021. (Cindy Yamanaka/MediaNews Group/The Riverside Press-Enterprise via Getty Images)
The State Department stood by the Afghanistan withdrawal and attacked the report as partisan.
Republicans have “issued partisan statements, cherry-picked facts, withheld testimonies from the American people, and obfuscated the truth behind conjecture,” according to a statement put out by a State Department spokesperson.
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Fox News’ Morgan Phillips contributed to this report.
