John Sexton4:00 PM | September 02, 2024
A pretty embarrassing slip by NBC News' Kristen Welker yesterday. Sen. Tom Cotton was a guest on NBC's Meet the Press and he had several feisty exchanges with Welker over the course of the 15 minute interview.
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Near the end of that time, Welker turned to the week-long controversy over former President Trump's visit to Arlington National Cemetery with families of the soldiers killed in Afghanistan during the Biden administration's withdrawal of forces. Sen. Cotton made the case that Trump was invited to the site by those families and they asked him to take photos there. He also pointed out that President Biden and Vice-President Harris were also invited and did not attend.
"Joe Biden and Kamala Harris — where were they? Joe Biden was sitting at a beach. Kamala Harris was sitting at her mansion in Washington, D.C. She was four miles away — ten minutes. She could've gone to the cemetery and honored the sacrifice of those young men and women, but she hasn't. She never has spoken to them or taken a meeting with them," Cotton told Welker. "It is because of her and Joe Biden's incompetence that those 13 Americans were killed in Afghanistan."
It was at this point that Welker interjected with a fact check.
"They did meet them during the dignified transfer. They were with them at the dignified transfer," Welker interjected.
Here's the clip:
— Mario Nawfal (@MarioNawfal) September 1, 2024🚨🇺🇸SEN COTTON: KAMALA AND BIDEN HAVE FAILED AMERICAN VICTIMS KILLED IN AFGHANISTAN@SenTomCotton :
“[Trump] didn't take campaign photos there. These families — Gold Star families — whose children died due to Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's incompetence, invited him to the… pic.twitter.com/0pwKUyej49
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Two points about this. First of all, she's referring to the dignified transfer ceremony where Joe Biden was seen repeatedly checking his watch.
— Media Research Center (@theMRC) February 2, 2024Joe Biden is attending Dover Air Force Base today to honor the three American service members killed in Jordan.
In 2021, he "honored" the thirteen soldiers who died in Afghanistan by checking his watch. pic.twitter.com/3h2gt0z1HA
Does Welker not know about this? It's possible because Jen Psaki apparently didn't know about it as recently as May. She had to correct her newly published book which labeled this an instance of "misinformation" when it was in fact true.
The second and more important point is that VP Harris was not present at the transfer ceremony at all. So Welker's claim (she says it twice) that "they did meet them" is false. Yesterday, Meet the Press issued a correction on X.
On our broadcast this morning, we incorrectly implied that both President Biden and Vice President Harris attended the dignified transfer of 13 American service members killed during the Afghanistan withdrawal. Biden was in attendance but Harris was not.
— Meet the Press (@MeetThePress) September 1, 2024
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They try to minimize this by saying Welker "implied" Harris was present, but that's false. Saying "they did meet them," where the "they" is very clearly a reference to President Biden and VP Harris, is not an implication it's a statement. Welker thought she was fact-checking Sen. Cotton but in the end, she got fact-checked by her own show.
Two clips to wind this up. First is the full segment featuring Sen. Cotton. As you'll see, this was just one of several times during the segment where Welker argued with her guest. In fact, there was a much longer argument near the start of the segment over the Biden administration's decision to temporarily withhold weapons from Israel.
Secondly, yesterday the Trump campaign posted statements from some of the families who invited him to Arlington National Cemetery.
The Trump campaign then released the statement signed by family members of 7 of the 13 U.S. troops killed by a suicide bombing at Abbey Gate at the Kabul airport during the withdrawal from Afghanistan three years ago.
The statement spoke of the heroism of those killed at Abbey Gate, and the grief that the family members have felt in the three years since they lost their loved ones. But it also sought to blame Ms. Harris for the politicization of the cemetery, asserting that it was the vice president who had “disgracefully twisted” Mr. Trump’s visit “into a political ploy,” and it effusively praised Mr. Trump’s leadership, with the family members of the troops asserting that “if he were still commander in chief, our children would be alive today.”
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Today, Trump posted a video clip on X that echoes the point Sen. Cotton was making yesterday, i.e. that both Biden and Harris were invited and didn't attend but Trump did.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) September 2, 2024
