Trump comforts grieving Gold Star mom who lashed out at Biden for rolling his 'f***ing eyes' when she confronted him over son’s Kabul murder



Former President Donald Trump stepped in to comfort a Gold Star mother who lost her Marine son in the suicide bombing that took place last week outside Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul.

What's a brief history here?

Mother Shana Chappell lashed out at President Joe Biden earlier this week after she angrily described her meeting with Biden the death of her son and 12 other service members.

In a widely shared Facebook post, Chappell described how she believed the president rolled his eyes at her during the dignified transfer of the remains of her son, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, at Dover Air Force Base in Dover, Delaware, on Sunday.

A portion of the angry missive said, "Joe Biden This msg is for you! I know my face is etched into your brain! I was able to look you straight in the eyes yesterday and have words with you."

Remember i am the one who stood 5 inches from your face and was letting you know i would never get to hug my son again, hear his laugh and then you tried to interrupt me and give me your own sob story and i had to tell you "that this isn't about you so don't make it about you!!!" You then said you just wanted me to know that you know how i feel and i let you know that you don't know how i feel and you do not have the right to tell me you know how i feel! U then rolled your f***ing eyes in your head like you were annoyed with me and i let you know that the only reason i was talking to you was out of respect for my son and that was the only reason why, i then proceeded to tell you again how you took my son away from me and how i will never get to hug him, kiss him, laugh with him again etc ... u turned to walk away and i let you know my sons blood was on your hands and you threw your hand up behind you as you walked away from me like you are saying "ok whatever!!!"

She added, "MY SONS BLOOD IS ON YOUR HANDS!!! All 13 of them, their blood is on your hands!!!!"

What did Trump say in response?

Trump on Wednesday issued a response to Chappell, sympathizing with her over her son's death.

In a statement released through his Save America PAC, Trump wrote, "Shana, you are 100% correct. If I were President, your wonderful and beautiful son Kareem would be with you now, and so would the sons and daughters of others, including all of those who died in the vicious Kabul airport attack."

“Civilians should have been brought out first, along with our $85 billion of equipment, with the Military coming out very safely after all was clear. I love you, and I love Kareem," he added.

Trump's chief spokesperson, Liz Harrington, also shared a photo of Chappell and her late son.

President Donald J. Trump:"Shana, you are 100% correct. If I were President, your wonderful and beautiful son Kar… https://t.co/Myl8fvKCYV

— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) 1630462458.0

https://t.co/voVTNevsdy

— Liz Harrington (@realLizUSA) 1630462499.0

British foreign minister fires back over accusation that critical gate at Kabul airport was left open for UK personnel



A senior British official denied accusations that a key gate was left open at the Kabul airport prior to the ISIS-K terror attack to allow British personnel to pass through the gate.

What is the background?

Politico reported Monday that top American commanders wanted to close the Abbey Gate — the location of the terror attack — but kept "the gate open longer than they wanted in order to allow their British allies, who had accelerated their withdrawal timeline, to continue evacuating their personnel, based at the nearby Baron Hotel."

The reporting is based on classified notes taken during a meeting hosted by Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin shortly before the attack. The allegation, as the report explained, is that American officials had a "detailed plan" to shut the Abbey Gate, but kept it open to help British allies.

How did Britain respond?

British Foreign Secretary Dominic Raab categorically denied the accusation.

"Look, we coordinate very closely with the U.S., in particular around the ISIS-K threat that we anticipated, although tragically were not able to prevent," Raab said on Sky News. "But we, it's certainly right to say that we got our civilian staff out of the processing center by Abbey Gate — but it's just not true to suggest that other than securing our civilians staff inside the airport that we were pushing to leave the gate open."

"In fact, and let me just be clear about this, we were issuing changes of travel advice before the bomb attack took place and saying to people in the crowd, which is what I was particularly concerned that certainly U.K. nationals and anyone else should leave because of the risk," he added.

Dominic Raab says “it’s just not true” to suggest UK pushed to keep a Kabul airport gate open, after reports that t… https://t.co/lqX30Q2YTZ

— Sky News (@SkyNews) 1630392299.0

In fact, Raab explained in a separate interview with BBC News that British operations never necessitated leaving the Abbey Gate open at the Kabul airport.

"We also shifted the civilian team that we had in the Baron Hotel to the airport, because [being] a stone's throw away from where the terrorist attack took place, it clearly wasn't safe, but none of that would have required or necessitated Abbey Gate to be left open," Raab explained.

Anything else?

The Pentagon strongly rebuked Politico for publishing its story, but did not deny the material facts.

"This story is based on the unlawful disclosure of classified information and internal deliberations of a sensitive nature," Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said in a statement, according to Politico.

"As soon as we became aware of the material divulged to the reporter, we engaged Politico at the highest levels to prevent the publication of information that would put our troops and our operations at the airport at greater risk," he added. "We condemn the unlawful disclosure of classified information and oppose the publication of a story based on it while a dangerous operation is ongoing."

John Kirby grilled over why US officials did not protect American forces if they knew ISIS-K attack was coming — but he refused to answer



Pentagon spokesman John Kirby refused to answer a question Monday inquiring why American officials did not take action to protect American forces at the Kabul airport last week if they knew an ISIS-K attack was imminent.

What is the background?

Politico reported Monday that top U.S. commanders knew approximately when and where the ISIS-K attack would occur.

In fact, about an hour and a half before the attack, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin reportedly held a meeting and told top Pentagon officials to prepare for a forthcoming "mass casualty event." Politico based its report on classified notes obtained from that meeting.

Politico reported:

During the meeting, Gen. Mark Milley, the chair of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, warned of "significant" intelligence indicating that the Islamic State's Afghanistan affiliate, ISIS-K, was planning a "complex attack," the notes quoted him as saying.

Commanders calling in from Kabul relayed that the Abbey Gate, where American citizens had been told to gather in order to gain entrance to the airport, was "highest risk," and detailed their plans to protect the airport. "I don't believe people get the incredible amount of risk on the ground," Austin said, according to the classified notes.

What did Kirby say?

"I have a question, and it's difficult, but I hope you can entertain it," the reporter began. "According to Politico, the U.S. knew where the attack would — or roughly where the attack would take place on Thursday, and when it would attack, or when it would take place. Why were there U.S. troops at that gate at that time?"

Kirby, however, did not address the question. Instead, he chided the Politico report for being based on "the unlawful disclosure of classified information."

"What I can tell you is that we have been monitoring as close as we can intelligence that led us to believe that we are in a very dynamic, and in some cases, specific threat environment, number one," Kirby began. "Number two, as Gen. McKenzie said, we're going to investigate. We're going to get to the bottom of what happened last Thursday. Thirteen precious lives were lost. We're going to take that seriously, and we're not going to investigate it in public."

"Number three, I am absolutely not going to speak to a — a — a press story that was informed by the unlawful disclosure of classified information and sensitive deliberations here in the Pentagon," Kirby continued. "Just not going to do it."

“The US knew roughly where and when the attack would take place on Thursday. Why were There US troops at that gate… https://t.co/aqb2sxpwer

— Robby Starbuck (@robbystarbuck) 1630368956.0

American officials almost certainly knew more about the ISIS-K attack than they have admitted. Not only were they warned for days about ISIS-K before the attack, but American officials reportedly intercepted more ISIS-K suicide bombers over the weekend before they could act.

The U.S. intelligence was so precise, in fact, that officials launched a drone strike from the United Arab Emirates, which took hours to reach Afghanistan.

CNN reported, however, that the U.S. drone strike also killed civilians. The Pentagon said those deaths may have occurred as the result of secondary explosions triggered by the drone strike.

Breaking: Last U.S. plane departs Kabul airport, leaving behind 'hundreds' of Americans: 'We did not get out everybody we wanted to get out' ​



The Pentagon confirmed that the last plane left Kabul airport on Monday, ending the U.S. military mission in Afghanistan after two decades while leaving hundreds of Americans behind.

"I'm here to announce the completion of our withdrawal from Afghanistan, and the end of the military mission to evacuate American citizens, third country nationals, and vulnerable Afghans," said Marine Corps Gen. Kenneth McKenzie, the head of the U.S. Central Command, to reporters in a media briefing.

"The last C-17 lifted off from Hamid Karzai international airport on August 30 this afternoon at 3:29 p.m. East Coast time, the last manned aircraft is now clearing the airspace above Afghanistan," he added.

McKenzie admitted that hundreds of American citizens had been left behind, and there were no American civilians on the last flight out because they were not able to make it to the airport.

"There's a lot of heartbreak associated with this departure. We did not get out everybody we wanted to get out," he said.

He added that the U.S. would work to get them out diplomatically by the State Department.

"I believe our Department of State is going to work very hard to allow any American citizens that are left, and we think the citizens that were not brought out number in the low — very low 100s," McKenzie explained. "I believe that we're going to be able to get those people out."

The Biden administration has faced bitter criticism over the way the withdrawal has been mismanaged. On Thursday, 13 U.S. service members were killed when a suicide terror attack struck people trying to get into the airport. Dozens of Afghans were also killed and injured in the gruesome attack.

The Pentagon said that 122,300 people had been evacuated from Afghanistan since the beginning of August, but only 5.400 of those were American citizens.

"Every single U.S. service member is out of Afghanistan, I can say that with absolute certainty," McKenzie said.

Here's more about the end of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan:

"I'm here to announce the completion of our withdrawal from Afghanistan."www.youtube.com

Rick Perry shares why one Texas courthouse will defy Biden's order to lower American flags for slain service members



Former Texas Gov. Rick Perry announced Friday that at least one Texas county courthouse will defy President Joe Biden's declaration ordering American flags at half-staff to honor American service members who died in the terrorist attack at the Kabul airport this week.

What did Biden do?

Hours after the terrorist attack — which killed 13 U.S. service members and more than 160 Afghan civilians — Biden ordered all American flags to fly at half-staff until sunset on Monday, Aug. 30.

Biden said in a statement:

As a mark of respect for the U.S. service members and other victims killed in the terrorist attack on August 26, 2021, in Kabul, Afghanistan, by the authority vested in me as President of the United States by the Constitution and the laws of the United States of America, I hereby order that the flag of the United States shall be flown at half-staff at the White House and upon all public buildings and grounds, at all military posts and naval stations, and on all naval vessels of the Federal Government in the District of Columbia and throughout the United States and its Territories and possessions until sunset, August 30, 2021.

I also direct that the flag shall be flown at half-staff for the same length of time at all United States embassies, legations, consular offices, and other facilities abroad, including all military facilities and naval vessels and stations.

What did Perry say?

Perry said the courthouse in Fayette County, Texas — which borders Austin County, where the state capital is located — will defy the order because of how Biden facilitated the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan.

"The Fayette County Courthouse won't be flying the American flag at half-staff today as ordered by President Joe Biden. Before he was a Judge, my friend Joe Weber was a General in the Marine Corps," Perry began.

"He knows the best way to honor the Marines and Navy Corpsman who were killed yesterday in Kabul is to recognize their selfless service and sacrifice by flying Old Glory high and proud," Perry continued. "That's what they would want; that's what their families would want."

"We have dipped our colors and bent the knee to terrorists under this Administration. No more, at least not in Fayette County, Texas," Perry, also an Air Force veteran, added. "Semper Fi."

Anything else?

The Pentagon released the names of the fallen service members on Saturday.

  • Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Darin T. Hoover, 31, of Salt Lake City, Utah
  • Marine Corps Sgt. Johanny Rosariopichardo, 25, of Lawrence, Massachusetts
  • Marine Corps Sgt. Nicole L. Gee, 23, of Sacramento, California
  • Marine Corps Cpl. Hunter Lopez, 22, of Indio, California
  • Marine Corps Cpl. Daegan W. Page, 23, of Omaha, Nebraska
  • Marine Corps Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, 22, of Logansport, Indiana
  • Marine Corps Lance Cpl. David L. Espinoza, 20, of Rio Bravo, Texas
  • Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, 20, of St. Charles, Missouri
  • Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Rylee J. McCollum, 20, of Jackson, Wyoming
  • Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Dylan R. Merola, 20, of Rancho Cucamonga, California
  • Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Kareem M. Nikoui, 20, of Norco, California
  • Navy Hospitalman Maxton W. Soviak, 22, of Berlin Heights, Ohio
  • Army Staff Sgt. Ryan C. Knauss, 23, of Corryton, Tennessee

Their bodies are currently being flown back to the U.S., the Washington Post reported.

CNN interviewed top ISIS-K commander who made brazen threat two weeks before terror attack at Kabul airport



Two weeks before ISIS-K launched an attack outside the Kabul airport, CNN's chief international correspondent, Clarissa Ward, spoke with a senior ISIS-K commander who allegedly promised to "restart operations" after the Taliban took control of Afghanistan.

Tragically, that threat became reality on Thursday when ISIS-K launched an attack outside the Kabul airport where evacuation operations were ongoing. That attack killed 13 United States service members and more than 160 Afghanistan civilians.

What are the details?

The interview was conducted just days before Kabul fell to the Taliban several weeks ago. According to Ward, ISIS-K was already in the city, "lying low and waiting for its moment to strike — words that turned out to be eerily prophetic."

The commander, whose real identity was masked but was called Abdul Munir, is from Kunar Province in east Afghanistan, which borders Pakistan. Speaking with Ward from a Kabul hotel, the commander said he and his men used to fight for the Taliban, but joined the Islamic State because they believed the Taliban was not implementing pure Sharia law.

The commander explained ISIS-K was exploiting the Taliban's swift takeover of Afghanistan by engaging in a large-scale recruitment drive, and promised to "restart operations" once the takeover was complete.

"That moment has now come, as the world saw all too clearly on Thursday," Ward said in the video.

Now that ISIS-K "operations" have been restarted, Ward explained the goal of ISIS-K is to "undermine" the Taliban. By launching attacks, the terrorist group is doing just that, eroding the allusion that a Taliban government can guarantee security.

Anything else?

The U.S. military conducted a strike on Friday against the ISIS-K terrorist purportedly responsible for planning the attack outside the Kabul airport.

"U.S. military forces conducted an over-the-horizon counterterrorism operation today against an ISIS-K planner," U.S. Central Command spokesman Capt. Bill Urban, USN, said in a statement. "The unmanned airstrike occurred in the Nangarhar Province of Afghanistan. Initial indications are that we killed the target. We know of no civilian casualties."

Shockingly, State Department spokesman John Kirby admitted Friday the Taliban released "thousands" of ISIS-K terrorist from Afghanistan prisons.

During a press briefing, Fox News national security correspondent Jennifer Griffin asked, "How many ISIS-K prisoners were left at Bagram and believed to have been released from the prison there and why weren't they removed before the U.S. pulled out to some place like Gitmo?"

"Well, I don't know the exact number. Clearly, it's in the thousands when you considered both prisons," Kirby responded. "Because both of them were taken over by the Taliban and emptied."

Afghan witness to suicide bomb attack in Kabul says little girl died in his arms



A witness to Thursday morning's suicide bombing outside the Hamid Karzai International Airport described the scene of the terrorist attack on Fox News and said that an infant girl died in his arms.

An Afghan translator for the U.S. Marine Corps identified as "Carl" was at the scene when a suicide bomb attack happened outside the Abbey Gate at Kabul's airport in Afghanistan. The witness said that at least one person, the little girl, died and more were injured, including Americans.

"There was an explosion that happened inside the crowd. A lot of people got hurt," the witness told Fox News. "I got a baby girl that — she was five years old, she died right in my hands."

"I don't know what exactly is going on over here, but I think some of the Americans, they got hurt too. And some people are running around," he added.

The witness clarified that the little girl was not his child, but belonged to someone else.

"I saw her on the ground. I picked her up and I took her to a hospital, but she died," he said.

The witness told Fox News that he was with more injured people and was in the process of taking them to the hospital in his vehicle. He was unsure what caused the explosion.

"They said that it was a suicide bomb that happened inside the crowd, but some people are saying that the U.S. — they were shooting flashbangs and stuff, and it might be they made a mistake or something. I cannot say what exactly happened, but the explosion was very bad. And there are a lot of people who got hurt," he said.

At least three U.S. troops were injured in the terrorist attack, officials said Thursday, and the Pentagon said there is an "unknown number of casualties."

We can confirm that the explosion near the Abbey Gate of the Kabul airport has resulted in an unknown number of cas… https://t.co/EXkV5RcRUA

— John Kirby (@PentagonPresSec) 1629988498.0

Politico reported that an ISIS suicide bomber was responsible for the explosion.

Defense Department spokesman John Kirby confirmed reports of a second explosion at or near the Baron Hotel, which is a short distance from where the first explosion took place.

President Joe Biden is in the situation room at the White House, receiving updates on what is happening in Afghanistan, according to officials.

The witness was one of thousands of Afghan allies who assisted the U.S. military during the 20-year-long war against the Taliban and is now a target for retribution. He had sought to get into the airport to flee the country, fearing for his life.

The Taliban is reportedly searching homes for Afghans who aided Western countries, rounding them up and threatening to kill their families if they don't surrender to arrest.

As of Tuesday, Biden decided that the U.S. will stick with his Aug. 31 deadline to completely withdraw U.S. troops from Afghanistan. The Defense Department insisted that the deadline leaves enough time to get all American citizens out of Afghanistan, but he would not say whether all of the at-risk Afghan allies could be evacuated by then.

The State Department estimates that about 1,500 American citizens are still in Afghanistan. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told reporters Wednesday that 4,500 Americans have been evacuated from Afghanistan in the past 10 days and "we've been in direct contact with approximately 500 additional Americans and provided specific instructions on how to get to the airport safely."

However, the night before Thursday's terrorist attack, the U.S. Embassy in Kabul warned American citizens to avoid traveling to the airport and to leave immediately if they were already there, citing "security threats" outside the airport gates.

It is unclear how the Biden administration intends to rescue those Americans from Afghanistan before his withdrawal deadline if they cannot travel to the airpot, since the president has refused to send in U.S. troops to extract them.