UPDATE, 08/27/24, 4:34 p.m. Eastern: On Monday night, all three networks mentioned Afghanistan in context of former President Trump attacking Vice President Kamala Harris for her role in President Biden’s chaotic, deadly withdrawal in August 2021.
And, on Tuesday morning, ABC’s Good Morning America and NBC’s Today followed suit. The former featured senior White House correspondent Selina Wang tastelessly coming to the defense of Harris and not the families of the 13 dead Americans, whining that Trump “scorch[ed] his opponent” over the issue “with bitter personal attacks”.
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Monday marked three years since the deadly Islamic terror attack in Kabul, Afghanistan at Hamid Karzai International Airport that murdered 13 American soldiers, 170 Afghans, and left over 150 people wounded. Instead of even briefly acknowledging this painful day for American families in what became the symbol of the Biden-Harris’s administration’s withdrawal from Afghanistan, ABC, CBS, and NBC completely ignored it on their flagship morning news shows.
To repeat: not a word from ABC’s Good Morning America, CBS Mornings, and NBC’s Today about the sacrifice of the brave Americans standing guard at Abbey Gate. The networks shamefully adopted the mold of President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris in being radio silent (aside from paper statements released from their handlers).
In contrast, cable news shows that aired during that same block — Fox Business Network’s Mornings with Maria, Fox News Channel’s Fox & Friends, Newsmax’s Wake Up America, NewsNation’s Morning in America, and even CNN News Central — all mentioned it multiple times.
Former President Trump spent much of Monday in somber remembrance. Trump began his day at Arlington National Cemetery for a wreath-laying ceremony with Americans directly impacted by that horrible day, walked the grounds of the cemetery to the grave sites of those buried there.
Hours later, he traveled to Michigan for the National Guard Association convention for a speech touching on the events August 26, 2021.
Elsewhere, our friend Matthew Foldi has details on the anniversary in his excellent newsletter, the Washington Reporter, including continued concerns about evacuation protocols at the State Department and Speaker Michael Johnson (R-LA) announcing he’ll award the Congressional Cold Medal posthumously to the 13 servicemembers.
Over at the Washington Examiner, their former Justice reporter and former House Foreign Affairs Committee staffer Jerry Dunleavy penned a meticulous and first-person expose as an ex-staffer on the Republican-led panel detailing what he believes has been a catastrophic failure to hold the administration and Pentagon to account.
Last week, the Free Beacon’s Adam Kredo obtained a transcript of former White House Press Secretary and MSNBC host Jen Psaki’s interview with the committee in which she admitted she never “challenge[d] or question[ed]” contradictory information about the chaos.
The networks had other ideas about what would be a better use of their time instead of honoring those brave Americans. ABC’s Good Morning America used its “Cover Story’ segment in the second hour for two minutes and 42 seconds warning against designer “dupes” with consumers buying products that look similar to designer brands, but fail to hold durability.
On CBS Mornings, they spent over five minutes (5:19) fixating on the new paperback version of Michael Lewis’s book sucking up to disgraced cryptocurrency mogul and liberal donor Sam Bankman-Fried.
NBC’s Today was even worse. In the first hour, they had two minutes and 17 seconds on Princess Kate venturing out in public for church amid her cancer battle and then three minutes and 25 seconds on members of the Los Angeles Chargers having to spend hours trapped in a hotel elevator.
A day earlier, CBS News Sunday Morning had a profile of one family with loved ones still behind in Afghanistan with the women no longer able to continue their educations because of the Taliban. Left out of segment? Any mention of Joe Biden.
In the following our, CBS’s Face the Nation host Margaret Brennan pressed Democratic Congressman Pat Ryan (NY) on Harris’s role in the withdrawal as he cited Afghanistan in his call for Biden to quit the 2024 race.
This year’s silence on August 26 mirrored that of 2023, when ABC’s World News Tonight was the only newscast to mention it. In 2022, none of the morning shows marked the occasion with NBC Nightly News being the only network evening newscast to break through
