A Pentagon official on Friday confirmed that U.S. military personnel have been killed during President Joe Biden’s administration but declined to comment about the president’s statement the night before in his debate with Republican rival Donald Trump where he claimed that wasn’t the case.
The president made the false statement during Thursday night’s presidential debate hosted by CNN, apparently referring to his decision to end the U.S. combat deployment in Afghanistan after a 20-year combat mission in the country.
“The truth is, I’m the only president this century, this decade, that doesn’t have any troops dying anywhere in the world like he did,” Mr. Biden said at the podium, referring to Mr. Trump.
Mr. Biden failed to note the 13 U.S. service members who were killed in an Aug. 26, 2021 suicide bombing at the Kabul airport during his administration’s calamitous withdrawal from Afghanistan. More recently, a January 2024 drone attack at a military base near the Syrian border in Jordan killed three U.S. soldiers and injured at least 40 others.
Two U.S. Navy SEALS also were killed in January 2024 while attempting to board a ship bound for Yemen that was carrying illegal weapons.
Defense Department spokesman Sabrina Singh referred questions about the debate to the White House, saying she didn’t want to “get involved in campaign events.” But she noted that President Biden in the past has called family members of U.S. service members who were killed on his watch to offer his condolences.
“This is someone who has intimately experienced the commitment and dedication of what our military does,” Ms. Singh told reporters at the Pentagon. “I’ve seen him express compassion and condolences to families who have been impacted, and that’s something that he’s not only done as president, but, of course, as vice president as well.”
The treatment of the military and of veterans surfaced repeatedly in Thursday’s debate, with Mr. Trump calling death of the U.S. soldiers in the hasty withdrawal from Kabul the “worst day in the our nation’s history.” The two men also traded charges over who had done more to support veterans and improve their health care system.
• Mike Glenn can be reached at mglenn@washingtontimes.com.