Vance says Harris 'can go to hell' for criticizing Trump for Arlington Cemetery visit
Sen. JD Vance continued to defend Trump's visit to Arlington Cemetery during a campaign event Wednesday in Erie, Pennsylvania, and went on the attack against Harris, blaming her for the deaths of 13 soldiers three years ago.
"Look, sometimes mistakes happen. That's just the nature of government, the nature of military service. But to have those 13 Americans lose their lives and not fire a single person is disgraceful. Kamala Harris is disgraceful," Vance said.
"We're gonna talk about a story out of those 13 brave innocent Americans who lost their lives, it's that Kamala Harris is so asleep at the wheel that she won't even do an investigation into what happened, and she wants to yell at Donald Trump because he showed up. She can, go to hell," he continued.
The federal government conducted a probe into the final days of the war and American withdrawal and the Pentagon's Central Command concluded in 2022 that the attack was not preventable despite others' assertions that it was preventable.
The Pentagon has conducted multiple rounds of reviews, including the latest review published in April that reaffirmed the initial investigation's findings that the attack was not preventable.
Congress has also scrutinized the attack and heard from many military leaders, including former Marine Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews, who told lawmakers last year that he was thwarted in an attempt to stop the suicide bombing.
Harris, who was campaigning in Georgia Wednesday, did not bring up "incident" at Arlington National Cemetery. Harris-Walz communications director Michael Tyler told CNN on Wednesday that the "incident" at Arlington National Cemetery with former President Trump was "pretty sad," but what "we've come to expect" from the former president.
-ABC News' Soo Rin Kim, Cindy Smith and Hannah Demissie