Kristen Welker, the moderator of NBC’s weekly Sunday political interview show “Meet the Press,” falsely asserted that Vice President Kamala Harris met with the Gold Star families of the 13 American troops who were killed during the ill-fated US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
Welker made the comment as she interviewed Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.), who took the Biden-Harris administration to task for their treatment of the families.
Cotton noted that Harris, the Democratic nominee for the presidency, had not yet met with the kin of the 13 service members who were killed when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive device at an entry point to the Kabul airport during the chaotic evacuation on Aug. 26, 2021.
The blast killed 183 people and wounded at least 150 others — among them US and Afghan personnel as well as Afghan civilians seeking to escape aboard US military planes.
The Arkansas senator drew a contrast between Harris and Trump, who was invited by the families to appear alongside them at Arlington National Cemetery on the third anniversary of their deaths.
Trump’s appearance at the wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington, which included a photo of the former president smiling and giving a thumbs up just feet from the fallen soldiers’ tombstones, prompted Harris and other Democrats to accuse him of using the hallowed space for a campaign event — which is forbidden by federal law.
When Welker brought up the Democrats’ claim, Cotton pushed back, saying: “They (the Gold Star families) wanted President Trump there.”
“They wanted to take those photos. You know who the families also invited? Joe Biden and Kamala Harris,” Cotton said, adding: “Where were they? Joe Biden was sitting on the beach. Kamala Harris was sitting at her mansion in Washington, DC.”
Harris, according to Cotton, “was four miles away, 10 minutes.”
“She could have gone to the cemetery and honored the sacrifice of those young men and women, but she hasn’t,” Cotton said.
“She never has spoken to them or taken a meeting with them.”
Welker then spoke up in defense of Harris, telling Cotton: “Well, they did met with them during the dignified transfer, they were there with them at the dignified transfer.”
Fact-checkers noted that Harris was not present at the dignified transfer of the fallen service members, which took place at Dover Air Force Base on Aug. 29, 2021 — three days after the Abbey Gate attack.
The ceremony was attended by Biden, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin, Secretary of State Antony Blinken and First Lady Jill Biden.
NBC News admitted that Welker erred, writing in an X post: “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,” NBC News wrote on its official “Meet the Press” X account.
After the 2021 ceremony, Gold Star families were particularly incensed at Biden, who was photographed during the event looking down at his watch.
Jen Psaki, who was White House press secretary at the time and who eventually left the administration to take a job as talk show host on left-leaning MSNBC, falsely claimed that Biden never looked at his watch, according to her book published earlier this year.
Psaki had said that those who accused Biden of looking at his watch were spreading “misinformation” and that the images of him were used to make “him appear insensitive, concerned only about how much time had passed.”
But photographs and firsthand accounts from the event contradict