Trump and Harris Jockey for High Ground on Military Strength

The Washington Post / Cleve R. Wootson Jr., Hannah Knowles, Dan Lamothe

15:50 JST, August 27, 2024

Former president Donald Trump sought to tie Vice President Kamala Harris to the United States’ deadly withdrawal from Afghanistan on Monday, accusing her and President Joe Biden of overseeing “the most embarrassing day in the history of our country.”

Days earlier, Harris had taken a not-so-subtle dig at Trump as commander in chief during her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention. She said she would “never disparage [military members’] service and their sacrifice,” a nod to some of Trump’s comments about veterans – including his former chief of staff’s allegation that he called American war casualties “suckers” and “losers,” an account Trump has sharply denied.

With just over two months until the election, Trump and Harris are vying for the high ground on military issues, debating not just who would keep America safe, but also who would best care for the needs of veterans and who holds the U.S. armed forces in the respect they deserve. Neither candidate has served in the military, and both are stressing their diplomatic and foreign policy successes. Both are also surrounding themselves with veterans to vouch for them, including their running mates, who have engaged in their own fierce back-and-forth about military service.

On Monday, Trump attended a wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknowns at Arlington National Cemetery, joining family members of troops slain in the Aug. 26, 2021, attack outside Kabul’s airport as the United States was pulling out of Afghanistan. The former president sought to tie Harris to America’s chaotic withdrawal, a key decision of Biden’s that Harris has said she was consulted on.

Thirteen U.S. service members and about 170 Afghans died in the attack when a suicide bomber detonated an explosive in the closing days of the grueling U.S.-led evacuation effort. The Biden administration has said the deaths were a tragedy but has stood by the president’s decision to end a 20-year war that he argued was making little progress.

Democrats spent a large portion of their convention last week playing up Harris’s argument that she is ready to be commander in chief on Day One. She recounted meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in 2022 “to warn him about Russia’s plan to invade” and said she had helped mobilize the global response against the Russian invasion.

“I have confronted threats to our security, negotiated with foreign leaders, strengthened our alliances and engaged with our brave troops overseas,” she said in the speech. “As commander in chief, I will ensure America always has the strongest, most lethal fighting force in the world. And I will fulfill our sacred obligation to care for our troops and their families, and I will always honor and never disparage their service and their sacrifice.”

But Harris also warned that Trump would undo the foreign policy progress of the Biden administration and embolden America’s enemies, saying that he “threatened to abandon NATO. He encouraged Putin to invade our allies. Said Russia could ‘do whatever the hell they want.’” In February, Trump said he had told a foreign leader he would encourage Russia to “do whatever the hell they want” to countries he viewed as not spending enough on defense.

The candidates’ argument over who would stand up better for America’s military comes as tensions are flaring around the world, from Russia’s invasion of Ukraine to Israel’s war with Hamas to China’s aggression against its neighbors. While Harris has limited experience with the armed forces, Trump has alternately praised the military, criticized generals and questioned America’s alliances, leaving each nominee potentially vulnerable on the issue.

Trump, in an interview released Monday, again disputed years-old reports, including a public statement by his former chief of staff, John Kelly, that he had referred to people killed in combat as “losers.” “Who would say it?” Trump said in the interview with podcaster Shawn Ryan, a former Navy SEAL. “Who would say it? Nobody would say it. A stupid person or a person that’s mentally ill.”

Trump also addressed the National Guard Association of the United States on Monday in Detroit.

Trump’s campaign has assembled surrogates with military experience to vouch for Trump and attack the Democratic ticket. A Monday press call featured allies such as retired Navy SEAL Ryan Zinke, now a Republican congressman, and family members of the service members killed in the Afghanistan exit. Last week, the Trump campaign released a letter from Republican lawmakers who served in the military and accused Harris’s running mate, Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, of misrepresenting aspects of his National Guard service.

The Harris campaign has turned to its own raft of supporters to stress that the vice president would be a strong commander in chief.

At the Democratic National Convention, Rep. Ruben Gallego, a Marine who is running for a U.S. Senate seat in Arizona, brought dozens of elected Democratic veterans onstage during his remarks. He pointed out that Trump had spoken ill of a veteran and former prisoner of war, the late Republican senator John McCain. And he said that Project 2025, a blueprint assembled by conservative groups for the next Republican administration, would “slash veteran benefits and force VA hospitals to close across the nation.” Trump has harshly criticized Project 2025.

Still, both presidential candidates’ self-characterizations omit significant details.

While Harris clearly played a role in the Biden administration’s efforts to shore up NATO and support Ukraine – including speeches at the Munich Security Conference and meetings with Zelensky and other allies – her actions were fully in service to Biden’s vision, as might be expected from a vice president. And while the White House has stressed that Harris was a full governing partner, they have not specified what role she played in key decisions.

Harris told reporters in 2021 that she was the “last person in the room” when Biden made the decision to pull out of Afghanistan, but people familiar with the deliberations have said she did not appear to have influence with Biden on an issue where he was deeply entrenched.

Trump, for his part, has pitched himself as a champion of a strong U.S. military, but his comments about service members have repeatedly been criticized as disrespectful. The latest controversy flared when Trump called a civilian medal, the Presidential Medal of Freedom, “much better” than the Medal of Honor, the top military award recognizing valor in combat, because the latter often goes to people wounded or killed in service, a comment that drew a rare rebuke from the Veterans of Foreign Wars.

“These asinine comments not only diminish the significance of our nation’s highest award for valor, but also crassly [characterize] the sacrifices of those who have risked their lives above and beyond the call of duty,” Al Lipphardt, the commander in chief of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, said in a statement.

During his first presidential campaign, Trump belittled the sacrifice of McCain – who spent five years as a prisoner of war in Vietnam and underwent severe torture – saying, “I like people who weren’t captured.”

While the nominees go after each other, much of the debate has been conducted by a pair of vice-presidential candidates who both served in the military.

Walz and Sen. JD Vance (R-Ohio), Trump’s running mate, are the first veterans who served after Sept. 11, 2001, to be part of a presidential ticket. Vance served four years in the Marine Corps in public affairs, deploying once to Iraq before departing active duty as a corporal. Walz served 24 years in the Minnesota National Guard, including as a command sergeant major, before retiring in 2005 to run for Congress.

Their exchanges have turned bitter at times, with Vance accusing Walz of “stolen valor” for the way he has characterized his service. Walz has said he retired as a command sergeant major. While he did reach that rank, he did not hold it long enough, or complete the required coursework, to hold the rank in retirement, instead becoming a master sergeant, Minnesota National Guard officials have said.

After the issue emerged this month, the Harris campaign corrected its website to remove that Walz was a retired command sergeant major. It also said that Walz “misspoke” while saying during a campaign event that he had carried weapons “in war,” since he did not serve in a theater of combat.

Some Republicans have also criticized Walz for retiring in 2005, saying he must have known that his unit was probably going to deploy shortly to Iraq. Democrats counter that Walz was well within his rights to retire when he did and already had extended his military career with a reenlistment after the 9/11 attacks. And they note that Trump received five draft deferments during the Vietnam War.

Republicans, they allege, are attempting to “Swift boat” Walz, using a term that harks back to 2004, when Republicans attacked Democratic presidential John F. Kerry by questioning his service in Vietnam and whether he deserved the Purple Hearts he received for injuries he suffered. Many people who served with Kerry took strong issue with the GOP criticisms.