NBC News’ Kristen Welker falsely claims Kamala met with Abbey Gate Gold Star families during dignified transfer

NBC News’ Kristen Welker falsely claimed that Vice President Kamala Harris met with Gold Star families who lost their servicemen and women during the Abbey Gate suicide bombing when the bodies of those US Armed Forces members returned home for the dignified transfer of their remains. There's only one problem: Harris was not in fact at the dignified transfer.

Welker made the claim in defense of the Democrat presidential candidate during a Meet the Press interview with Senator Tom Cotton on Sunday as Cotton blasted Harris for not meeting with them and not attending a memorial on the 3rd anniversary of their deaths last Monday. GOP presidential nominee Donald Trump was at the memorial and was criticized for that by the Harris campaign.

"All right, let me ask you about another one of the big headlines this week," Welker said. "Donald Trump's visit to Arlington National Cemetery. You've been talking about this. He attended a wreath laying ceremony, obviously, for the 13 service members who were killed during the US withdraw from Afghanistan. He was invited by those family members. Important to say that he also had campaign staffers with him. Photos, videos were posted on a campaign site. Taking campaign photos and videos at grave sites is forbidden under federal law. You, of course, served at Arlington Cemetery in the Old Guard, so I know that this is a sacred place for you. Bottom line, though, I guess, Senator, is it ever appropriate to make campaign content at military gravesites?" Biden used photos from the cemetery in his campaign advertising in 2020.

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AK) told Meet the Press host Welker that Harris could have “honored the sacrifice of those young men and women, but she hasn't. And it’s because of her and Joe Biden's incompetence that those 13 Americans were killed in Afghanistan.” 

"There these families, Gold Star families, whose children died because of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris's incompetence," Cotton responded, "invited him to the cemetery, and they asked him to take those photos. Because, as they told me yesterday when I spoke to Kelly Barnett and Darren Hoover, the parents of Taylor Hoover, who has Arkansas ties, they don't get to go to the beach on Labor Day. They don't get to have barbecues. This is their one chance to have a memory of their children to commemorate their service and honor, their sacrifice.

"They wanted President Trump there," Cotton continued. "They wanted to take those photos. You know who the families also invited? Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Where were they? Joe Biden was sitting on the beach. Kamala Harris was sitting at her mansion in Washington, DC. She 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. She never has spoken to them or taken a meeting with them."

At that Welker interrupted, saying "Well they did meet with them during the dignified transfer, they were there with them at the dignified transfer."

"It's because of her and Joe Biden's incompetence that those 13 Americans were killed in Afghanistan," Cotton said. Harris was not at the dignified transfer of remains in 2021. Biden was there, however, and he was seen checking his watch as he stood, masked, next to First Lady Jill and Department of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin.

Former President Donald Trump honored those 13 Americans at a recent ceremony at Arlington. President Joe Biden’s withdrawal from Afghanistan has been repeatedly cited as disastrous.

The Gold Star families have castigated Harris for not honoring the 13 Americans killed at the Kabul airport and for attacking Trump for doing so, calling it “false, hypocritical and disgraceful.”

Meet the Press issued a correction after airing the broadcast, saying "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."