Trump blames Harris and Biden for 'humiliation' in Afghanistan

Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump has used the third anniversary of the US withdrawal from Afghanistan to try to pin the chaotic troop pullout on his Democratic rival for the White House, Kamala Harris.

On Monday, Trump participated in a wreath-laying ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery honouring the 13 service members killed during the US exit, then later in Detroit blamed Harris, the vice president, and President Joe Biden for what he termed a "catastrophic" withdrawal.

Trump was referring to the 2021 suicide bombing attack that killed 13 US service members and roughly 170 Afghan civilians at Hamid Karzai International Airport's Abbey Gate.

"Caused by Kamala Harris, Joe Biden, the humiliation in Afghanistan set off the collapse of American credibility and respect all over the world," Trump said in an address to the National Guard Association of the United States.

It was the latest attempt by Trump and his campaign to raise doubts about Harris' fitness to serve as commander-in-chief as the November 5 election drew near and came after Harris proclaimed herself ready to lead the nation's armed forces last week.

The US troop pullout and evacuation of US and allied officials, citizens and Afghans at risk of Taliban retribution saw crowds of desperate Afghans trying to enter Kabul airport and men clinging to aircraft as they taxied down runways in August 2021.

Harris blames Trump

Harris' campaign said the fault lay with Trump's tenure as president.

"The Biden-Harris administration inherited a mess from Donald Trump," said Ammar Moussa, a Harris spokesperson.

"Trump wants America to forget that he had four years to get out of Afghanistan, but failed to do it."

A review released by the US State Department in 2023 found fault with both the Trump and Biden administrations in the run-up to the withdrawal.

Under Trump, the United States signed a peace agreement with the Taliban that was aimed at ending America's longest war and bringing US troops home.

Biden later pointed to that agreement as he sought to deflect blame for the Taliban overrunning Afghanistan, saying it bound him to withdraw troops and set the stage for the chaos that engulfed the country.

A Biden administration review of the withdrawal acknowledged that the evacuation of Americans and allies from Afghanistan should have started sooner, but attributed the delays to the Afghan government and military, and to US military and intelligence community assessments.

Runners' past military positions

In recent weeks, Trump and his running mate, Senator JD Vance, also have sought to turn Democratic vice presidential candidate Tim Walz's decades of service into a political vulnerability.

Former military service is often a key selling point for candidates in US political campaigns.

The Republicans have accused Walz of exaggerating his rank in the Army National Guard, where he served for 24 years. Walz has described himself as a retired command sergeant major, one of the highest noncommissioned officer positions in the Army. While he achieved that rank, he did not meet the requirements to retire with that title.

The Harris campaign deleted a reference this month to Walz's rank as a "command sergeant major" on its website.

The campaign also now says Walz "misspoke" in 2018 during his gubernatorial campaign in Minnesota when he referred to "weapons of war, that I carried in war." Walz was never deployed to a war zone.

Trump, 78, never served in the military. Though he was of draft age during the Vietnam War, he received four student deferments and a health-related one after he received a diagnosis of bone spurs in his feet.

Vance served in the Marine Corps for four years as a combat correspondent and was deployed to Iraq for roughly seven months. His position mainly involved writing reports of military activity for public dissemination and, at times, interacting with the media.