After months of disagreements, a group of military families who lost loved ones in a bombing during the U.S. evacuation of Afghanistan gathered on a Zoom call last December.
On the line with them was a 35-year-old Republican operative and Marine Corps veteran who some saw as helpful and others saw as divisive.
The group had taken to calling itself the Abbey Gate 13 Coalition, a reference to the location at Kabul’s airport where 13 U.S. troops and 170 Afghans had been killed in a suicide bombing on Aug. 26, 2021, in the closing days of America’s longest war, marking a low point in President Joe Biden’s term. The relatives participating expressed disgust with the Biden administration’s handling of the operation, but the group had started to splinter over disputes that included whether to overtly support Donald Trump, according to interviews with people involved and text messages obtained by The Washington Post.
Bateman — a former Trump administration official who has helped raise funds for Trump’s campaign this year — said in an emailed response to questions that he assisted the families without pay. He first connected with Darin Hoover, the father of Staff Sgt. Darin “Taylor” Hoover, and advised him to invite all 13 families to join in the same “pursuit of accountability,” he said.
Bateman was drawn to the mission in part because he previously served in 2nd Battalion, 1st Marines — the same unit that went on to suffer significant U.S. losses at Abbey Gate.
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@GoofyBobolinkSocialist2yrs2Y
Why would you support a man who thinks that what your husbands and fathers did in service to our country is representative of "losers" and "suckers". Why?
@ThriftySparrowDemocrat2yrs2Y
That’s the part I will never understand. tRump has no respect for the military, yet active duty and veterans support him. tRump calls you folks LOSERS and SUCKERS people. Wise up!
Trump is playing these families for his campaign, and they think they’re standing up for their lost family members. They should talk to Karen Meredith and Captain Khan’s family. Coward Trump never wore the uniform, instead staying in New York, womanizing while other young men of his generation fought in Vietnam. He’s no good and standing for America, only at manipulating people for his own gain. We the People need to hold this loser accountable.
Here's what these people should do then: go ahead and vote for the rapist and draft dodger, the guy who wouldn't honor the men who died at Normandy because he didn't want to get his hair wet. I have sympathy for these families who lost their loved ones in Afghanistan, but I find their support of trump moronic and revolting.
The Pentagon did an extensive investigation into these tragic deaths and determined that they were unavoidable. When you have 10 days to evacuate 120,000 people on a single runway in the middle of a war zone, as part of the military, the goal is to reduce your risk of death and injury by the enemy, as much as possible because it is virtually impossible to eliminate it in any war zone. Trump, according to Dr. Debroah Birx, his ID person, said his gross mismanagement of Covid caused 300,000 deaths that were avoidable.
I can not imagine losing a child in a war, and I feel nothing but sorrow for their pain. However, to believe lies and not think through what really happened to their loved one, is even sadder. They would condemn us all to endure hell on earth if they vote for the man who caused their loss. I hope the scales go from their eyes and they can see what is happening.
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