When Darin Hoover traveled to Dover Air Force Base to receive the casket of his 31-year-old Marine son, who was killed in Afghanistan, he, like several other families, declined an offer to meet with President Biden.
But out of the blue last week his cellphone rang, and he instantly recognized the voice on the other line: Donald Trump.
“It was just very cordial, very understanding. He was awesome,” Hoover said, recalling the conversation. “He was just talking about the finest of the finest. He said he heard and saw everything that we had said, and he offered his condolences several times, and how sorry he was.”
The past two weeks have put on display not only a nation divided about a 20-year war and its messy withdrawal but also a nation whose politics do not allow it to grieve together. Some families opted to not meet with or hear from Biden at all, while others have been publicly critical of him and have resisted having any further dialogue with the president.
Meanwhile, Trump has placed several calls over the past week to some family members of the 13 service members killed in an Islamic State-Khorasan terrorist attack during the withdrawal. Several have invited him to attend the funerals, and he has suggested he may try to do so.
Trump and his allies have seen the calamitous end to the war in Afghanistan as a potent political opportunity as he weighs a potential 2024 reelection bid — even though Trump himself advocated for the withdrawal, negotiated with the Taliban before leaving office and urged Biden to leave even sooner.
read more here: https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/trump-biden-afghanistan-families/2021/09/08/c78af1f8-0ff2-11ec-882f-2dd15a067dc4_story.html
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