On Tuesday’s broadcast of the Fox News Channel’s “Fox & Friends First,” Mark Schmitz, whose son, Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz, was killed in the Kabul airport attack in 2021, stated that the withdrawal from Afghanistan could have been done much differently, and had it, his son would still be alive and we would “probably have gotten out the better-vetted people that we needed to try to get out versus the masses of people that we don’t even know who half of those people are still.”

Schmitz said, [relevant remarks begin around 1:45] “[W]e have invited Biden…to meet with us while we are all here in D.C. together, and it has been absolute crickets. There has not been one word from him about meeting with us, and that’s just yet another spit in the face.”

Co-host Todd Piro asked, “But Mark, that begs the question, why? Why does he refuse to meet? Why does it seem, throughout this horrific ordeal for you and for your family, the Biden administration seems to be making it worse? And the follow-up to that is, Mark, do you feel like there’s some sort of cover-up going on for some reason?”

Schmitz answered, “Absolutely, there is a cover-up going on. We’ve been told many untruths that have been debunked by boots on the ground that were actually there that contradict the stories that the Pentagon has been trying to push on us. And, as far as the first part of your question, Biden knows he did wrong. He may speak the words to the American people to try to get them to buy his version of this being an extraordinary success. It’s just, unfortunately, what should have happened, didn’t happen, which ultimately led to what [happened], and that didn’t need to happen, if that makes sense. So, he could have done this a completely different way. I think our sons and daughters would still be with us right now and we would have still accomplished the mission, and certainly probably have gotten out the better-vetted people that we needed to try to get out versus the masses of people that we don’t even know who half of those people are still.”

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