Gold Star father blames Biden for Afghan national shooting near White House
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SPECIAL – Staff Sergeant’s father. Darin “Taylor” Hoover, one of 13 U.S. soldiers killed in the Abbey Gate bombing during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan in 2021, is criticizing the former Biden administration after an Afghan citizen allegedly shot two National Guardsmen just blocks from the White House.
Hoover issued a strong new statement to Fox News Digital about Wednesday’s shooting, saying the incident was a direct result of the administration’s botched investigation of evacuated Afghans.
“This is about the incompetent Biden administration,” Hoover said of the shooting. “We had no idea who was entering this country because the Biden administration, especially the State Department under Antony Blinken, did not do the work necessary to vet all of these people. There were so many people put on the planes that originally landed that we had no idea who they were.”
He continued: “By doing this, all we have are men of fighting age, most likely terrorists, who are in our homeland to harm us all and take our beloved United States of America. Perhaps if the Biden administration had started the process earlier than the shortened timetable that it did, things would have turned out much better, including our military’s most valued men and women returning home.”
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Former President Joe Biden is under fire from Gold Star families like the Hoovers after an Afghan national allegedly ambushed and shot two National Guardsmen in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday. (Darin Hoover, Getty Images)
The FBI is leading the investigation into the attack, and multiple intelligence sources tell Fox News Digital that the attack is being considered a possible act of international terrorism. The suspect, identified as 29-year-old Afghan national Rahmanullah Lakanwal, was detained for allegedly ambushing two National Guardsmen near the White House in West Virginia.
Fox News Digital previously reported that Lakanwal entered the United States as part of Operation Allied Welcome in September 2021, immediately after the fall of Kabul, and worked with multiple U.S. government agencies, including the CIA, as part of a joint force in Kandahar.
“This person and so many others should never have been allowed to come here,” former CIA Director John Ratcliffe told Fox News Digital. “Our citizens and service members deserve far better than suffering the ongoing consequences of the Biden administration’s devastating failures.”
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Aug. 29, 2023: Darin Hoover and Kelly Barnett, parents of Marine Corps Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, speak before a House committee. (Fox News)
Hoover says the attack confirmed what he and other Gold Star parents feared when thousands of Afghans were evacuated in the final days of the withdrawal: Many people were allowed into the United States without adequate screening.
“We had no idea who Biden put on those planes,” Hoover said. “None.”
Wednesday’s comments follow years of public criticism from Hoover, who was one of the most vocal parents demanding accountability for the Abbey Gate attack that killed 13 American service members, including his son Taylor, an 11-year Marine veteran who was deployed to Afghanistan for the third time and was engaged to be married.
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Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover was killed in action in Afghanistan on August 26, 2021. He is a Purple Heart recipient. (Darin Hoover)
Hoover’s earlier remarks made headlines in 2024 when he reacted to President Biden’s claim during the presidential debate that no US service members had died under his watch. Hoover told Fox News Digital at the time that he felt “outrage” when he heard Biden denying the deaths at Abbey Gate 13.
“The anger and utter disgust I felt when I heard him say that – I started screaming at the television,” he said in 2024. “He never once acknowledged any of our children. He never said their names.”
He also revealed that the Biden administration sent a series of identical condolence letters to the Abbey Gate families a year after the attack.
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“All 13 families received prepared letters,” he said in a 2024 Fox News Digital interview. “It looked like a photocopy. We didn’t have anything before, and we haven’t had anything since.”
Hoover’s disappointment in not being able to secure a meeting with Biden was also part of the earlier reporting.
“[Biden] Hoover “doesn’t want to deal with us” in 2024, he said. “He knows we are against him, but he doesn’t want to deal with us.”
But Hoover told Fox News Digital this week that Wednesday’s shooting, allegedly carried out by an Afghan national allowed into the country during the retreat, was a devastating new chapter. To him, this shows that the consequences of the problematic evacuation are still playing out on American soil.
Federal officials said the investigation into the attack is ongoing. Hoover says he will continue speaking out until he gets answers from the families of those killed at Abbey Gate and until the former administration takes responsibility for ongoing failures.
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“This isn’t going anywhere,” he said at the time. “We’re not going.”
Fox News Digital’s Brooke Singman contributed to this report.
