During a testy exchange with Sen. Tom Cotton, NBC’s “Meet the Press” host Kristen Welker claimed, falsely, that Vice President Kamala Harris was present at the transfer of 13 US service members who were killed during the Kabul airport suicide bombing that occurred as the US withdrew from Afghanistan in 2021. NBC has had to retract that false claim.

As a reminder, former President Donald Trump has been attacked by the left, including Kamala and the media, for appearing at Arlington alongside the Gold Star families for the third anniversary of those deaths. The Gold Star families pushed back on that criticism in a statement, saying, “President Trump was invited by us, the Gold Star families, to attend the solemn ceremonies commemorating the three-year anniversary of our children’s deaths. He was there to honor their sacrifice, yet Vice President Harris has disgracefully twisted this sacred moment into a political ploy.”

Sen. Cotton then defended the Trump appearance when he appeared on “Meet the Press” with Welker, saying, “He didn’t take campaign photos. There are these families, Gold Star families, whose children died because of Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’ incompetence, invited him to the cemetery. And they asked him to take those photos.”

Continuing, he said, “Because as as they told me yesterday, when I spoke to Kelly Barnett and Darren Hoover, the parents of Taylor Hoover, who has Arkansas ties, they don’t get to go to the beach on Labor Day. They don’t get to have barbecues. This is their one chance to have a memory of their children to commemorate their service and to honor their sacrifice. They wanted President Trump there.”

That’s when Kamala came up. Attacking VP Harris for not appearing despite being invited, Sen. Cotton said, “They wanted to take those photos. You know who the family’s also invited? Joe Biden and Kamala Harris. Where were they? Joe Biden was sitting at a beach. Kamala Harris was sitting at her mansion in Washington, D.C.”

After Sen. Cotton attacked VP Harris is when Welker interjected with her demonstrably untrue statement. In an attempt to rebut Sen. Cotton and show that Kamala cares about the sacrifice of the servicemembers and their families, she claimed that VP Harris joined President Biden in attending the transfer of the remains at Dover Air Force Base on Aug. 29, 2021.

That, as a reminder, was when the when flag-draped cases carrying the remains of the American service members killed in that deadly incident during the Afghanistan withdrawal returned to the United States, the same incident where President Biden, quite infamously, checked his watch. Kamala did not attend the transfer of remains.

NBC News’ official “Meet the Press” X account issued a retraction, saying, “On our broadcast this morning, we incorrectly implied that both President Biden and Vice President Harris attended the dignified transfer of 13 American service members killed during the Afghanistan withdrawal. Biden was in attendance but Harris was not.”

Watch Welker argue with Sen. Cotton and make the false claim here:

Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video