A man was escorted out of the guest section in the House chamber during President Joe Biden’s State of the Union address as he shouted down at him about the Marines who died during the United States withdrawal from Afghanistan.
The man shouted in part, “Remember Abbey Gate! U.S. Marines!” His shouts lasted about 10 seconds before he was forced out of the second level of the chamber.
Thirteen U.S. service members were killed during the 2021 withdrawal in a terrorist attack at Abbey Gate outside Kabul's Hamid Karzai International Airport. The 13 members were made up of 11 Marines, one Navy corpsman, and one soldier. It was the deadliest day for U.S. troops in Afghanistan in roughly a decade. More than 170 Afghan civilians also died in the suicide bombing.
In 2023, during a roundtable that House Foreign Affairs Chairman Mike McCaul (R-TX) convened, family members of the deceased service members demanded accountability and answers from the Biden administration in emotional testimony about the losses of their loved ones and the withdrawal.
