Vance tells Harris to ‘go to hell’ over botched Afghanistan withdrawal

Sen. J.D. Vance (R-OH) called for Vice President Kamala Harris to "go to hell" in the aftermath of the botched U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan three years ago.

The Ohio senator and running mate to former President Donald Trump was asked by a CBS News journalist about the reported dispute between Trump campaign staff and an Arlington National Cemetery official during a Monday visit to commemorate the 13 American service members who were killed in an airport bomb attack in Afghanistan's capital of Kabul.

Vance dismissed the Trump campaign dustup at Arlington as a media overreaction. He claimed veterans were more concerned that Gov. Tim Walz (D-MN) "lied about his military service" and that "there hasn't been a single investigation or a single firing" over the chaotic departure from Afghanistan.

"To have those 13 Americans lose their lives and not fire a single person is disgraceful. Kamala Harris is disgraceful," Vance said while campaigning in Erie, Pennsylvania.

"We're gonna talk about a story out of those 13 brave innocent Americans who lost their lives; it's that Kamala Harris is so asleep at the wheel that she won't even do an investigation into what happened, and she wants to yell at Donald Trump because he showed up. She can — she can go to hell," Vance said as the crowd cheered in approval and then began chanting "USA!"

Vance has repeatedly attacked Walz, Harris's running mate, over his military record and accusing him of “stolen valor.” Just one day prior in Big Rapids, Michigan, Vance claimed that "the closest Tim Walz ever came to combat is when he let rioters burn Minneapolis to the ground and did absolutely nothing to stop it.”

The Trump campaign pushed back against the allegations that it had filmed at the Arlington cemetery without authorization, leading to a verbal and physical altercation.

“There was no physical altercation as described and we are prepared to release footage if such defamatory claims are made,” Trump campaign communications director Steven Cheung told the Washington Examiner in a statement . “The fact is that a private photographer was permitted on the premises and for whatever reason an unnamed individual, clearly suffering from a mental health episode, decided to physically block members of President Trump’s team during a very solemn ceremony.”

Cheung also took to social media to dispute NPR's reporting claiming the campaign was "granted access to have a photographer there."

Trump campaign manager and Marine Corps veteran Chris LaCivita called the Arlington cemetery official who challenged the campaign staff “despicable.”

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Vance defended the campaign's actions at the cemetery while in Pennsylvania. "There is verifiable evidence that the campaign was allowed to have a photographer there," he said. "Those 13 Americans, a lot of them, were there with the president. They invited him to be there and to support them. That's not an insult to the memories of their loved ones. They wanted Donald Trump there and thank God that we have a president who stands with our veterans instead of one who runs away from them."

The Washington Examiner reached out to the Harris campaign for comment.

Brady Knox contributed to this report.