Service members killed in Afghanistan honored with Congressional Gold Medals

WASHINGTON (NEXSTAR) -- Congress bestowed its highest honor Tuesday on the 13 service members killed in the suicide bombing during the U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan. Lawmakers posthumously awarded the Congressional Gold Medal to the fallen soldiers in a ceremony at the U.S. Capitol with their families.

"While their time was cut short, they gave everything they had," said Coral Briseno, the mother of Marine Corps Cpl. Humberto Sanchez, during the event. "Ceremonies like this provide a small but meaningful breath of relief in our ongoing journey of grief, reminding us that we raised the best and brightest for this country."

Top Democrat and Republican leaders thanked Briseno and the other 12 families and celebrated the legacy their children leave behind.

"It lives on in the hearts of those they saved and in the gratitude of a nation that will never forget their sacrifice," said House Speaker Mike Johnson, (R-La.).

"Nothing we can do today can bring them back, but through this award, we swear their memories will live forever," said Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, (D-N.Y.). 

The ceremony was bipartisan, but there were some politics at play leading up to it.

"We are going to have more Marines and soldiers dead because of this administration," Briseno said during a press conference at the Capitol Monday. 

Some of the families blame the Biden administration for their loved ones' deaths, citing the new Republican report that accuses the White House of failing troops during the withdrawal.

"It didn't have to be that way," said Jim McCollum, the father of Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum. "It was preventable."

The Biden administration and Democrats in Congress defend the decision to end the country's longest war and said the GOP report is cherry-picked and biased.

Several independent reviews of the withdrawal have already determined systemic failures spanning the last four presidential administrations, most significantly under the Trump and Biden eras.