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WASHINGTON — This afternoon, Speaker Johnson joined Jake Tapper on CNN’s The Lead to recap today’s Congressional Gold Medal ceremony honoring the 13 fallen American servicemembers, the House Foreign Affairs Committee’s investigation into the failed Afghanistan withdrawal, and the need for Congress to pass the SAVE Act and responsibly fund the government.

“We read the names of those 13 service members who lost their lives. Their families said it was such a relief to them. We apologized to them,” Speaker Johnson said. “To this day, Joe Biden and Kamala Harris have not said the names of those service members. In fact, Joe Biden said on the debate stage in June that we hadn't lost any service members on his watch. I guess he forgot about them.”

Click here to watch the full interview

On the Congressional Gold Medal ceremony:

As you know, the Congressional Gold medal is the highest honor that we can give to any group or individual. And it was right to bestow it upon these families, these 13 service members. As was noted many times today, they were brothers, sisters, and fathers. They were the best of America, and they gave their lives in Afghanistan, and it didn't have to happen. And that's the great tragedy of the whole thing.

On HFAC Afghanistan Investigation Report:

[Biden Administration officials] were concerned much more about the optics than they were the safety of our servicemembers. And that's why people died. And that's why hundreds of Americans were left behind. That's why $7 billion in military equipment was left in the hands of the Taliban. That's why the Taliban took over. By the way, President Biden and Kamala Harris insisted that no one projected that Afghanistan would fall if we pulled the troops out. Now, we know that that was not true.

There were a number of intelligence officials and top military officials from the Department of Defense who said exactly the opposite. They had no emergency withdrawal plan, Jake. They had never more than a day's supply of food and water at the airport there. It was a total failure from top to bottom. And the brave service men and women died because of that.

On the SAVE Act:

President Trump is saying exactly what I have been saying. And that is we need assurances on election security and to fund the government. We should get those assurances. And here's why. The American people believe at a rate of 87% that only U.S. citizens should decide U.S. elections. That is federal law right now, but it is not being abided by because we don't have any proof of citizenship required. That's all the SAVE Act does. That's why we attached it to the continuing resolution to fund the government. Every Democrat in Congress is suggesting right now that they would oppose that. There's no reason to oppose it. We should do a resolution to fund the government, everybody agrees with that, and they should all agree that we need a free and fair election.