Newt commemorates the third anniversary of the terrorist attack at Abbey Gate outside of Kabul Airport, which claimed the lives of 13 American heroes and approximately 170 Afghan civilians. Newt’s guest is Christy Shamblin, the mother-in-law of Sergeant Nicole Gee, one of the service members killed in the attack. Shamblin shares personal stories about Nicole, her life, and her service in the Marine Corps. They also discuss the new film "Culture War: The Deadly Consequences of a Woke War Machine," which features the Gold Star Families of the 13 fallen service members sharing their experiences and losses. The film, produced by the American Principles Project, is currently streaming on X, YouTube, and Rumble.
On this episode of the News World. August twenty six, twenty twenty four, marked the third anniversary since we lost thirteen American heroes in the cruel terrorist attack at Abby Gate outside Kabbo's Hamid Karzai International Airport. Approximately one hundred and seventy Afghan civilians were also murdered in that attack. We will never forget the thirteen brave Americans, eleven Marines, a soldier and a sailor who lost their lives defending their team and helping to save tens of thousands of Afghans seeking freedom and the opportunity for a better life. In the new film Culture War, The Deadly Consequences of a Woke War Machine, the gold Star families of the thirteen fallen service members talk about their experience and their loss. Culture Wars, produced by American Principles Project, was released September third. It is streaming now on ex YouTube and Rumble. Here to talk about the new film, I'm really pleased to welcome my guest, Christy Shamblin, mother in law of Sergeant Nicole g who was one of the thirteen service members killed in action in Kabbo, Afghanistan. On August twenty sixth, twenty twenty one. Christy, welcome and thank you for joining me on News World.
Oh, thank you so much for having me. I really appreciate it.
Well, this is really important, and I know it's really emotional and difficult, so I'm grateful you would take the time. But maybe we could start by talking about how Nicole came into your son's life, you know, when they first met and how you first got to know her.
Oh, thank you so much. My daughter in law, Nicole was a superstar. She was everything you could ever hope for, a wonderful human American young woman. Her and my son went to high school together, and I kind of tongue in cheap joke that they didn't really date in high school because my son needed to step it up a little bit. And so after high school they started dating and quickly got engaged and married, and they both were Marine Corps members, and they moved to North Carolina and bought a home and started their life together. She was the most motivating and encouraging human I've ever met, and I consider her to be a blessing every day that I spent with her.
I kind of.
Joke I won the daughter in law lottery and it's true.
It is amazing. I mean, she had a perfect attendance, certified as bilingual in Spanish, and maintained honor role before graduating in twenty sixteen with the four point one GPA. That's pretty amazing.
And she did that.
All while supporting herself from sixteen on.
Really Wow, Yes, sir.
She also in very good at time management.
She was very good at time management. She used to wake up at four am to make her workouts.
Wow. So what made she and your son decide to become marines?
My son joined first, and he was a recon marine. He always was a little bit of an adventure spirit. He likes adrenaline, and the Marine Corps and recon marine fit right in with that.
He's also a quiet person.
He doesn't like a lot of attention. And when he joined and through boot camp and everything, I think that Nicole saw the brotherhood that he was experiencing in the Marine Corps, and she also wanted to make sure that they were together. And once they knew that they would be stationed near each other when they were married, you know, she joined and she found her own sisterhood in the Marine Corps. I think she I know that she enjoyed her experience more in the Marine Corps than my son did.
I think she was going to make a life of it.
She thrived, she was a leader, and she loved her Marine Corps.
I noticed that five days before she was killed, she posted a photo with herself and a baby with the caption, I love my job. I mean, that's really an amazing life if you can have.
It, Yes, sir, it is. It's shocking to think of what they were experiencing there five days before this catastrophe.
It was help and we know that.
And she still took moments to have a positive mental attitude and celebrate what she could. And that was absolutely her spirit in life.
She must have been quite a daughter in law in that sense.
Oh, she was spectacular. Missed her very much.
I think for most of us, you make it real and personal because it's in your family. You know. August wenty six was a tragic day. Can you walk us through how you and your family first heard the news.
Sure, I can only say that it was God's hand in my life that day. Because my son lived in North Carolina at the time and I lived in Oregon. Nichole's family lived in California, and my son and I were together in their hometown of Roseville, California, on a summer family vacation together and we got the phone call the night, you know after it happened, asking our location, and a couple hours later we were met at our hotel by our casualty coordinators. And I can say as soon as the news hit that there were thirteen, my son knew. He said to me right away, I have a bad feeling mom. And once we didn't hear from her, you know, for a period of time, it just grew. I mean, we stayed up all night and just waited for that knock at the door, and when it came, it was just surreal. And to know that there were thirteen, you know, twelve others with her was the beginning of a holy life for us.
Did somebody come from the military to personally tell you.
Yeah, we had two wonderful young men who are the casualty coordinators for the area we were in, and they had the unfortunate job that night to come and notify us. They have my respect and love forever. It's not a job I'd ever want.
When you think about it, how do you hope Nicole will be remembered by those who hear her story.
As an encouraging, motivating force to know that you, as your very person, just as you are, can be spectacular and you can do the best you can do today with exactly what you have in yourself. And that's what she taught us every day. I hope with this evacuation that we can make some changes so that the next evacuation is casualty free. It's unacceptable that on our watch, under our control, we lost thirteen service members. It's different than losing them in war, and I hope that people can understand that this was preventable and it should have been prevented.
Did you feel that in the weeks afterwards you had adequate support from the system. How were you treated?
Yeah, it's hard to look back on that time because you know, we were in shock. But I can say that the people who helped us most were volunteer organizations, veterans.
Harley writers.
I mean, people come out of the woodworks to really support you.
It did not come from.
Our government officials in the beginning, minus the military. I love the military. The Marine Corps has been very supportive to us, and I want to acknowledge that. But so far as government officials, it was crickets until we started really, you know, making some waves.
Were you there in Delaware when the bodies were returned?
Yes?
What was that?
Like?
I'm not military. My kids are, but I'm not.
I've never been under secured, tower guards and things like that. It was something I can explain, and I hope nobody listening or you know, I don't wish the experience on anybody. The experience meeting President Biden was an eye opening one for me because I wanted to believe the best of that situation, and meeting him kind.
Of shattered that.
Why was that.
This was three years.
Ago and he didn't seem altogether aware of his surroundings. He repeated the same thing to the two families that were close enough for me to hear that he said to us, it seemed like he was a well meaning elderly man, but not somebody who should be commander in chief.
When President Biden called the withdrawal from Afghanistan an extraordinary success and went on to say, quote, the extraordinary success of this mission was due to the incredible skill, bravery, and selfless courage of the United States military and our diplomats and intelligence professionals. It seems to me from your standpoint, how can you describe losing thirteen Americans as an extraordinary success?
Exactly? And not only that, but the supplies left behind. We saw the Taliban's celebratory parade with all of our equipment that they to.
This day deny was left behind, the.
Other Americans that were left behind, the Allied partners that were left behind, the people we brought over that weren't vetted every part of it. I can't, and we've asked please meet with us and explain, give us some details of how you can call this a success. I only know my perspective. Please tell me how it could have been a success from your perspective. And we've just never had a reply.
I'm very confused by that because there's been three years now and the Biden Harris administration has not had you to the White House.
Nothing, zero crickets.
The first thing we've had is the post from Vice President Harris a day after the anniversar this last week when she criticized former President Trump for being at Arlington with us. That's the first public acknowledgement or private first time in three years.
Yes, sir, that's frankly so surprising to me. I think most presidents would have reached out personally to each family. I think presidents usually feel personally responsible for the young men and women they order into combat. Lincoln wrote letters, and you can imagine in the Civil Wars handwriting losing thousands of people. But he had a desperate sense of personal responsibility for him. I'm truly surprised that Biden and Harris have not, because it was so easy to have had you all in for coffee, to have sent you letters, to do something to indicate the loss that you have for the nation. I mean, that's what makes gold Star families different, is it You've lost loved ones who are in the process of serving the country. And I'm curious because I gather that almost from the beginning that Trump's reaction has been very different from the Biden Harris reaction. How would you describe that difference?
Like night and day, we didn't reach out to former President Trump to meet with us. He heard about our reaching out to the White House. After the withdrawal was called a success. We reached out and asked for a meeting for them to explain to us how they could call it a success. We heard nothing back, and when he heard that we didn't hear anything back, he said, well, do you want to come and meet with me in Bedminster? And we accepted that invitation. You know, when we considered it, some of us were a little nervous, you know, it was unexpected, and we said, well, what are the parameters? And he said, I don't have any what are your parameters?
And so that's the difference.
What was that visit like, I mean, was it just pro form or did they actually pay attention?
He paid attention. We were scheduled to be there for only an hour or less. Our expectations were just to meet, say hello and maybe let him know some stories of our loved ones, but we ended up spending hours with him. When he walked in the room, he knew our hero's names, their stories, he knew rank nicknames. He took the time to get to know them before he came into that space. And that so speaks, I think, to what he brings to his values. Our service members, these young men and women. The oldest one Hoover, was thirty one. All the rest were under twenty three. They had their entire lives in front of them and they were serving our country, and they deserve respect and honor, and while they get that from their families and their communities, we're not getting that from our current administration.
Now, all of this became, i guess, much more public and much more relevant than last week with the visit to Arlington, which, when I first saw it live that day Clys than I were watching it that morning, looked to me like an appropriate presidential thing to do. And then of course the news media, which is trying to protect Harris and attack Trump every chance they get, promptly fixated on this one employee and whether or not it was all appropriate, and it suddenly became an excuse to attack Trump. And then the gold Star family spoke out pretty aggressively in defense of him. Can you walk us through from your perspective, was he invited? Is it something you wanted? What's your reaction to the whole thing?
It's shocking, and it really does kind of go back to that point of they will stop at nothing, and we do feel attacked. The third year anniversary was coming up, and the WHO family has led the charge for us in laying a wreath on the tomb of the Unknown Soldier on the day of their deaths, and so we take part in that also and have done that for the past three years with them and also with Brian Canos and his family. And this year the Hoovers reached out and invited President Trump to participate, and once those communications started happening, we enthusiastically agreed. Again with this circumstance, we did invite the White House and I have receipts for that. Senator Cox sent the letter for us. It was a very well written and respectful letter, and we have not heard back from even that. Instead, we got criticized on social media.
What even now you haven't heard back.
No, still today have not heard a word. But the day the event was beautiful. President Trump, I don't think he said more than a dozen words. He listened to our family members talk about our loved ones. He visited with a wounded many of the wounded warriors from the Abby Gate exit. He spent time with them, and it was very valuable for all of us. And we asked for pictures. And it's hard to explain, and I get that it may be difficult for some people to understand, but this is where we go to celebrate my daughter in law now and we don't get to have her over for celebrations. We go to the cemetery, and it is an unfortunate reality, but it is our reality.
From your perspective. Trump did what he'd been asked to do, and he did it in a respectful presidential way, and then he gets attacked by Harris and the media. Then I think they were shocked because you all collectively came back and corrected the record to their great discredit. I think it's amazing. So now one of the most interesting project you all have been doing. What led you to become involved in culture war? The deadly consequences of a World War machine? The idea of putting this movie together is I think really important.
Yeah, it's not in my usual wheelhouse.
I'm not a political person in any nature, you know, normally, Well.
Wait a second, you make me embarrassed. I should have asked you, what is your wheelhouse?
I'm a real estate agent and a contractor. I flip houses.
Yes, what area do you do you market in?
I'm in Virginia.
Okay, So anybody looking for a house in Virginia, if they look up Christy Chamblin, you'll be glad to talk.
To absolutely in Stafford right outside the military base.
We might as well turn this into a commercial for your business while we're chatting.
Thank you.
But that explains why you're so outgoing. I mean, you have a great personality. I suspect you do very well getting people into So to go back to the film, we'll go to this other wheelhouse. Now, what made you decide to be part of the film.
Once we started to learn these things that I've learned, And it only happened because I was trying to find out how and why my daughter in law was killed. Meeting politicians going to Washington, I would show up at hearings that were publicly announced. I sat behind Blinken when he told everybody.
That it was a success.
Seeing what is happening there shocked me. And there are people who do care, and I will say most of them were uniform before they started their career as a politician. But you know, there's a lot of people who care, but a large majority when I would go and meet with them, some of them didn't know the details.
Of the Afghanistan exit.
Politicians who are in a place to make policy.
And are paid a whole heck of a lot.
Of taxpayer money to do it, didn't know the circumstances of my daughter in law's death, and that was shocking to me. And the more we kind of looked at it, and the more we found out how.
This evacuation really did crumble. Change has to be made.
That's what motivated me to take part in this is we have to have change. I can't sit by and watch another evacuation happen where Americans are going to welcome their service members home in coffins.
It's unacceptable.
Christy, what was it like from being a realtor selling houses in northern Virginia to suddenly speak at the Republican National Convention in front of thousands of people and a national audience.
It was surreal.
When we got up on the stage, I had that moment where I couldn't figure out if the stage was shaking, but it was me shaking. But what I learned from that is, honestly, when the crowd started chanting back our children's names, it was the feeling like the nation was behind us, and we haven't got that before. And I truly believe that it is because you know, President Biden and Vice President Harris have refused to acknowledge our heroes and we haven't had that feeling of Holy Cow. The nation loves our heroes who died for them, and it was amazing. I didn't expect that our intention in being there was to bring focus back to our kids and our military. And we know that President Trump supports our military, and it's evidence to me by the fact that he meets with us and talks with us and listens about our heroes.
Chris and I were there that night, and it was very compelling and very emotional. I'm curious, though, was any of the gold Star families invited to the Democratic Convention.
No?
No, if you think about it, I mean, this really goes way beyond partisanship. I mean, this is about patriotism. It's about the nation, it's about the military service, and it's trying the one party now has sort of cut itself off and can't imagine honoring the people who risk their lives for the country. But I'm delighted you were there. I can assure you from our personal experience. Nicholas and I thought you all collectively were very effective and very powerful and very emotional. It was one of the high points of the entire convention.
Oh thank you.
Hearing our kids names chanted back was a high point for us.
My dad spent twenty six years in the infantry. I grew up as an army bred. It is sort of staggering to me how shallow and unfeeling the whole Afghan withdrawal was. I mean, we were abandoning millions of peoplehood counted in US, thousands of people who'd actively helped us, and we're going to be targeted by the Taliban. As you point out, we left without really briefing allies, and we left in such a chaotic way that it is one of the low points in American military history. And as a part of that process, we had thirteen young men and women get killed who they should be alive today, They should be having families, enjoying life. So in that sense, I think this whole concept of that there are deadly consequences, you can have a Pentagon that is woke with no cost, because the purpose of a pentagon is to be in a very very dangerous world and to deal with people who are deeply opposed to us and would like to kill us. What you're doing here is important now. The Culture War is a film is available and is streaming, so people can go to it, and we're going to have it on our show page so people can find it. Tell me why you think that everyone should see culture.
War first and foremost so they can become familiar with the Afghanistan exit. It really is laid out very well how it failed, and it was set up for failure by President Biden and Vice President Harris.
I'm sad to say, but they clearly lay that out.
Our congressmen give their side of the story from the DC policymaker perspective, and we need that if we're going to make any change. People need to watch this so that they can reflect it in their votes. To be honest, we need this country back, and President Trump's the best way we can do that.
I think it's very important. I'm very impressed that the gold Star families seem to have come together as a group that they have in a sense, turned the tragedy of the young people they lost into an opportunity to help the country and extend the duty, if you will, of their loved ones by doing things. And I think this is a further step in that direction. And that's why I really wanted to have you share with us and talk with us, because you are a witness to history in a way that very few people are, and you have a moral and emotional commitment that people have to honor. And I think it's important that the gold Star families were prepared to continue as patriots, to be very active citizens. And in that sense, Christie, I want to thank you, and through you, I hope you'll share with all the other Ghostar families my personal appreciation as a former Speaker of the House and as I said, as an army brat who grew up in the military, I think that what you all have collectively done is important, will make a difference, and is a real contribution to getting America back on track. And I want to thank you for joining me and anything I can do to be of help to you or to any of the GoldStar families, I hope you'll feel very free to call on me, and I'll do all I can to be helpful.
Thank you very much. Thank you for having me. I appreciate it.
Thank you to my guests, Christy, Shandlin. You can get a link to the new film Culture War on our show page at newsworld dot com. News World is produced by GINGRIDH three sixty and iHeartMedia. Our executive producer is Guernsey Sloan. Our researcher is Rachel Peterson. The artwork for the show was created by Steve Penley. Special thanks to the team at gingbrigh three sixty. If you've been enjoying Newtsworld, I hope you'll go to Apple Podcast and both rate us with five stars and give us a review so others can learn what it's all about. Right now, listeners of neut World concern up for my three free weekly columns at gingrichsthree sixty dot com. Slash his letter, I'm Newt Gingrich. This is Newt's World.
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