As news of a plea deal for the mastermind of the 2001 terrorist attacks hit this week, Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign went into cover mode, saying it wouldn’t be commenting and instead referred questions to the White House, which likewise ducked the question.
Military prosecutors reached the agreement with three defendants at Guantanamo Bay, including Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. They will plead guilty to killing 2,976 people in the airplane attacks and will serve life in prison but will not face the death penalty.
The deal was met with derision from Republicans who said the Biden-Harris administration “cut a deal” with al Qaeda terrorists. GOP vice presidential nominee J.D. Vance labeled the plea deal “ridiculous” and blamed President Biden and Ms. Harris.
“We need a president who kills terrorists, not negotiates with them,” Mr. Vance said.
Ms. Harris’ team, though, tried to put distance between herself and the decision to strike the plea.
Her campaign said it was a matter for the White House, the official side of Ms. Harris’ political world. And the White House in turn said it was a decision made by military prosecutors and nobody at the White House was involved.
“The president and the White House played no role in this process. The president has directed his team to consult as appropriate with officials and lawyers at the Department of Defense on this matter,” said a White House National Security Council spokesperson.
White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said even he was caught off guard by the plea deals.
“The president had no role, the vice president had no role, I had no role,” Mr. Sullivan said. “We were informed yesterday the same day that they went out publicly with this pretrial agreement that had been accepted by the convening authority.”
Mr. Sullivan said Mr. Biden ordered his team to consult with lawyers at the Department of Defense and those talks are ongoing.
Ms. Harris is enjoying a honeymoon period as Democrats’ presumptive presidential nominee after Mr. Biden, battered by questions of mental acuity and electability, withdrew from the 2024 race against former President Donald Trump.
The terrorist plea deal is the first in what is likely to be a series of tests for Ms. Harris as she tries to blaze her own path on foreign policy and thread the needle between the political needs of her electoral coalition and the duties of being Mr. Biden’s second-in-command.
Other possible flashpoints include the upcoming one-year mark of Israel’s war with Hamas, ongoing ramifications of the U.S. border crisis and negotiations with Congress over funding the government for the next fiscal year.
Still, Republican political strategist Ford O’Connell wondered if Ms. Harris will ever be forced to answer tough questions in the sprint to November.
“She can do this as long as the media allows her to,” he said. “They have already changed like 20 positions. …. It is frustrating that she is getting more mulligans and look-the-other-ways than probably anyone in presidential history.”
“Donald Trump is not running against Kamala Harris. He is running against the mainstream media that hates his guts and wants the Democrats to remain in power,” Mr. O’Connell said.
The White House’s silence was matched by outrage from Republicans and from survivors and relatives of victims of the 2001 attack.
Brett Eagleson, president of 9/11 Justice, said the families are “deeply troubled” by the plea deals.
“These plea deals should not perpetuate a system of closed-door agreements, where crucial information is hidden without giving the families of the victims the chance to learn the full truth,” he said.
A union representing New York City firefighters said its members are “disgusted and disappointed” in the plea deals.
The FDNY Uniformed Firefighters Association said that deal allows the accused terrorist to “escape ultimate justice while each month three more heroes from the FDNY are dying from World Trade Center illnesses.”
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, Kentucky Republican, called the deals “a revolting abdication of the government’s responsibility to defend America and provide justice.”
House Speaker Mike Johnson, Louisiana Republican, said the deals were a “slap in the face” for victims’ families.
“For more than two decades, the families of those murdered by these terrorists have waited for justice,” he said in a statement. “This deal is a slap in the face of those families. They deserved better from the Biden-Harris administration.”
The military prosecutors, though, said the deal was “the best path to finality and justice” given the legal complications of a case that’s already stretched for two decades.
The deal covers Mohammed, seen as the mastermind of the 2001 attacks, and Walid Muhammad Salih Mubarak Bin Attash and Mustafa Ahmed Adam al-Hawsawi.
Analysts have said the cases against the men were made more difficult because of the torture they were subject to after their apprehensions, as the CIA sought to extract information about al Qaeda’s broad terrorist network.
Two other defendants accused of roles in the 2001 attacks were not covered by the new agreement.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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