The father of Staff Sgt. Darin “Taylor” Hoover is publicly blaming the Biden administration for what he calls failed vetting after an Afghan national allegedly shot two National Guardsmen near the White House. Hoover connects the shooting to the chaotic 2021 withdrawal from Afghanistan and the unresolved fallout from the Abbey Gate bombing that killed 13 U.S. service members. Federal investigators are treating the attack as a serious matter, and Hoover says this latest incident proves the consequences of those evacuation decisions are still playing out here at home.
Hoover responded sharply to the news, pointing a finger at the people who handled the evacuation. “This is on the feckless Biden administration,” Hoover said, arguing the government never fully vetted evacuees. He said the rapid timeline and the way the evacuation was run left officials blind to who came into the country.
He spelled out the stakes in blunt terms, stressing the risk to American safety. “By doing this, all we got is men of fighting age that are most likely terrorists that are here in the homeland to do us all harm and take our beloved United States of America. Maybe if the Biden administration started the process earlier than the truncated timetable that they did, this could have all come out so much better, including all of our most precious men and women of our military coming home.”
The FBI is leading the probe into the shooting and intelligence officials are treating it as a possible act of international terrorism. Authorities say the suspect was identified as 29-year-old Rahmanullah Lakanwal and that he arrived in the U.S. in September 2021 under Operation Allies Welcome after the fall of Kabul. Reports indicate he had worked with some U.S. government entities in Afghanistan, and critics are pointing to that history as evidence the vetting failed to catch significant risks.
Former CIA Director John Ratcliffe weighed in with a stark verdict on the arrivals. “The individual — and so many others — should have never been allowed to come here,” former CIA Director John Ratcliffe told Fox News Digital, capturing the outrage from those who lost loved ones in the Abbey Gate attack. Hoover and other Gold Star parents say this episode validates years of concern that some evacuees entered without adequate screening.
The pain beneath the politics remains personal and raw for Hoover, whose son Taylor died in the Abbey Gate bombing. Staff Sgt. Darin “Taylor” Hoover was an 11-year Marine veteran, engaged to be married and on his third deployment when he was killed, and his father has made accountability for that loss a public priority. Hoover has repeatedly demanded answers about the withdrawal and how so many people were put on evacuation flights so quickly.
Hoover has also taken aim at President Biden’s public statements about troop deaths under his watch. “The rage, the absolute disgust that I got from hearing him say that — I started yelling back at the TV,” he said in 2024. “He’s never acknowledged, not one time, any of our kids. He’s never said their names.”
The family frustrations extended to official condolences they received after the attack, which Hoover described as impersonal. “All 13 families got a canned letter,” he said in a 2024 Fox News Digital interview. “It looked like it was a photocopy. We’ve had absolutely nothing before, nothing since.”
Attempts to meet with the president also left Hoover feeling dismissed by the White House. “[Biden] doesn’t want to deal with us,” Hoover said in 2024. “He knows that we’re in his face, but he doesn’t want to deal with us.” With the investigation still active, Hoover says he will keep pressing for answers and accountability, insisting the families will not be ignored. “This isn’t going away,” he said at the time. “We’re not going away.”
