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CHARLES TOWN, W.V. – EXCLUSIVE: The Thanksgiving Eve taking pictures that has left one West Virginia Nationwide Guard member useless and one other clinging to his life enraged prime officers in Charleston, West Virginia — as one positioned blame squarely on the disastrous 2021 U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan and stated his state is “one large small city” that’s mourning collectively.
The suspect, Rahmahullah Lakanwal, reportedly labored with a CIA-operated unit that fought the Taliban on America’s behalf, Fox Information Digital confirmed, which helped evacuate folks throughout the fall of Kabul beneath then-President Joe Biden.
West Virginia Republican Occasion Chairman Josh Holstein advised Fox Information Digital Friday the information angered him, and that anger turned to devastation when Sarah Beckstrom of Summersville, West Virginia, succumbed to her wounds, and as Andrew Wolfe of Inwood, West Virginia, stays in crucial situation.
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Nationwide Guard are seen after reviews of two Nationwide Guard troopers shot close to the White Home in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (Evan Vucci/AP)
“It’s simply been a horrible tragedy right here in West Virginia,” stated Holstein, who can be a state delegate from Boone County, West Virginia. “This does not occur for West Virginians fairly often, and it is simply such a deep tragedy.”
“One of many issues that I’ve … stated from the start is West Virginia is only one large small city,” he stated. “And people come collectively in tragedy, in triumph, in all the things. We come collectively and we rejoice, we mourn, all the time collectively.”
Holstein stated that in occasions like this political events don’t matter, and that Mountaineers got here once more collectively after the taking pictures. West Virginia Democratic Occasion Chair Mike Pushkin to Republican Sens. Jim Justice and Shelley Moore Capito all provided comparable heartfelt reactions.
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Vacationers are greeted by a West Virginia welcome signal after crossing the East River Mountain Tunnel on I-77 in Princeton, West Virginia. (Charlie Creitz/Fox Information Digital)
“West Virginians of all political sides of the aisle got here collectively and simply mourn(ed) and share a way of deep grief, however not solely grief, however gratitude for these people, particularly these these two younger people,” he stated. “After which yesterday, in fact, with it being Thanksgiving, it was a somber reminder that not all of us all of us get along with our households on Thanksgiving.”
“These two have been on the time, each combating for his or her life, and now one has since handed away,” he stated. “I, I simply really feel that West Virginians specifically have such a novel drive for service. You’ll be able to see it in our numbers per capita on what number of veterans now we have in comparison with different states within the nation. We’re all the time keen and all the time capable of serve one another and . . . it is a actually an ideal description of who West Virginians are.”
As reviews got here out about Lakanwal’s origins and background, that sentiment turned to fury, Holstein stated, remarking that the 29-year-old Afghan “was not even speculated to be right here.”
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West Virginia GOP Chairman Del. Josh Holstein’s official state portrait. (West Virginia Home of Delegates)
Turning to the 2021 Afghan withdrawal throughout which Lakanwal discovered his technique to the U.S., Holstein remarked that “while you create chaos, chaos follows.”
“That Afghanistan withdrawal was full debacle; full chaos,” he stated. “And it led to folks actually working and leaping on planes and coming to america on account of it. It was full chaos. There was not a deliberate system, irrespective and irregardless of what any of the administration officers of the previous administration had stated about it.”
“It’s actually simply an indictment on our nation’s immigration system,” he stated. “Now we have an immigration system that places different folks first. It does not put Americans first, it does not put the great of the nation first. It places different folks from random locations all through the nation.”
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Holstein stated President Donald Trump struck the correct response when he pledged to crack down on third-world-country immigration and immigration from unstable governments.
“I believe that is simply but once more an instance one thousand of our have to focus extra on merit-based immigration and vetting who comes into our nation always,” he stated.
Requested whether or not he needs to see the West Virginia Nationwide Guard proceed to deploy to Washington as a part of Trump’s and U.S. Legal professional for D.C. Jeanine Pirro’s efforts to scrub up crime, Holstein was undeterred.
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“We are able to’t cower to folks like this (Lakanwal). You’ll be able to’t cower in tragedy,” he stated, including that there are about 150 different guardsmen from his state serving in Washington.
“So, I hope to see all people keep there and perhaps even have some extra people are available from completely different locations,” he added.
Fox Information Digital’s Brooke Singman and Tessa Hoyos contributed to this report.
