National Guard are seen after reports of two National Guard soldiers shot near the White House in Washington, Wednesday, Nov. 26, 2025. (Evan Vucci/AP)
"It’s just been a horrible tragedy here in West Virginia," said Holstein, who is also a state delegate from Boone County, West Virginia. "This doesn't happen for West Virginians very often, and it's just such a deep tragedy."
"One of the things that I've … said from the beginning is West Virginia is just one big small town," he said. "And folks come together in tragedy, in triumph, in everything. We come together and we celebrate, we mourn, always together."
Holstein said that in times like this political parties don’t matter, and that Mountaineers came again together after the shooting. West Virginia Democratic Party Chair Mike Pushkin to Republican Sens. Jim Justice and Shelley Moore Capito all offered similar heartfelt reactions.
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West Virginia GOP Chairman Del. Josh Holstein's official state portrait. (West Virginia House of Delegates)
Turning to the 2021 Afghan withdrawal during which Lakanwal found his way to the U.S., Holstein remarked that "when you create chaos, chaos follows."
"That Afghanistan withdrawal was complete debacle; complete chaos," he said. "And it led to people literally running and jumping on planes and coming to the United States as a result of it. It was complete chaos. There was not a deliberate system, irrespective and irregardless of what any of the administration officials of the past administration had said about it."
"It’s really just an indictment on our country's immigration system," he said. "We have an immigration system that puts other people first. It doesn't put American citizens first, it doesn't put the good of the country first. It puts other people from random places throughout the country."
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Holstein said President Donald Trump struck the right response when he pledged to crack down on third-world-country immigration and immigration from unstable governments.
"I think this is just yet again example one thousand of our need to focus more on merit-based immigration and vetting who comes into our country at all times," he said.
Asked whether he wants to see the West Virginia National Guard continue to deploy to Washington as part of Trump’s and U.S. Attorney for D.C. Jeanine Pirro’s efforts to clean up crime, Holstein was undeterred.
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"We can’t cower to people like this (Lakanwal). You can’t cower in tragedy," he said, adding that there are about 150 other guardsmen from his state serving in Washington.
"So, I hope to see everybody stay there and maybe even have some more folks come in from different places," he added.
Fox News Digital's Brooke Singman and Tessa Hoyos contributed to this report.
Charles Creitz is a reporter for Fox News Digital.
He joined Fox News in 2013 as a writer and production assistant.
Charles covers media, politics and culture for Fox News Digital.
Charles is a Pennsylvania native and graduated from Temple University with a B.A. in Broadcast Journalism. Story tips can be sent to charles.creitz@fox.com.
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