Joe Biden has faced much criticism for his treatment of the military, and most especially how he’s treated our Gold Star families. And many Gold Star mothers have taken Biden to the woodshed for his actions.
Kelly Barnett’s son, Marine Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, died on that horrible day on Aug. 26, 2021, during Joe Biden’s disastrous pullout of Afghanistan, when a suicide bomber attacked Abbey Gate outside Kabul’s airport. Barnett blasted Biden for how he treated the Gold Star families when her son’s remains were returned home.
Christy Shamblin agreed. She felt the same mistreatment at Biden’s hands when her daughter in law’s body, Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee, was returned from Afghanistan. And Coral Briseno was also sickened by Biden’s treatment of the families when the body of her son, Marine Cpl. Humberto A. Sanchez, was brought home.
When the bodies of all 13 of those who were killed by the bombing were returned home, Biden deigned to appear at Dover Air Force Base to deliver heartfelt comments on their return.
But afterwards, when Biden met with the families, Biden seemed far less “heartfelt.” Indeed, he didn’t seem at all familiar with the people whose lives his policies ended.
Shamblin, for instance, told ABC News that Biden didn’t seem to have a clue who she was.
“The administration didn’t seem to know our story,” the aggrieved family member said. “They didn’t seem to know Nicole’s name, our names. People from the military certainly knew our story, Nicole’s name, our names. And that was expressed to us in a way that felt very genuine and loving. But when it came to the people in suits, it felt disingenuous and hollow.”
“First, he called me ‘Ms. Lopez,’ and I was not ‘Mrs. Lopez,’” Briseno said. “And he just talk[ed] about his son and said how much he knows or he understand[s] how we feel because he lost his kid, and he didn’t feel — he didn’t know how we feel because he was there with his son when he passed. We didn’t have the privilege. We received our kids in a casket.”
In fact, Briseno said that Biden felt that the whole Dover ceremony was “all about Biden” and not the families, and Barnet was shocked and sickened when Biden repeatedly looked at his watch during the ceremony indicating that he was bored and wanted to leave.
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“It was just total disrespect,” Barnett told ABC. “It’s beyond disgusting.”
Barnett added that they were so upset at how Biden acted, her daughter yelled “burn in hell,” as Biden left the area.
These three Gold Star family members are not the only ones to have spoken up to excoriate Biden for his actions. Paula Selph, whose son, Army Staff Sgt. Ryan Christian Knauss, was also one of the 13 victims of Biden’s policies.
Selph said she felt that Biden did not show any compassion for her when she asked if she could get a photo of the president standing next to her son’s grave at Arlington National Cemetery.
She claimed that Biden’s dismissive attitude was a “moral disgrace.”
Cherry Rex, whose son Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola, died that day, was appalled that when Biden spoke to her, he was more interested in talking about his son, Beau, than in the loss of her son.
“When he approached me, his words to me were, ‘My wife Jill and I know how you feel. We lost our son as well and brought him home in a flag-draped coffin,’” Rex said.
She went on to say, “My heart started beating faster and I started shaking, knowing that their son died from cancer and they were able to be by his side.”
Gold Star mother Shana Chappell was also disgusted over Biden’s need to talk about his son instead of hers.
Chappell, who lost her son, Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui, in that suicide bombing, said Biden never even mentioned her son’s name.
“As if his actions were not already disgraceful enough, the whole time Biden spoke with the Gold Star parents, he never said their children’s names. He said only ‘your son’ or ‘your daughter,’ leading some parents to believe that he did not know the thirteen warriors’ names,” she said.
In her own discussion with Biden after the withdrawal, she added, “I explained to him that I’m never going to hug Kareem again. I’m never going to see a smile, I’m never going to hear his voice, and he interrupted me. He started talking about his son Beau.”
According to the families of the 13 service members who died in Afghanistan, not only did Joe Biden only want to talk about his own son while meeting with them, but he didn’t even refer to them by any of their own names.
Just as “your son” or “your daughter.”
This is from… pic.twitter.com/UnSmy013sd
— Greg Price (@greg_price11) August 16, 2023
Biden’s actions are horrendously callous for a man who claims to love his country. Imagine not bothering to even learn the names of the men and women he sent to their graves? Thirteen Americans died in Kabul that day, needlessly so. And Biden couldn’t even be bothered to learn their names.
