President Biden is facing criticism from Gold Star families after falsely claiming during Thursday’s CNN Presidential Debate that he’s the “only president this century, this decade, that doesn’t have any troops dying anywhere in the world.”
Biden, after denying that 13 American service members were lost in Afghanistan, also said during the debate that “when he [Trump] was president, they were still killing people in Afghanistan. And he didn’t do anything about that.”
Darin Hoover, Gold Star father of Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover who was one of those 13 American service members killed in action on August 26, 2021, in Kabul, Afghanistan, had a strong reaction to Biden’s debate claims.
The younger Hoover, 31, was engaged to be married when he was killed. It was his third tour in Afghanistan.
VOTERS REACT AFTER BIDEN FALSELY CLAIMED THAT NO TROOPS HAD DIED UNDER HIS WATCH
“I knew Afghanistan was going to come up sooner or later,” said Hoover in an interview with Fox News Digital, recalling the debate.
“You know, the stumbling, bumbling buffoon that we have in the White House had the audacity to say that under his watch that no military members have died.”
In a statement to Fox News Digital after the initial publication of this story, a White House spokesperson said, “President Biden cares deeply about our service members, their families, and the immense sacrifices they have made. That’s why the President attended the dignified transfer of the 13 brave service members who lost their lives in Afghanistan on August 26, 2021; as well as, of the three who lost their lives in Jordan earlier this year.”
“As he said then and continues to believe now: Our country owes them a great deal of gratitude and a debt that we can never repay, and we will continue to honor their ultimate sacrifice,” the spokesperson added.
The Gold Star dad added, “the rage, the absolute disgust that I got, from hearing him say that–I started yelling back at the TV. Just out of frustration. He’s never acknowledged, not one time, any of our kids. He’s never said their names. Even to this day, I doubt very seriously that he even knows their names.”
Taylor’s mother, Kelly Barnett, had this to say to Biden: “What I would say to them is shame on you using our children as a pawn. It just makes me sick.”
“It’s sickening, but it goes to the way that we’ve been treated the past three years. It’s three years–we’re going on three years now. And it’s just disrespect after disrespect. This is probably the cherry on top.”
Hoover said the Biden administration sent the 13 Afghanistan Gold Star families letters – a year later.
“All the 13 families get a canned letter. It said the same exact same thing. And it looked like it was a photocopy of all of that. It was basically, we’re sorry that your service member had died, and that’s been it. We’ve had absolutely nothing before, nothing since,” Hoover added.
Hoover has made efforts to meet with Biden on behalf of the 13 lost on August 26, 2021. He said, “as much as we tried it in the past, when we’ve been going before Congress to try and get a meeting, it’s been denied because he’s a chicken.”
“[Biden] doesn’t want to deal with us. He knows that we’re in his face, but he doesn’t want to deal with us,” said Hoover.
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According to the St. Charles County Veterans Museum in Missouri, Hoover was bestowed awards including the Purple Heart and the Afghanistan Campaign Medal after 11 years of service to the Marine Corps.
