We’ve written about Biden checking his watch while he was at Dover yesterday watching the transfer of those who died in Kabul from the airplane to the hearses that will drive them to their final resting places. He also failed to understand that, as Commander-in-Chief, he should have saluted the coffins as they were carried past him, rather than putting his hand on his heart, and, as the picture below shows, he stood at “parade rest” rather than attention (although that may have been old bones protesting). It was all a telling breach of protocol and it turns out that Biden was just as tone-deaf in his dealings with the families of those who died.
Marine Lance Corporal Rylee McCollum was one of those who died. He was only 20 years old and his first child was due to be born in three weeks. It would have been tragic enough had he died in a battle that had meaning. The horror of what happened to him and, by extension to his family and unborn child, was that his death was utterly pointless.
McCollum died because Biden completely botched the pullout from Afghanistan. Even a child would figure out that you never give up your security until the last person, civilian or military, is gone. But while a child could have figured that one out, Biden and his team were unable to do so.
Although McCollum’s family was at Dover to see his body arrive, only his wife, Jiennah went to meet with Biden. The rest of the family didn’t even want to speak with him because they believe he is responsible for what happened.
The Washington Post described what happened at that meeting:
“Only Jiennah, who is expecting the couple’s child next month, stayed. But she left disappointed, Roice [McCollum’s sister] said. The president brought up his son, Beau, according to her account, describing his son’s military service and subsequent death from cancer. It struck the family as scripted and shallow, a conversation that lasted only a couple of minutes in ‘total disregard to the loss of our Marine,’ Roice said.
“‘You can’t f— up as bad as he did and say you’re sorry,’ Roice said of the president. ‘This did not need to happen, and every life is on his hands.’
“The White House declined to comment on the private conversations Biden had with families.” I’m very sure that the White House declined to comment. Once again, the only rhetorical vehicle Biden had when dealing with someone’s loss was to express his own sorrow over Beau’s death. I’ll say again what I said before: It’s a genuinely sad thing that Beau died of a brain tumor at a relatively young age. I’m sure Biden felt that loss deeply. However, Biden doesn’t let sentiment get in the way of business.
Biden has grossly abused Hunter over the years. Hunter is obviously a deeply damaged man, with his drug addictions, sex fetishes, and self-confessed problems with parading naked around children. A child like that should be protected and helped. Instead, Biden dragged this miserable man around the world, using him as a bagman to collect massive amounts of foreign bribes, ostensibly for business deals but, again per Hunter’s own statements, to enrich Joe himself.
While Beau seemed to have been his own man during his life, he’s become a rhetorical trope for Biden since his death. Biden drags him out at every opportunity to wave before the world the fact that he’s suffered, so nobody had better try to out-suffer him. Poor Beau is the ultimate conversational tool for a malignant narcissist, which is my armchair diagnosis for Biden. Beau is so useful that it’s tempting (although cruel) to say that, if Beau hadn’t died, Joe would’ve had to kill him simply for his value as a symbol Joe can use when needed.
UPDATE: The Daily Mail has a report that shows Biden again making it all about himself when speaking with the parents the murdered American troops:
Mark Schmitz – the father of Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz – and Darin Hoover – the father of Staff Sgt Darin Taylor Hoover Jr. – spoke to Fox News host Sean Hannity on Monday night. Both claimed the commander in chief did not just check his watch once, but after every casket was removed from the plane.
Hoover also told how he refused to meet with the president at the event.
Schmitz said his own meeting ‘didn’t go well’, and Biden spent more time talking about his own son Beau than Jared Schmitz. Schmitz said Biden spoke of losing his son Beau Biden, an Iraq veteran, to cancer six years ago. But Schmitz said that he wanted to talk about Jared instead and that he and his wife took out a photo of their son to show the president.
“I said: ‘Don’t you ever forget that name. Don’t you ever forget that face. Don’t you ever forget the names of the other 12,’” Schmitz told The Post. “‘And take some time to learn their stories.’” But according to Schmitz, the president didn’t like that and bristled, replying: ‘I do know their stories.’
Andrea Widburg | Columnist
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