• Investing
  • Stock
Round Table Thoughts
  • Economy
  • Editor’s Pick
Home Economy Biden’s treatment of Gold Star families under renewed scrutiny: ‘Total disregard’
Economy

Biden’s treatment of Gold Star families under renewed scrutiny: ‘Total disregard’

by August 9, 2023
by August 9, 2023 0 comment
Share
0
FacebookTwitterPinterestWhatsapp

The emotional testimony this week by the families of the 13 U.S. service members killed during President Biden’s chaotic military withdrawal in Afghanistan has cast renewed scrutiny on the president’s past treatment of Gold Star families.

Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Calif., held a congressional forum Monday with the Gold Star families who said they felt misled and betrayed by their own government.

Several called out Biden and his top Cabinet officials by name, calling on them to resign. A father of one fallen U.S. Marine called on the president to ‘be a grown a– man.’

The Biden administration’s series of missteps during the withdrawal nearly two years ago marked a political turning point for the public’s perception of the president’s competency and ability to lead. His decision faced widespread global backlash after Taliban insurgents retook the country in a matter of days on Aug. 15, 2021, essentially winning the war 20 years after their ouster by U.S.-led forces.

Biden had assured Americans just one month before the collapse that the likelihood of a Taliban takeover was ‘highly unlikely.’

Then on Aug. 26, 2021, during the U.S. military’s mass evacuation at the Kabul airport, suicide bombers killed 183 people, including 13 U.S. service members.

The U.S. military evacuation, which required thousands of additional U.S. troops on the ground and significant cooperation from the Taliban to complete, ended a day ahead of deadline on Aug. 30, 2021, leaving behind hundreds of U.S. citizens and tens of thousands of Afghan allies despite Biden’s promise days earlier to ‘get them all out.’

Critics have demanded that heads roll for the Afghanistan debacle with calls for the firings of Secretary of State Antony Blinken, National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan, Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin and Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley.

Despite telling Americans after Afghanistan’s fall that ‘the buck stops with me,’ Biden repeatedly blamed former President Trump and the Afghan military for the country’s swift collapse, and he has declined to fire a single official over the withdrawal.

During Monday’s hearing, Kelly Barnett, mother of Staff Sgt. Taylor Hoover, addressed the panel first and spoke for nearly 15 minutes, accusing Biden officials of lying to her about her son’s death – and saying she was told that he died immediately only for eyewitnesses to tell her he ‘lived for a little while.’

‘We were told lies, given incomplete reports, incorrect reports, total disrespect,’ Barnett said. ‘I was told to my face he died on impact. That’s not true. The only reason that I know this is because witnesses told me the truth. I was lied to and basically told to shut up.’

Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui’s father, Steve Nikoui, accused Biden of using his Marine son ‘as a pawn so we can meet his Sept. 11th deadline and get the optics he wanted.’

‘My life and that of my family’s has been on pause since the early morning of Aug. 26, 2021,’ the emotional father said. ‘The difference between the minutes of my life before that and the minutes that passed after that day are contrasted drastically.’

Christy Shamblin, the mother-in-law of Marine Sgt. Nicole Gee, held back tears when she described her reaction to Biden officials lauding the evacuation as a success.

‘When our leaders, including the secretary of defense and our commander in chief, called this evacuation a success, as if there should be celebration, it is like a knife in the heart for our families and for the people [who] came back,’ Shamblin said. ‘I live [every] single day knowing that these deaths were preventable. My daughter could be with us today.’

‘I can’t even begin to piece together the words that would convey to you the devastation that her murder has brought to our family,’ she said.

A Defense Department spokesperson’s statement on the Gold Star families’ testimony said, ‘The Department of Defense expresses our deepest condolences to the Gold Star Families who lost loved ones during the tragic bombing at Abbey Gate. We are forever grateful for their service, sacrifice, and committed efforts during the evacuation operations. We also commend the historic and monumental efforts of all our service men and women who served honorably during the withdrawal period from Afghanistan.’

Biden received criticism for his treatment of the Gold Star families immediately following the 2021 attack in Kabul.

Following the attack, Biden met in Dover, Delaware, with the family members of the 13 killed, but several of them later spoke out, accusing the president of repeatedly bringing up his late son, Beau, and saying he routinely checked his watch during the dignified transfer of the deceased’s remains.

Cheyenne McCollum, one of the sisters of Marine Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, said she met with Biden alongside McCollum’s pregnant widow and that the president would not look at the family in the eye and spent the three-minute conversation talking about Beau, who served in Iraq with the U.S. Army and died in 2015 from brain cancer.

‘I was able to stand about 15 seconds of his fake, scripted apology and I had to walk away,’ Cheyenne told ‘Fox & Friends.’

Roice McCollum, another sister, refused to meet with the president but said he showed a ‘total disregard to the loss of our Marine.’

‘You can’t f— up as bad as he did and say you’re sorry,’ Roice told the Washington Post.’This did not need to happen, and every life is on his hands.’

Shana Chappell, the mother of Lance Cpl. Nikoui, wrote a scathing Facebook post that said Biden hijacked their conversation by talking about Beau and that he rolled his eyes when she challenged him.

‘You tried to interrupt me and give me your own sob story and I had to tell you, ‘This isn’t about you so don’t make it about you!’’ Chappell wrote. ‘You then said you just wanted me to know that you know how I feel and I let you know that you don’t know how I feel and you do not have the right to tell me you know how I feel! You then rolled your f— eyes in your head like you were annoyed with me and I let you know that the only reason I was talking to you was out of respect for my son.’

As Biden turned to walk away, the grieving mother said she let him know that ‘my son’s blood was on your hands and you threw your hand up behind you as you walked away from me like you were saying ‘ok whatever!’’

Mark Schmitz, the father of Marine Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, said Biden bristled and bluntly responded to his request that he learn the individual stories of the 13 fallen.

‘Initially, I wasn’t going to meet with him,’ Schmitz said. ‘But then I felt I owed it to my son to at least have some words with him about how I felt – and it didn’t go well.’

Biden was also criticized after he was photographed appearing to check his watch during the dignified transfer of remains of the fallen soldiers to American soil.

Darin Hoover, father of Utah Marine Darin Taylor Hoover Jr., said the president looked down at his watch not once but several times as the caskets were being offloaded.

‘That didn’t happen just once. It happened on every single one that came out of that airplane. It happened on every single one of them. They would release the salute, and he would look down at his watch on every last one, all 13, he looked down at his watch,’ Hoover said on Fox News’ ‘Hannity’ in 2021.

‘As a father, seeing that and the disrespect and hearing from his former leaders, one of [Taylor’s] master sergeants said … that this was avoidable – that they left them over there. They had them over there and let them down, and we can’t have that,’ he said. ‘It can’t happen ever again.’

The controversy at the time also resurfaced Biden’s reported past treatment of Gold Star families that predated the Afghanistan withdrawal. 

For instance, Mike Iubelt, the father of the fallen Army Pfc. Tyler Iubelt, told the Washington Examiner in October 2019 that he had a ‘horrible experience’ meeting the now-president in 2016 after his son’s death in Afghanistan a few days earlier. Iubelt said he left their conversation ‘feeling worse’ than before. 

‘He told my daughter-in-law … that she was too pretty for this to happen to her,’ Iubelt recalled. ‘It’s probably a good thing that he was surrounded by Secret Service, probably for both of us, because I’d probably be locked up in jail right now.’

Meanwhile, Sgt. Tyler Vargas-Andrews, a Marine who was severely injured during the Afghanistan withdrawal, recently recalled an awkward encounter he had with Biden after he arrived at a hospital for treatment in the United States.

Describing his recovery at Walter Reed National Military Medical Center, Vargas-Andrews, who lost an arm and leg as a result of the suicide bombing that took place outside the Abbey Gate at Kabul’s airport, said he was greeted by a number of U.S. military officials who were looking to participate in ‘photo ops’ with him – including the president.

Vargas-Andrews said Biden showed up four hours late and tried to shake his hand despite him being immobile.

‘He says, ‘Oh,’ and kind of stands up and then goes over to reach for my fingers … and just like grabs my fingers. Doesn’t greet me or anything, just grabbed my fingers. I was like, ‘OK, that’s weird.”

Vargas-Andrews said the Bidens ‘almost immediately starts talking about how their son served in the military. [He] doesn’t say anything about what happened, just starts talking about how their son served in the military.’

When reached for comment Tuesday, a White House told Fox News Digital that the president and first lady ‘will always honor the sacrifices of the 13 servicemembers who were killed in that attack.’

‘We mourn with them, we remember their loved ones, and we will continue to support these Gold Star families,’ the official said. ‘We are enormously proud of the men and women of our military, our diplomats and the intel community who conducted that withdrawal – they performed bravely and helped evacuate more than 120,000 people in one of the largest airlifts in history.’

‘But more broadly, the President made the tough decision to end the 20-year war in Afghanistan because he was not going to send another generation of troops to fight and die in a conflict that had no end in sight,’ the official added.

Fox News’ Kyle Morris and Elizabeth Elkind contributed to this report.

Jessica Chasmar is a digital writer on the politics team for Fox News and Fox Business. Story tips can be sent to Jessica.Chasmar@fox.com.

This post appeared first on FOX NEWS
You Might Also Like
  • Fox News Power Rankings: The 2024 GOP presidential frontrunner, challengers and second place candidates
  • Supreme Court to hear arguments in Trump presidential immunity case
  • Israeli leaders condemn expected US sanctions, Netanyahu vows to fight it with all his might
  • Antisemitic incidents across Europe, Canada hit record levels 5 months after Hamas massacre of Israelis
Share
0
FacebookTwitterPinterestWhatsapp

previous post
Biden admin making moves at border amid looming migrant traffic shifts, increases
next post
Campbell Soup buying makers of Rao’s pasta sauce for $2.7 billion

You may also like

Erin Brockovich visits East Palestine after toxic train derailment: ‘All...

February 25, 2023

Longtime Wisconsin Sec. of State, ‘Fighting Bob’ relative Doug La...

March 18, 2023

Insiders reveal how Biden, Trump are prepping for the 1st...

June 20, 2024

New Hampshire considering ‘mental health’ days for K-12 students

February 8, 2023

Ballot problems in Pennsylvania’s Luzerne County examined

March 29, 2023

CCP-tied EV company backed by Dems buys up Michigan land...

August 2, 2023

Sen. Schmitt sounds alarm over Eventbrite’s ‘liberal-progressive agenda’ after pulling...

October 28, 2023

Haley says US will have ‘female president’ — either herself...

February 24, 2024

Biden’s key immigration policy allowing hundreds of thousands of migrants...

August 21, 2023

Biden lawsuit ‘subverting states rights’ to regulate abortion heads to...

April 14, 2024

    Stay updated with the latest news, exclusive offers, and special promotions. Sign up now and be the first to know! As a member, you'll receive curated content, insider tips, and invitations to exclusive events. Don't miss out on being part of something special.


    By opting in you agree to receive emails from us and our affiliates. Your information is secure and your privacy is protected.

    Recent Posts

    • The V Reversal is Impressive, but is it Enough?

      May 9, 2025
    • Krispy Kreme stock plunges after doughnut chain pauses McDonald’s rollout, pulls outlook

      May 8, 2025
    • Don’t Buy Robinhood Stock… Until You See This Chart Setup

      May 8, 2025
    • UnitedHealthcare sued by shareholders over reaction to CEO’s killing

      May 8, 2025
    • The Unpredictable Stock Market: How to Make Sense of It

      May 8, 2025

    Popular Posts

    • 1

      Trump-era China sanctions ended by Biden may be...

      June 27, 2024 2,633 views
    • 2

      Walz’s honeymoon with China gets fresh scrutiny as...

      August 9, 2024 2,339 views
    • 3

      Biden appointee played key role in recruiting Chinese...

      June 25, 2024 2,321 views
    • 4

      Shein’s global ambitions leaves some cybersecurity experts fearful...

      July 10, 2024 2,303 views
    • 5

      Harris VP pick spent years promoting research facility...

      August 29, 2024 2,186 views

    Categories

    • Economy (7,009)
    • Editor's Pick (2,066)
    • Investing (538)
    • Stock (2,531)

    Popular Posts

    • 1

      Trump-era China sanctions ended by Biden may be revived under new House GOP bill

      June 27, 2024
    • 2

      Walz’s honeymoon with China gets fresh scrutiny as Harris camp blasts ‘lying’ critics

      August 9, 2024
    • 3

      Biden appointee played key role in recruiting Chinese businesses to Delaware: ‘Longtime friends’

      June 25, 2024
    • 4

      Shein’s global ambitions leaves some cybersecurity experts fearful of Chinese spy threats

      July 10, 2024
    • 5

      Harris VP pick spent years promoting research facility that collaborated with ‘Chinese military company’

      August 29, 2024

    Latest News

    • The V Reversal is Impressive, but is it Enough?

      May 9, 2025
    • Krispy Kreme stock plunges after doughnut chain pauses McDonald’s rollout,...

      May 8, 2025
    • Don’t Buy Robinhood Stock… Until You See This Chart Setup

      May 8, 2025

    Categories

    • Economy (7,009)
    • Editor's Pick (2,066)
    • Investing (538)
    • Stock (2,531)

    Disclaimer: RoundTableThoughts.com, its managers, its employees, and assigns (collectively “The Company”) do not make any guarantee or warranty about what is advertised above. Information provided by this website is for research purposes only and should not be considered as personalized financial advice. The Company is not affiliated with, nor does it receive compensation from, any specific security. The Company is not registered or licensed by any governing body in any jurisdiction to give investing advice or provide investment recommendation. Any investments recommended here should be taken into consideration only after consulting with your investment advisor and after reviewing the prospectus or financial statements of the company.

    Copyright © 2024 RoundTableThoughts.com. All Rights Reserved.

    Round Table Thoughts
    • Investing
    • Stock
    Round Table Thoughts
    • Economy
    • Editor’s Pick

    Read alsox

    Gallagher accuses Biden admin of being...

    January 26, 2023

    Conservatives praise McCarthy for grilling reporter...

    September 15, 2023

    Trump turns conviction into cash, spotlights...

    June 1, 2024
    Sign In

    Keep me signed in until I sign out

    Forgot your password?

    Password Recovery

    A new password will be emailed to you.

    Have received a new password? Login here