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.
“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.”