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‘He doesn’t care’: Backlash builds when Biden camp mum on attending ceremony for U.S. troops killed in Jordan

January 30, 2024 | | Print Article

A hedged answer on President Joe Biden’s intent to honor fallen service members under his command reignited rage over his apparent priorities.

Saturday, a drone strike in Jordan tragically took the lives of U.S. Army reservists Sgt. William Rivers, 46; Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, 24; and Spc. Brianna Moffatt, 23. As the administration weighed its response over the Iranian-backed assault that left dozens more injured, a spokesman sowed doubt over the commander-in-chief’s attendance at the dignified transfer of the service members remains.

During Monday’s White House press briefing, National Security Council Coordinator for Strategic Communication John Kirby was tagged to help the oft-floundering press secretary and left both the press and the public wanting on Biden’s plans.

“John, do you expect the president will go to Dover for the dignified transfer when these Americans are returned to the United States?” prompted a reporter earning the non-answer from Kirby, “I don’t have anything on his schedule to speak to.”

While Biden’s plans remained indefinite, few were ready to hold their breaths after the president’s failure to show up to the disaster in East Palestine, Ohio and the abysmal photo-op that was his trip to Lahaina, Hawaii.

Social media users were readily reminded of the president’s behavior when he had traveled to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware to oversee the dignified transfer of the 13 service members killed at the Abbey Gate of the Hamid Karzai International Airport during the disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.

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“He doesn’t care,” asserted many as one person jabbed, “Biden is Pathetic. I’m sure he won’t be there [because] it will interfere with his nap time.”

Others called out his watch-checking display of disrespect toward Gold Star families.

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The PR disaster had not been readily forgotten as the president has overseen an ever-deteriorating stability on the world stage, and Mark Schmitz, father to fallen U.S. Marine Lance Cpl. Jared M. Schmitz, 20, had spoken to that when he joined the House Foreign Affairs Committee to mark the second anniversary of his son’s death in August.

While miming Biden’s actions on the tarmac, Schmitz said before congressmen and fellow Gold Star families, “all I wanted to do was shout, ‘It’s two-f*cking-thirty, a**hole.’ But out of respect to the other grieving families, I bit my tongue once again.”

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“As you can probably tell by now, Im done biting my tongue,” he added. “You sir, stole their lives, their futures, their dreams — and have ripped apart thirteen families. You cannot even man up and admit that. You, sir, gave us all the title ‘Gold Star Family.’ You, sir, discredit honor and integrity.”

Further callouts against the president compared his response in 2021 to his reaction to the death of George Floyd while in police custody. Free speech advocate and J6er Philip Anderson wrote, “Joe Biden just got 3 black members of the military killed. Their black lives mattered so much to Joe Biden that he won’t even bother to show up to receive their bodies from what I’m hearing. My condolences to their families. We will make it right by voting Biden out of office.”

Meanwhile, White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre had dug her own hole of perceived disrespect as she was raked over the coals for referring to the fallen as “three folks who are military folks, who are brave, who are always fighting, who are fighting on behalf of, uh, this administration, of the American people, obviously more so, more importantly.”

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Kevin Haggerty
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