President Joe Biden appeared to be watching over the grieving family of a Marine killed in the failed U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan so he could take a nap, the Daily Mail reported Saturday.
Critics blasted Biden for repeatedly checking his watch as he dignified the remains of a fallen Marine, but a family member of one of the Marines told the Daily Mail that was the worst part. He said it was not.
Lois McCollum, sister of fallen Marine Riley McCollum, said, “[Biden]made us wait an extra three hours to get the bodies of our dead family members. Because it wasn’t there,” he told the Daily Mail. reported.
While McCollum and other family members waited for the president, a military officer told them that the president was taking a nap on the plane, the newspaper reported.
“We sat in that office for what seemed like an eternity, waiting for the aloof old fool,” said Darrin Huber, Sergeant Johnson’s father. Taylor Hoover told the Daily Mail.
A White House press secretary told the Daily Mail: “That allegation is not true.”
The dignified transfer of the remains comes after a suicide bomber killed 13 U.S. military personnel in front of the monastery gates of Hamid Karzai International Airport in Kabul, Afghanistan, in 2021. The attack came amid a chaotic withdrawal of U.S. forces in Afghanistan. Recent reports have revealed that Biden had little involvement. (Related: Exclusive: ‘There’s blood on their hands’: Abbey Gate survivor talks about facing Joe Biden)
Military families described Biden as a president who was “clearly not well or unfit for the position he was in.” His apparent ineptitude led many to ask who was really calling.
“If the president didn’t answer the phone and didn’t take anyone’s advice, then who really made the final decision to withdraw?” Darin Hoover asked, according to the Daily Mail.
Biden’s senior generals claim the withdrawal was his call, the paper said, but other evidence suggests otherwise.
According to the newspaper, Rep. Adam Smith, D-Wash., who was chairman of the House Armed Services Committee at the time of the withdrawal, claimed that he could not even get Biden to voice his opposition to the withdrawal over the phone.
Biden also allegedly forgot his own handwritten note opposing an expanded U.S. military presence in the region, the newspaper reported.
The Daily Mail revealed the shocking allegations just days after the Wall Street Journal’s shocking report that Biden’s top aides were increasingly taking responsibility for him.
Military, intelligence and media experts consider the withdrawal a failure on many fronts. Aside from the public relations nightmare that the footage of desperate Afghans clinging to the outside of departing jets was, the US also barred the entry of more than 65 known Afghan terrorists amid the chaotic aftermath. The Daily Mail, which is said to have given permission reported.
