A Gold Star family recalled in 2019 their “horrible experience” with then-Vice President Joe Biden at Dover Air Force Base during the dignified transfer of their son’s remains in November 2016.
During the dignified transfer, Biden was pessimistic about the war and told the family he didn’t know why U.S. troops were in Afghanistan, where their son died fighting. Biden was also perceived by the family as “creepy” after he told the late service member’s wife she was “too pretty” to be a widow.
Charlotte Loquasto, mother to slain 20-year-old Army Pfc. Tyler Iubelt, asked Biden what could be done to stop another family from going through what they had lived through.
“Well, unfortunately, they’re a 14th-century country, they don’t want us there, they’re never going to change,” Biden said of Afghanistan, Loquasto recalled, according to The Washington Examiner.
The encounter “left a grieving family cold,” the Examiner noted.
“That statement was so impactful that, again, silence in the group, you just don’t know how to respond,” Loquasto said, adding, “He’s second in line [to the presidency], he could potentially be our leader any day, and he doesn’t even know why we’re there.”
Mike Iubelt, the fallen’s father, commented, “Why would they send our kids, our military, over to a situation to where there’s no out, there’s no end? There’s nothing good that’s going to come out of it, according to Joe Biden.”
Mr. Iubelt was particularly enraged with Biden over a comment the then-VP made to his daughter-in-law Shelby Iubelt.
“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.”
“It wasn’t the right time, but heck, I make mistakes all the time. It was not comforting, it was creepy,” Loquasto agreed.
The encounter was reportedly Biden’s first time at Dover Air Force Base for a dignified transfer as Vice President; notably, the event took place in November of 2016, the final months of the Obama/Biden administration.
According to the Examiner report, there was at least one other Gold Star family present who said they were appreciative of Biden.
The 2016 encounter resurfaced online in recent days in light of other Gold Star families coming forward to share their frustration with Biden. Numerous family members have said they felt POTUS disregarded them, spoke of his own grief and refused to listen to theirs, and appeared to check his watch while he attended the dignified transfer of 13 U.S. troops killed by ISIS terror attacks in Afghanistan.
Notably, on Monday, White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki refused to give an answer when asked directly about Biden appearing to check his watch during the transfer at Dover Air Force Base.
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