OPINION: This article may contain commentary which reflects the author's opinion.
A former speechwriter for President George W. Bush blasted Joe Biden for repeatedly bringing up the death of his son, Beau, in meetings at Dover Air Force Base last week with the Gold Star families who lost loved ones in a suicide bombing outside the Kabul airport in late August.
“Mr. Biden is not a Gold Star father and should stop playing one on TV,” wrote William McGurn in an op-ed for The Wall Street Journal.
He went on to explain that while Beau Biden was in the Navy and deployed to Iraq, he did so as a military lawyer, not a combatant. Also, Beau died from brain cancer; President Biden has said he believes the cancer was caused by his son’s exposure to burn pits while in-country.
McGurn also noted that Biden’s invoking of his late son as justification for removing U.S. military forces from Afghanistan was inappropriate as well because again, Beau did was not killed in combat and never deployed to the Afghan theater.
“Meantime, the president refuses to acknowledge any hint of failure, much less his own culpability” for the 13 deaths — 11 Marines, two U.S. Army soldiers, and a Navy corpsman — caused by an ISIS-K suicide bomber just days before the final pullout.
“He has variously denied making any mistakes, claimed he anticipated the entire mess, and wherever possible blamed Donald Trump,” wrote McGurn. “He also dodges the hard question by constantly insisting the issue in contention is his decision to leave rather than the deadly hash he’s made of it.
“And he bizarrely keeps invoking his son, the late Maj. Beau Biden, a Delaware Army National Guard lawyer who served honorably in Baghdad and whose early death from brain cancer was tragic but has nothing to do with Afghanistan, much less the 11 Marines, Navy corpsman and Army soldier[s] killed in Thursday’s suicide bombing,” McGurn added.
“Mr. Biden is not a Gold Star father and should stop playing one on TV.”
Meanwhile, The New York Times changed an online headline to a story that noted “not everyone wants to hear about” Biden’s late son.
The original headline, “Biden, Still Grieving His Son, Finds That Not Everyone Wants to Hear About It,” was changed within a few hours to, “In Invoking Beau, Biden Broaches a Loss That’s Guided His Presidency,” after the Times was roasted online by social media users.
“OMG what is wrong with the New York Times,” one person wrote. “They are truly f—ing terrible. There is no right way for people to manage their grief.”
OMG what is wrong with the New York Times. They are truly fucking terrible. There is no right way for people to manage their grief. https://t.co/JRklOfG1YM
— Larissa Merriman (@lifewithlarissa) September 4, 2021
“That paper is broken. Fire everyone,” another user added.
That paper is broken. Fire everyone. https://t.co/6G5i5VC5Gq
— Tom Watson (@tomwatson) September 4, 2021
For its story, the Times quoted Mark Schmitz, the father of Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, 20, one of the Marines who died in the attack. Schmitz said he had talked with Biden at Dover AFB during last week’s dignified transfer of the remains of all 13 personnel, and found his references to his late son inappropriate.
Specifically, Schmitz said that Biden’s claim his son’s loss was “too much” to bear was heartfelt but ill-timed.
“I respect anybody that lost somebody, but it wasn’t an appropriate time,” he told the Times.
Despite the Times’ headline change, some on social media still were not satisfied.
“I know there is an abundance of nonsense the NYT has been churning out recently, but this is horrifying and I am disgusted by what they have written. Shame on them,” one wrote.
I know there is an abundance of nonsense the NYT has been churning out recently, but this is horrifying and I am disgusted by what they have written. Shame on them: https://t.co/nXl26cQqIx
— Pavithra Suryanarayan (@Pavithra_Suri) September 5, 2021
