OPINION | This article contains commentary that reflects the author's opinion.
20-year-old Marine Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum was among the 13 U.S. troops who died during Joe Biden’s botch withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan.
Now his sister, Cheyenne McCollum, is courageously speaking out despite a warning from the Office of Naval Intelligence to active duty and retired military personnel not to “disrespect” Biden.
McCollum met with Biden during the dignified transfer of her brother’s remains.
She said, “I wouldn’t necessarily say I stayed to meet him. I stayed to support Rylee’s wife because I didn’t want her to sit alone, and she wanted the chance to look him in the eye, so I sat beside her to do that as well.”
“I stayed, and when he came up to us about 15 seconds in I ended up having to walk away. It was so insincere, and he didn’t look us in the eye, he gave her a pat on the knee and said, ‘I know what you’re going through — I lost my son.’ Which, he didn’t lose his son serving,” she continued.
The interaction was about three minutes long.
Several family members have criticized Biden for making the situation about his own son who died of cancer six years ago at age 46.
Many of the 13 service members who died weeks ago in the line of duty were in their early or mid-twenties.
“He just said, ‘There’s nothing I can say,’ and would just go on to talking about his son. … I don’t even think he knows Rylee’s name, to be honest. … He didn’t know or say anything personal. It was very scripted,” she added.
“Everything felt fake, if I’m being honest.”
McCollum’s wife is pregnant with their first child.
The family has setup two GoFundMes to support his wife, Gigi, and their unborn child’s education. It has raised over $875,000 combined.
“He was so excited” about becoming a father. “He was gonna be such a good dad.”
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While it is hard to know what was going through the president’s mind during the dignified transfer, some in attendance were clearly upset with his cold behavior.
If the Biden administration properly accounted for the threat of the Islamic State group’s Afghanistan affiliate while withdrawing troops, this tragedy could have been prevented.
The McCollum family is just one of the 13 families that lost a service member, so it is reasonable for them to be upset with the president.
For those on the left who would like to create a false equivalency to the lives lost to coronavirus, they must be reminded that this was the result of policy, not a pandemic.
These service members sacrificed their lives to protect freedom and democracy overseas, only for their families to be passively glanced over by their commander in chief.
