After the funerals of Marines who lost their lives in Kabul, President Joe Biden met with the families of these fallen soldiers. The meetings occurred after they received their loved one’s remains at the Dove Air Force to share his condolences. However, the families perceived Biden as dismissive and ill-mannered during the meeting.

The family of Rylee McCollum, a young 20-year-old Marine who lost his life in the ISIS suicide attack outside the airport, shared that Biden never paid attention to them and other families. Jiennah, McCollum’s widow claimed that when she met Biden he continuously checked his watch and only talked about his son Beau. As a result, she decided to step into another room while Biden was speaking to the families.

McCollum and many other families claimed that their “interest was lost” as Biden proceeded to talk about Beau instead of sharing his condolences for them. Mark Schmitz, the father of a son who passed in Kabul claims, “I’m not trying to insult the president, but it just didn’t seem that appropriate to spend that much time on his own son. I think it was all him trying to. say he understands grief… But when you’re the one responsible for ultimately the way things went down, you kind of feel like that person should own it a little bit more.”

Many families took Biden’s persona negatively and expressed their anger: Shana Chappell, a mother of another fallen Marine, claimed, “Remember I am the one who stood 5 inches from your face and was letting you know I would never hug my son again, hear his laugh and then you tried to interrupt me and give me your own sob story and I had to tell you ‘that this isn’t about you so don’t make it about you!'”

Biden’s actions ultimately led to great controversy. Ryan Williams ’23 had his own take, saying, “Biden acted this way because he was able to connect to these families in a certain way. Yes, he talked about Beau even though these families needed someone to give them reassurance but at the end of the day Biden was in their shoes once before.”

The attack in Kabul had a great impact on many people and these families needed President Biden to uplift them. However, they read the president’s actions as insincere and insensitive. This has led people to question the sincerity of the President when it comes to military issues.