US President Joe Biden has been facing severe backlash from the grieving families of US Marines killed in the Kabul bombing. The families allege that they were kept waiting for hours while the President took a nap on Air Force One.
On 26 August, 13 American soldiers and more than 170 Afghans were killed in a devastating attack at Kabul’s Abbey Gate during the chaotic final days of the American pullout from Afghanistan.
The families were waiting for the “dignified transfer” ceremony at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where President Biden and First Lady Jill Biden were expected to receive the caskets of the fallen soldiers. However, relatives allege that they were forced to wait for an additional three hours before the bodies of their loved ones were returned.
They also claim that during the whole time, President Biden was asleep on the plane instead of greeting them as per the New York Post.
Roice McCollum, whose brother Rylee was killed in the bombing, said that Biden’s decision to nap was an insult to the memory of their fallen family members and that a military officer informed her of the President’s rest.
“Made us wait an extra three hours to receive the bodies of our dead family members because he couldn’t pull it together,” McCollum told the Daily Mail.
This account was confirmed by other families, including Darin Hoover, the father of staff sergeant Taylor Hoover, and Christy Shamblin, the mother-in-law of Marine sergeant Nicole Gee. Both soldiers were among those killed in the Kabul attack.
Hoover expressed his frustration, saying, “We sat in that office for what seemed like an eternity waiting on the doddering old fool.”
The widely criticised US withdrawal from Afghanistan, which marked a low point in Biden’s presidency, had already sparked anger among military families, particularly after footage emerged showing the President checking his watch during the dignified transfer ceremony at Dover.
Despite the backlash, White House allies and a spokesperson have denied the claims, insisting that the reports of Biden’s nap were untrue and never happened.
“That claim is untrue. As President Biden said on the 4th anniversary of the tragic attack on Abbey Gate and in the letters he wrote to family members after meeting with them in Dover, ‘these 13 Americans — and the many more that were wounded — were patriots in the highest sense’ and ‘we owe them and their families a sacred debt we will never be able to fully repay, but will never cease working to fulfill,” a White House spokesman stated.
However, for the families of the fallen, the incident has added to their grief, leaving many feeling their loved ones’ sacrifice was not properly honoured.