President Biden again brought up the death of his son Beau while trying to comfort a grieving military family this week — this time the parents of one of three soldiers killed in a drone strike in Jordan last weekend.
The 81-year-old commander in chief mentioned his family’s tragedy in a call to Shawn Sanders and Oneida Oliver-Sanders, which was recorded by the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.
During the conversation Tuesday, Biden said that Army Spc. Kennedy Sanders, 24, will be posthumously promoted to sergeant.
“Oh wow, that’s the best news I’ve heard today, thank you so much,” Oliver-Sanders said as she and her husband began to cry. “You have no idea how much that means to us.”
“Oh, I tell you what, it means a lot to me,” Biden replied before adding: “My son spent a year in Iraq; that’s how I lost him.”
Army Spc. Kennedy Sanders poses for a selfie with her mother, Oneida Oliver-Sanders. AP
Beau Biden died of brain cancer in May 2015 at the age of 46, almost six full years after he returned from a seven-month deployment to Iraq. The president previously explained that he believed exposure to toxic fumes from the “burn pit” caused Beau’s fatal illness.
“The president expressed his respect and empathy for the families who are in so much pain, after loved ones made the ultimate sacrifice for our country,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates told The Post.
However, Biden has faced criticism in the past for likening his son’s non-combat death at Walter Reed National Army Medical Center to the story of service members who have died on foreign soil.
Last August, Cheryl Rex, mother of Marine Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola, who died in a suicide bombing on August 26, 2021 at Kabul international airport, recalled his interactions with the president.
President Biden with his son Beau, who died of brain cancer in May 2015. AFP via Getty Images
“His words to me were, ‘My wife, Jill, and I know how you feel. We lost our son too and brought him home in a flag-draped casket,’” Rex recounted at a forum held by Rep. Darrell Issa (R-Calif.).
“My heart started pounding and I started shaking, knowing their son died of cancer and they were able to be by his side.”
While in the White House, Biden has baffled observers with repeated claims that Beau “lost his life in Iraq” and that Iraq is “where my son died.”
WATCH: Shawn Sanders and Oneida Oliver-Sanders were in their living room Tuesday morning, less than 48 hours after learning that their 24-year-old daughter, Spc. Kennedy Ladon Sanders, was killed in a weekend drone strike on US service members in Jordan. Then President Joe… pic.twitter.com/gCzus6kgBC
— Atlanta Journal-Constitution (@ajc) January 30, 2024
However, the president had a moment of clarity in May when he told Gold Star families at Arlington National Cemetery that “our losses are not the same.”
“[Beau] not die on the battlefield. It was cancer that stole him from us a year after being deployed as a major in the US Army National Guard in Iraq,” Biden admitted — though he still misstated the timeline of Beau’s later life.
Spc. Kennedy Sanders, Spc. Breonna Moffett, 23, and Sgt. William Rivers, 46, was killed in a drone attack by an Iranian proxy group on Tower 22, a US outpost along Jordan’s border with Syria.
Three US soldiers were killed in a drone strike in Jordan over the weekend. via REUTERS President Biden has indicated that he has made a decision on how to respond to the drone strike. Getty Images
Biden is scheduled to attend the burial of all three soldiers at Dover Air Force Base in his home state of Delaware on Friday.
America’s response to the deadly attack is expected at any moment, with Biden telling reporters on Tuesday at the White House that he had already decided how to respond.
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Source: thtrangdai.edu.vn/en/
