Mother of Marine killed in Kabul suicide blast says she started 'shaking' from rage when 'heartless'

Gold Star mother Cheryl Rex revealed on Monday President Biden told her his own son Beau had been brought home in a flag-draped coffin too just after receiving the gut-wrenching news her son had died in the Kabul attack. 

‘When [Biden] approached me, his words to me were, ‘My wife, Jill & I, know how you feel. We lost our son as well and brought him home in a flag draped coffin,” Rex said during a Gold Star family field hearing organized by California Republican Rep. Darrel Issa. 

‘My heart started beating faster and I started shaking, knowing that their son died from cancer and they were able to be by his side.’ 

‘How could someone be so heartless to say he knew how I felt a little over 24 hours after learning of my son’s death?’ she asked. 

Beau passed away from brain cancer at Walter Reed Medical Center in 2015. The president has been known to say his son died in Iraq. 

‘When [Biden] approached me, his words to me were, ‘My wife, Jill & I, know how you feel. We lost our son as well and brought him home in a flag draped coffin,” Rex said during a Gold Star family field hearing organized by California Republican Rep. Darrel Issa.

The congressional forum in Escondido, Calif., was the first time relatives of all 13 service members had been brought together to talk about the loss they suffered as a result of the withdrawal.  

Lance Cpl. Dylan Merola was 20 years old at the time of his death during the blast outside the Hamid Kharzai airport in Afghanistan, where he was working to evacuate Afghans.

Lance Corporal Dylan Merola, 20

Merola was a Marine from Rancho Cucamonga, California. 

‘After this encounter, I have never had any personal correspondence nor has my son been honored or his name spoken by this commander-in-chief,’ Rex went on. 

The gold star families of the 13 U.S. service members killed in Kabul, Afghanistan, participated in a public forum Tuesday in Escondido, California, organized by Rep. Darrell Issa. 

A suicide bomber detonated his deadly payload outside of the Abbey Gate at Kabul’s international airport on August 26, 2021, killing 13 American service members and at least 170 Afghans amid the chaos of the exit. The families are seeking accountability and closure from the Biden administration almost two years later.

Joe Biden’s son Beau died of brain cancer in 2015, an illness his father has attributed to exposure to military burn pits in Iraq. He died at age 46 at Walter Reed Medical Center in Bethesda, Md. – he did not come home from war in a flag-draped coffin. 

Biden has previously been criticized for appearing to look at his watch just seconds after a salute honoring the return of the 13 US service members killed in Kabul. 

He had made the unannounced trip to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware as the caskets of the 13 service members killed in the attack were brought back to the United States.

He stood in silence, his right hand to his chest, as a succession of flag draped transfer coffins were carried past him from a C-17 Globemaster plane – before looking down toward his wrist.

Another mother, Kelly Barnett, said between sobs that she’d been lied to by the Pentagon – first told her son had died on impact and later, by witnesses, told he had lived for a while after the explosion. 

Staff Sgt. Darin Taylor Hoover, 31, had concerns that ‘began the moment that he landed’ there for his final deployment. He saw ‘chaos, no communication, lack of leadership,’ Barnett said. 

President Biden appeared to check his watch during an event honoring the 13 service members killed in Afghanistan

The visibly angry and grief-stricken mother said her son had been told before his death to ‘clean up the airport’ because ‘we can’t leave it dirty for the Taliban.’ 

‘What kind of disrespect? What kind of hatred for our military? What kind of mess?’ she cried out. 

The families of the fallen were then ‘told lies, given incomplete reports, incorrect reports, total disrespect,’ according to the grief-stricken mother. 

‘I was told to my face, he died on impact. That’s not true. The only reason that I know this is because witnesses told me the truth,’ Barnett claimed. ‘I was lied to and basically told to shut up.’

‘He lived for a little while…he was giving out his ammo. He tied a tourniquet at around his leg. I don’t understand the reasoning of that lie. It makes no sense other than the fact that, did they really even do an investigation? Did they talk to witnesses? I don’t know.’ 

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