Biden’s Meeting with Gold Star Families A Disaster, Woman Screams: “I Hope You Burn in Hell!”

President Biden made his way on Sunday around a quiet room at Dover Air Force Base, a chamber filled with couches and chairs, with dignitaries and grieving families huddling together as the president came to speak to them privately, one family at a time.

Mark Schmitz had told a military officer the night before that he wasn’t much interested in speaking to a president he did not vote for, one whose execution of the Afghan pullout he disdains — and one he now blames for the death of his 20-year-old son Jared.

But overnight, sleeping in a nondescript hotel nearby, Schmitz changed his mind. So on that dreary morning he and his ex-wife were approached by Biden after he’d talked to all the other families. But by his own account, Schmitz glared hard at the president, so Biden spent more time looking at his ex-wife, repeatedly invoking his own son, Beau, who died six years ago.

Schmitz did not want to hear about Beau, he wanted to talk about Jared. Eventually, the parents took out a photo to show to Biden. “I said, ‘Don’t you ever forget that name. Don’t you ever forget that face. Don’t you ever forget the names of the other 12,’ ” Schmitz said. “ ‘And take some time to learn their stories.’ ”

Biden did not seem to like that, Schmitz recalled, and he bristled, offering a blunt response: “I do know their stories.”

It was a remarkable moment of two men thrown together by history. One was a president of the United States who prides himself on connecting with just about anyone in a moment of grief, but now coming face-to-face with grief that he himself had a role in creating. The other was a proud Marine father from Missouri, awoken a few nights before at 2:40 a.m. by a military officer at his door with news that nearly made him faint.

In what may be a sign of the country’s deep divide, Schmitz was not the only family member who wrestled long and hard with whether he even wanted to meet with Biden and who did not hesitate to offer criticism of the commander in chief.

The family of Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, too, had mixed emotions when it came time to decide whether to talk with the president. McCollum’s sisters and father joined his widow, Jiennah McCollum, on the trip to Dover — but when it came time to meet Biden, only Jiennah went in.

Afterward, one of the sisters, Roice McCollum, said Jiennah felt the president’s words were scripted and shallow, a conversation that lasted only a couple minutes in “total disregard to the loss of our Marine — our brother, son, husband and father.”

The White House declined to comment on Biden’s conversations with the grieving families, saying those exchanges should remain private. But last week, after news of the deaths emerged, the president publicly recalled how he and his wife, Jill, lost Beau, who served in Iraq before being diagnosed with an aggressive cancer.

“We have some sense, like many of you do, what the families of these brave heroes are feeling today,” Biden said. “You get this feeling like you’re being sucked into a black hole in the middle of your chest. There’s no way out. My heart aches for you.”

Despite Schmitz’s disenchantment with Biden, one part of the encounter did strike him favorably. The president at one point pulled out the card he keeps in his breast pocket showing the number of American service members who have died in Iraq and Afghanistan.

It’s something Biden has talked about for years, but now the card had an addition that reflected the new toll that Biden was responsible for. “At the end of it, it had ‘Plus 13,’ ” Schmitz said. “I know it’s just a number, but it was a simple reflective thing that he looks at. I’ll give him kudos there.”

In recounting the meeting, Schmitz said he did not want to make it political. His own emotions at times appeared contradictory and changing. He didn’t want to meet with Biden, and then he did. He didn’t intend to shake his hand, and then he did. He agrees with Biden on the need to withdraw, but believes that he botched the way it should have been done.

President Joe Biden’s appearance at the dignified transfer of remains of the 13 soldiers slain in Afghanistan on Sunday was sharply criticized, according to accounts of the ceremony by family members.

One woman screamed at Biden across the airport tarmac, “I hope you burn in hell! That was my brother,” according to Mark Schmitz, the father of 20-year-old Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, who was killed in the suicide bombing attacks outside the Kabul Airport, speaking to the Washington Post.

Schmitz said he attended the ceremony with his ex-wife, and he glared as he said the president spent more time looking at his ex-wife while he spoke about his son Beau Biden, who died from cancer after leaving the military.

“I said, ‘Don’t you ever forget that name. Don’t you ever forget that face. Don’t you ever forget the names of the other 12,’ ” Schmitz said to the Post. “‘And take some time to learn their stories.’”

Biden bristled at the comment from Schmitz. He said, “I do know their stories.”

Schmitz is one of many family members who spoke out about their visit with Biden at the Dover Air Force base.