Shana Chappell, the mother of one of the 13 service members killed at Kabul Airport during the chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, used social media to rail against President Joe Biden for his failure to mention the last troops killed during our longest war in his State of the Union speech earlier in the week.
In a post to Instagram, Chappell implored Biden to “SAY OUR KIDS NAMES” and berated Biden for checking his watch during the dignified transfer ceremony last year.
Chappell was one of several Gold Star parents who excoriated Biden for his behavior after they lost their children last year, and not just for checking his watch. (The Western Journal documented the extent of these complaints and has continued to hold the Biden administration’s feet to the fire in how they handled the loved ones of those who lost relatives in the Kabul Airport bombing. You can help us keep them honest by subscribing.)
In the Instagram message, posted by Julio Rosas of Townhall.com, Chappell — mother of Marine Lance Cpl. Kareem Nikoui — asked Biden, “did you already forget that you put 13 kids in flagged draped [sic] coffins you piece of s***???”
Biden mentioned little about Afghanistan in his State of the Union and nothing about the 13 dead or the withdrawal from Kabul — something which drew a yell from GOP Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado.
She then asked if he remembered the dignified transfer ceremony — a photo of which accompanied the message.
“I had to watch my son be taken off a plane while my heart felt like it was being ripped from my chest and you stood there checking your watch over and over like being there was taking up [too] much of your precious time!” she wrote.
Biden appears to check his watch during the dignified transfer ceremony at Dover Air Force Base. pic.twitter.com/oMsBefnmfS
— Benny (@bennyjohnson) August 29, 2021
“You are why my son is dead! You are why all 13 are dead!” she continued.
“Their blood is on your hands and you know it, that’s why you refuse to say their names!”
She went on to note that she’d suggest “a face to face meeting but u and i already did and you showed me in person you could care less what happened to my son!”
In a Facebook post shortly after the dignified transfer ceremony, Chappell said Biden “tried to interrupt” her with his own “sob story.”
At the time, she said she “had to tell [Biden] ‘that this isn’t about you so don’t make it about you!!!’”
WARNING: The following tweets contain graphic language that some readers will find offensive.
Shana Chappell, the mother of LCpl. Kareem Nikoui, posted a statement blasting Biden for not mentioning the 13 service members killed during the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan in last night’s #SOTU : “Their blood is on your hands and you know it…” pic.twitter.com/8e9DRuD4cU
— Julio Rosas (@Julio_Rosas11) March 2, 2022
Her account backed up that of other family members who claimed Biden tried to commiserate with the family members of the Kabul bombing victims by bringing up his son, Beau Biden, who served in the military and later died, but wasn’t killed in action.
Cheyenne McCollum, the sister of fallen Marine Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, told Newsmax in September that Biden turned their meeting into a discussion about Beau.
“I wouldn’t necessarily say I stayed to meet him. I stayed to support Rylee’s wife because I didn’t want her to sit alone, and she wanted the chance to look him in the eye, so I sat beside her to do that as well,” she said.
“I stayed, and when he came up to us about 15 seconds in I ended up having to walk away. It was so insincere, and he didn’t look us in the eye, he gave her a pat on the knee and said, ‘I know what you’re going through — I lost my son.’ Which, he didn’t lose his son serving.”
Biden did this again during his State of the Union on Tuesday, speculating that Beau Biden’s cancer was caused by living near burn pits that he said were responsible for unexplained illnesses and cancers suffered by those who served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
He didn’t, however, mention the families who lost loved ones in the chaotic retreat from Kabul — something which angered many, Chappell included.
As Boebert yelled when Biden talked about “flag-draped coffins” during the State of the Union, he put soldiers in “13 of them.”
The president may have forgotten about them. He probably wants America to forget about them, too. Their families, however, aren’t going to stand for their erasure — and neither will America.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
