We can all agree that losing a son or daughter is a tragedy that no decent person wishes on a parent.
That said, when that parent is the president of the most powerful nation on earth, and he deals with tragedies of much greater magnitude on a regular basis, he has to keep his own loss in perspective, rather than regularly, often outrageously, comparing the burdens of others to his own.
But such is the problematic case of President Joe Biden and his late son, Beau. The oldest son of the current president died in 2015, at the age of 46, after a battle with brain cancer. This is, indeed, a heartbreaking thing for anyone to endure.
As of early Wednesday morning, hundreds of Israelis — men, women and children — were known to have been murdered amid the carnage caused by the terrorist group Hamas and its massive attack Saturday on the Jewish state. A CNN report, citing the Israeli Embassy in the U.S., put the number at more than 1,000. At least 14 of the dead were Americans.
Meanwhile, between 100 and 150 hostages are believed to be held in Gaza by the terrorist group — some of them American citizens, according to The Associated Press.
Israel is preparing a massive retaliation upon the Hamas-controlled Gaza Strip and there are worries this could escalate into a wider war, particularly since Israeli Defense Minister Yoav Gallant announced he had “released all restraints” on Israel Defense Forces.
The Israeli cabinet on Sunday issued the country’s first declaration of war in more than 50 years.
Now was not the time to talk about the death of Beau Biden. So, in true Joe Biden fashion, the president essentially did just that.
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In remarks on the terrorist attacks given Tuesday, Biden said that “Americans across the country are praying for all those families that have been ripped apart” and that “a lot of us know how it feels.
“It leaves a black hole in your chest when you lose family, feeling like you’re being sucked in,” Biden said. “The anger, the pain, the sense of hopelessness.”
“This is what they mean by a ‘human tragedy’ — an atrocity on an appalling scale.”
Biden compares himself losing son Beau to Israelis whose family members were slaughtered by Hamas: “A lot of us know how it feels. It leaves a black hole in your chest when you lose family, feeling like you’re being sucked in. The anger…pain…sense of hopelessness…tragedy” pic.twitter.com/BSnYOyUOM1
— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 10, 2023
No, Biden does not directly speak to the death of Beau Biden in the clip. And to be fair, his oldest son wasn’t the only immediate family member Biden has lost. In 1972, his first wife and 13-month-old daughter, Amy, were killed in a car accident (one Biden unfairly, and unforgivably, blamed on the other driver for decades).
But anyone with the slightest familiarity with Joe Biden knew precisely what he was talking about:
Bringing up Beau at almost every tragedy needs to stop.
— Steven Y (@SYIndependent) October 10, 2023
How many times is he going to bring that up when someone dies? It’s his go to and it’s beyond disingenuous now.
— barn-182 (@barn182) October 10, 2023
And it’s not just tacitly comparing the death of his son — under hospital care, surrounded by his family — to the shocking slaughter, rape, torture and kidnapping of Israelis.
As social media users pointed out: It always has to be about Joe. Remember the wildfires in Maui? And how he tried to compare the loss felt by the people there to the loss he felt after a small house fire?
Biden compared a small kitchen fire he once had in his home, to thousands of Maui residents losing their entire homes, cars, and possessions. pic.twitter.com/zT2peXLJPo
— Libs of TikTok (@libsoftiktok) August 22, 2023
First Biden checked his watch at a funeral.
Then he tried to compare people in Maui losing everything to a kitchen fire where he almost lost a car.
Now he compares losing his son Beau to cancer to those who were killed by militants in cold blood.
— Calvin (@RealCalvinX) October 10, 2023
But Beau is the touchstone he keeps returning to. After U.S. troops died in the bombing of Kabul airport during the botched withdrawal from Afghanistan, multiple reports said that, when Biden met with families, he also brought up the loss of his son. They weren’t quite sympathetic — but then, neither was he.
Now, two years later, we’re facing the most serious conflict in Israel since the 1973 Yom Kippur War. Thousands lay dead. Many are calling it Israel’s 9/11.
But for Joe Biden, it’s still all about Beau. What a surprise.
This article appeared originally on The Western Journal.
