‘He is responsible for the murder of my son,’ Kelly Barnett said of President Biden
The Gold Star parents of a Marine killed in President Biden’s botched 2021 Afghanistan withdrawal told Fox News on the day of the Iowa caucuses Monday that former President Trump is the “man for the job,” while blaming the incumbent for their son’s death.
Darin Hoover Sr. and Kelly Barnett – the parents of fallen Staff Sgt. Darin “Taylor” Hoover Jr. – told “The Story” the Biden administration gave them “incomplete” and flawed reports in the aftermath of the August 2021 withdrawal.
A suicide bombing attributed to the ISIS-Khorosan group at Hamid Karzai International Airport’s Abbey Gate was found to be the cause of death for Sgt. Hoover and 12 other servicemembers.
Darin Hoover Sr. also previously told Fox News he was incensed witnessing Biden repeatedly check his watch as his son’s body was later unloaded during his dignified transfer at Dover Air Force Base, Del.
In 2022 public comments, Barnett said her family was treated with “total disrepect” and called Biden, former Joint Chiefs Chairman Gen. Mark Milley and Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin “incompetent cowards; evil.”
Barnett expounded upon those thoughts on Fox News, saying her son told her soon after arriving in Kabul that he felt the “upper command” wasn’t showing the proper care for the troops and that it was “complete chaos.”
“The communication was abysmal at best,”.the elder Hoover added, saying the reports they received from the government didn’t match what people on the ground in Afghanistan were communicating back home.
Anchor Martha MacCallum played for the parents a clip of Biden in the immediate aftermath of the withdrawal claiming “extraordinary success” and offering praise for the military.
“Well, our military is excellent. What goes through my mind is that he’s a coward. He is responsible for the murder of my son. That’s that’s what goes through my mind,” Barnett said.
Barnett said that statement by Biden in itself is enough to call for him to resign the presidency and allow Trump back into the White House.
MacCallum further asked Hoover Sr. about his reported plan to speak out in favor of Trump’s candidacy from now through election day.
“Elections have consequences, [and] in order for us to get the country back to the way it should be and needs to be, I think the clear winner should and will be President Trump,” Hoover Sr. said.
“Trump is the man for the job,” added Barnett, who also called the Republican front-runner an honest man who cares about the country and all Americans.
“I looked that man (Trump) in the face several times; spoke to him. He cares about me – he cares about you… more importantly to me he cares about my son.”
“It happened on every single [fallen servicemember’s coffin] that came out of that airplane… They would release the salute, and [Biden] would look down at his watch.”
“On every last one, all 13, he looked down at his watch,” Hoover Sr. said, calling the president’s behavior disrespectful and underlining that he and his family later declined an invitation to meet with Biden afterward.
On “The Story,” Barnett said she believes that if elected, Trump will never allow a situation like the Kabul withdrawal to happen again.
Sgt. Hoover’s parents also spoke about how their son, though seriously wounded, continued to hand out ammunition to his fellow U.S. servicemembers as chaos ensued at the Kabul airport.
