Roice McCollum, one of the late corporal’s sisters, told the Washington Post on Sunday that she, her sister and her father all refused to meet with Biden because they held him responsible for their fallen Marine’s death.
Jiennah’s meeting with Biden did not go over well, though, with Roice saying the pregnant widow was frustrated after briefly speaking with the president.
Roice said the family felt the president’s conversation with Jiennah was hollow and lacking meaning, and said Biden appeared to show a “total disregard to the loss of our Marine.”
The meeting was so brief that it was “in total disregard to the loss of our Marine,” said McCollum’s sister Roice.
Only Jiennah, who is expecting the couple’s child next month, stayed. But she left disappointed, Roice said. The president brought up his son, Beau, according to her account, describing his son’s military service and subsequent death from cancer. It struck the family as scripted and shallow, a conversation that lasted only a couple of minutes in “total disregard to the loss of our Marine,” Roice said.
“You can’t f— up as bad as he did and say you’re sorry,” Roice said of the president. “This did not need to happen, and every life is on his hands.”
The White House declined to comment on the private conversations Biden had with families.