President Joe Biden failed to make any mention of the 13 soldiers who were killed during his botched exit from Afghanistan during his State of the Union speech.
Biden’s only mention of Afghanistan or the troops during his speech was his criticism of the “burn pits” outside military bases, which he asserted “put them in a flag-draped coffin.”
His mention of a coffin sparked a vocal reaction from Rep. Lauren Boebert, who shouted, “You put them there! Thirteen of them.”
Biden ignored her outburst, instead referring to his own son, Beau Biden, who died of brain cancer.
“I don’t know for sure if the burn pit that he lived near, that his hooch was near, in Iraq and earlier than that in Kosovo, is the cause of his brain cancer, the disease of so many other troops, but I am committed to find out everything we can,” Biden said.
The president also ignored any mention in his speech of the end of the 20-year war in Afghanistan, the longest war in American history.
Instead, Biden spoke to Danielle Robinson, a military widow he invited as a guest of the First Lady, who was also suffering the loss of her husband to cancer after he was stationed next to burn pits in Kosovo and Iraq.
House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy voiced support on social media for the 13 soldiers lost in Afghanistan and their families after Biden finished his speech.
“To the 13 American families who lost loved ones in Afghanistan in August, you deserved to be recognized by the President tonight,” he wrote. “Americans remember your sacrifice, and we are forever indebted to you.”
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