President Biden visited Baltimore, Maryland, to speak about the Francis Scott Key Bridge disaster. While there, he announced an aid package to help the city demolish the destroyed bridge and build a new one, also saying the he plans on holding those who destroyed the bridge financially responsible. While most supported those comments, his attempt to bring Beau Biden into the tragedy garnered massive backlash online.
As background, Beau Biden tragically died of brain cancer in May of 2015. While that passing was tragic, many take issue with President Joe Biden’s attempts to garner sympathy and build rapport with crowds by trying to connect his son’s death to unrelated, public tragedies. Such was the case, some conservative commentators on X thought, with his remarks at the Francis Scott Key Bridge.
While there, Biden said, addressing the grieving families who lost husbands and fathers in the incident, “All right. I was just briefed by the United — Uni- — Unified Command about the ongoing impact of this tragic collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge last Tuesday. The damage is devastating, and our hearts are still breaking. Eight — eight construction workers went into the water when the bridge fell. Six lost their lives. Most were immigrants, but all were Marylanders — hard-working, strong, and selfless. After pulling a night shift fixing potholes, they were on a break when the ship struck. Just seconds before, one of the men named Carlos, who was only 24, left a message for his girlfriend. Here’s what it said: ‘We just poured cement, and we’re waiting for it to dry,’ he said.”
Continuing, Biden alluded to Beau’s passing and said, “Well, to all the families and loved ones who are grieving: I’ve come here to grieve with you. We all are. It’s not the same, but I know a little bit about what it’s like to lose a piece of your soul — to get that phone call in the middle of the night to say family members are gone. I’ve been there. It’s feeling like having a black hole in your chest, like you’re being sucked in, unable to breath. The anger, the pain, the depth of the loss is so profound.”
He then said, “And we know it’s hard to believe, and you’re probably not going to believe me, but I can tell you now from personal experience: The day is going to come when the memory of your loved one, as you walk by that park or the church or something that you shared together, it’s going to bring a smile to your lips before it brings a tear to your eye.”
Though far less blatant than some of the other instances in which Biden has brought up Beau, some online still took issue with what Biden said and how he said it. Particularly, those comments drew rebukes from conservatives on X who thought Biden’s remarks were yet another example of him trying to connect himself to a tragedy to win sympathy.
Newsbusters’ Curtis Houck, for example, wrote, “Annnnd there it is — Biden compares himself losing son Beau to the families of the six construction workers who died when the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapsed.” Similarly, the Federalist’s Ben Domenech wrote, “Beau was almost a decade older than every man who died on that bridge. This is the lowest form of grief peddling. Joe Biden is just awful.” Even more harshly, Fox News’ Joe Concha wrote, “Just an awful, awful human being who does this repeatedly.”
Somewhat agreeing, somewhat pushing back, one commenter on Domenech’s post wrote, “I don’t think it matters how old his son was when he died because a loss of a child is a tragedy. But that said, his Beau plug every time he goes to a tragedy site diminishes a tragedy and makes it about him. This is just tasteless, age notwithstanding.”
Stephen Miller, commenting on another part of the speech in which Biden connected himself to Baltimore through his father, joked, “The Forrest Gump of presidents. Just happens to be magically and historically attached to whatever current thing he happens to be doing at the time.”
Watch Biden here:
Featured image credit: screengrab from the embedded video
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