‘Shameful and embarrassing’: Biden slammed for LAUGHING at claim he was at fault for overdose deaths
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Republicans are slamming President Biden for a tone-deaf remarks at a House Democratic retreat where he laughed at Marjorie Taylor Greene’s claim that he was responsible for the fentanyl-related deaths of two young men.
Biden made the remarks Wednesday night in Baltimore, going after the firebrand Georgia for saying he ‘killed’ the sons of a mother who testified in the House this week about the fentanyl and the opioid epidemic.
Biden noted that the fentanyl came into the country ‘during the last administration,’ which is accurate – then chuckled. His comments came a day after distraught mother Rebecca Kiessling gave tearful testimony about the loss of her children and blasted border policies for contributing to the problem.
‘Yesterday, a mom who lost her two sons to fentanyl poisoning told her story. Today, Biden laughed about it,’ the Republican National Committee tweeted, blasting out the clip.
Republicans are blasting President Biden for laughing during a speech to Democrats about Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene blaming him for having ‘killed’ a mother’s two sons who died of fentanyl in 2020
Rep. Jim Banks (R-Ind.) retweeted the clip and called it ‘shameful and embarrassing.’
Tweeted Rep. Andrew Clyde (R-Ga.): ‘Joe Biden LAUGHED while talking about a mother who lost two of her sons to fentanyl. Disgusting. Disgraceful. Disqualifying. He should apologize immediately.’
Kiessling’s sons, Caleb and Kyler, ages 20 and 18, died of an accidental overdose of fentanyl. Their mom says they took the drug unknowingly and thought they were getting Percocet that turned out to be laced with the powerful narcotic.
Greene had retweeted her own remarks from the hearing, calling the event ‘heartbreaking’ in a post that got 1.8 million views.
‘Would your sons be alive today if our government would secure our southern border?’ she asked Kiessling, who replied: ‘absolutely.’
She described the fentanyl poisoning deaths as ‘murders.’
Wrote Greene: ‘Listen to this mother, who lost two children to fentanyl poisoning, tell the truth about both of her son’s murders because of the Biden administrations refusal to secure our border and stop the Cartel’s from murdering Americans everyday by Chinese fentanyl.
The House Homeland Security Committee also tweeted Biden’s comments, writing: ‘We aren’t sure what finds so funny about Rebecca Kiessling’s heart-wrenching story, but it’s very telling how little this admin cares about the border crisis poisoning our communities. While POTUS laughs off the fentanyl crisis, families all over America are grieving.’
Biden’s chuckling didn’t light up the Baltimore hotel ballroom where Democrats are gathering this week to plot strategy. He prefaced his comments by referencing the ‘poor mother,’ and noted that the fentanyl ‘came during the last administration.’
It was an odd departure for Biden, whose team prides itself on his ability to connect with Americans who have suffered loss. On Tuesday, the same day as Kiessling’s testimony, Biden began a speech in Virginia beach talking about his own health struggles years ago and how a nurse at Walter Reed helped pull him through. He regularly brings up the loss of his own son, Beau, in public remarks.
Kiessling appeared on Fox News host Tucker Carlson’s show after her testimony, where she criticized Democrats for their response. When the host asked her if she thought Congress got her message, she responded: ‘More than half of them did. I was really appalled at some of the rhetoric that I heard, honestly from the Democrats saying that they’ve heard a lot of fear mongering. Are you kidding me?’
Greene on Tuesday claimed that Rebecca Kiessling’s the 18 and 20-year-old sons, Kyler and Caleb, died due to Biden administration policies, tweeting a clip of the distraught mother testifying before the House Homeland Security Committee.
But Biden said on Wednesday night, with a chuckle, that the fentanyl they took ‘came during the last administration.’
The president criticized the Georgia Republican, and claimed she was going to drive people out of the GOP in droves, in an address at the yearly House Democratic retreat in Baltimore.
Rebecca Kiessling, a mother from Michigan who lost two sons to fentanyl poisoning, wipes away tears during a House Homeland Security Committee about the U.S-Mexico border on Capitol Hill February 28
Caleb and Kyler Kiessling, Rebecca Kiessling’s sons, aged 18 and 20, died of fentanyl overdoses in July 2020. Their mother gave evidence to a House Homeland Security Committee. Kiessling said her sons had thought they were taking a normal pain pill, but it was laced with fentanyl.
He also told Democrats to drive home how much they had accomplished legislatively in the last Congress and told them to continue to try to work across the aisle with those who are not ‘MAGA Republicans.’
As Democrats huddled together to hear from top brass on their strategy to fight GOP control in the House and take back power in 2024, Biden urged them to run on their record.
‘Folks, you know how much we’ve gotten done. A lot of the country still doesn’t know,’ he said.
Touting the bipartisan infrastructure bill passed last Congress, he said: ‘If we did nothing, nothing but implement what we’ve already passed, and let people know we did it for them, we win.’
But Biden said there was still ‘unfinished business,’ citing immigration reform, police reform and gun control.
‘MAGA Republicans are not gonna get on board for most of these things. That leaves a lot of Republicans that are still left. Republicans can help make a significant majority in some of these things,’ he said.
‘A little bit more of – few more Marjorie Taylor Greene you’re gonna have a lot of Republicans running our way,’ Biden said. ‘Isn’t she amazing?
‘She was very specific recently, saying a mom, a mother who lost two kids to fentanyl, that I killed her sons. Well the interesting thing is that fentanyl they took came during the last administration,’ Biden said with a chuckle.
‘I don’t wanna get started,’ he added.
‘Listen to this mother, who lost two children to fentanyl poisoning, tell the truth about both of her sons’ murders because of the Biden administration’s refusal to secure our border and stop the Cartels from murdering Americans everyday by Chinese fentanyl,’ Greene tweeted.
But the sons died on July 29, 2020, Kiessling said, more than five months before Donald Trump left office.
US deaths from fentanyl have been on the rise since the 2010s, spiking during Covid-19 and continuing to rise under the Biden presidency.
In 2022, 107,000 Americans died of overdose.
Biden also touched on his meeting with Speaker Kevin McCarthy over the debt ceiling, calling it a ‘decent meeting’ and saying McCarthy ‘seems like a decent guy.
‘He says he won’t raise taxes on anyone,’ Biden said. ‘He just wants to cut programs. So I said let’s lay out our budgets.
‘I lay out mine on March 9, he should do the same thing.
‘We should sit down, and it would be interesting to see what they want to cut and what their numbers add up to.’
‘A little bit more of – few more Marjorie Taylor Greene you’re gonna have a lot of Republicans running our way,’ Biden said. ‘Isn’t she amazing?’
The GOP has promised to release a budget in April.
‘They’re sure not acting like the party that cares about fiscal responsibility,’ Biden said of Republicans.
‘Under my predecessor congress voted three times to pay America’s bills. They didn’t throw the country into crisis then, why should they do it now?’
In January, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen warned the country had reached its $31.4trillion debt ceiling – the maximum amount of money it was allowed to spend to fund government programs and pay debts.
McCarthy and Biden are now at loggerheads as Republicans insist on budget cuts in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. President Biden is expected to release his budget next week.