A Michigan mom whose two sons died of fentanyl overdoses has slammed President Biden as “despicable” after he laughed off the false claim his administration was to blame for their deaths.
Rebecca Kiessling, whose sons Caleb, 20, and Kyler, 18, died in July 2020 after taking fentanyl-laced Percocet pills, took aim at Biden Wednesday night after he used her family’s story to knock GOP Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene’s suggestion he was responsible for the fatalities.
“This is how you speak about the death of my sons? Because a congresswoman misspoke? You mock the loss of my sons?” Kiessling said in a scathing video posted on Facebook.
Kiessling had testified before the House Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday about the loss of her sons, telling Congress that more should be done to stop fentanyl imports.
Greene (R-Ga.) quickly seized on Kiessling’s testimony, suggesting that the brothers might still be alive if the Biden administration had secured the border and stopped the flow of drugs into the US.
Biden, 80, poked fun at Greene Wednesday night, chuckling as he told a gathering of House Democrats in Baltimore that the boys died under the Trump administration.
“I’ve read she was very specific recently saying that a mom, a poor mother who lost two kids to fentanyl, that I killed her sons. Well, the interesting thing: That fentanyl they took came during the last administration,” the president said, adding a “heh-heh” as one or two audience members murmured in disapproval of Greene.
A furious Kiessling said she was “shocked” at Biden’s reaction and demanded an apology from the commander-in-chief.
“How dare you. What is the matter with you? Almost every Democrat on the committee offered condolences, they at least had the decency to do that,” she said in the video. “You can’t even do that? You have to mock my pain?”
While Kiessling acknowledged that her sons died six months before Biden was elected, she slammed the government’s handling of the fentanyl crisis ever since.
“What about the 22% increase in fentanyl deaths since you became president?” Kiessling asked.
“That represents tens of thousands of US citizens who died under your watch, an increase in tens of thousands. That represents double that number of the parents who are suffering.
“You’re going to keep laughing? About those who did die under your watch? Do we have to bring them in so you can look them in the eyes and laugh?”
She added that she wished Biden would show “some serious concern for the lives lost” — and that his behavior speaks volumes and “tells you where his heart is.”
Apart from Kiessling’s scathing criticism, shocked critics also lashed out at Biden’s tone-deaf clap-back.
“@POTUS needs to apologize for this immediately. No person, let alone the president of the United States, laughs when speaking about a mother who lost two sons to fentanyl poisoning,” Sen. Mike Lee (R-Utah) tweeted.
The official House Republican Twitter account reacted with a single word: “DISGUSTING.”
“Biden just laughed while talking about a Mom whose kid was killed with Fentanyl. This is so incredibly inappropriate and vile,” conservative podcaster Robby Starbuck added.
The Republican National Committee’s Jake Schneider also weighed in, tweeting: “Truly the lowest bar possible for Biden — what a disgusting person. Losing children to fentanyl trafficking is never, ever funny. Just vile.”
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