Gold Star Fathers Darin Hoover and Mark Schmitz alleged Monday that President Joe Biden checked his watch as the fallen soldiers arrived at the Dover Air Force Base on Sunday.
Their sons, U.S. Marines Sgt. Taylor Hoover and Lance Cpl. Jared Schmitz, were two out of the thirteen U.S. service members that lost their lives at the suicide bombing explosions at the Abbey Gate located at the Hamid Karzai International Airport.
“In reference to the checking of his watch, that didn’t happen just once. That happened on every single one that came out of that airplane,” Hoover told Fox News’ Sean Hannity. “It happened on every single one of them. They would release the salute and he looked down at his watch on every last one. All thirteen, he looked down at his watch.”
“As a father, seeing that and the disrespect and hearing from his former leaders, one of his Master Sergeants, said exactly what you just said, that this was avoidable. That they left them over there, they had them over there and let them down. We can’t have that, it can’t happen ever again.”
Gold Star Father Mark Schmitz, whose son Marine Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz was killed in Kabul:
“I actually leaned into my son’s mother’s ear and said ‘I swear to God, if he checks his watch one more time…’ I found it to be the most disrespectful thing I’ve ever seen.” pic.twitter.com/VG9BafFFzn
— Daily Caller (@DailyCaller) August 31, 2021
Schmitz backed Hoover’s statement on the president’s alleged checking of his watch during the ceremony, calling it “the most disrespectful thing” he’s ever seen. (RELATED: Mother Of Slain Marine: ‘All You Democrats…Who Voted For [Biden], You Just Killed My Son’)
“I actually leaned into my son’s mother’s ear and said ‘oh my god, if he checks his watch one more time…’ and that was probably only four times in,” Schmitz said. “I couldn’t look at him anymore after that. Just, especially given the time and why we were there. I found it to be the most disrespectful thing I’ve ever seen.”
Hoover said that his family declined to meet with the president at the service.
“We didn’t want anything to do with him. We didn’t want him anywhere near us,” he said. “We, as a family, decided that that was the way it was going to be.”