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 guilty for his or her 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 liable for the fatalities.
“That is the way you speak concerning the death of my sons? Because a congresswoman misspoke? You mock the lack of my sons?” Kiessling said in a scathing video posted on Facebook.
Kiessling had testified before the House Homeland Security Committee on Tuesday concerning the lack of her sons, telling Congress that more needs to 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 medicine 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 got here in the course of the last administration,” the president said, adding a “heh-heh” as one or two audience members murdered in disapproval of Greene.
A furious Kiessling said she was “shocked” at Biden’s response and demanded an apology from the commander-in-chief.
“How dare you. What’s the matter with you? Almost every Democrat on the committee offered condolences, they a minimum of had the decency to do this,” she said within the video. “You possibly can’t even do this? You’ve got to mock my pain?”
While Kiessling acknowledged that her sons died six months before Biden was elected, she slammed the federal government’s handling of the fentanyl crisis ever since.
“What concerning the 22% increase in fentanyl deaths because you became president?” Kiessling asked.
“That represents tens of hundreds of US residents who died under your watch, a rise in tens of hundreds. That represents double that variety of the parents who’re suffering.
“You’re going to maintain laughing? About those that did die under your watch? Do we now have to bring them in so you may look them within 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.”
Aside from Kiessling’s scathing criticism, shocked critics also lashed out at Biden’s tone-deaf clap-back.
“@POTUS must apologize for this immediately. Nobody, let alone the president of the US, laughs when speaking a couple of 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 a couple of Mom whose kid was killed with Fentanyl. That is so incredibly inappropriate and vile,” conservative podcaster Robby Starbuck added.
The Republican National Committee’s Jake Schneider also weighed in, tweeting: “Truly the bottom bar possible for Biden — what a disgusting person. Losing children to fentanyl trafficking is rarely, ever funny. Just vile.”
