White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Joe Biden expressed “compassion” when he spoke of a mother who lost her two sons to drugs containing fentanyl and that his words are “mischaracterised.”
Biden was widely criticized after he lost llaughed off a claim of Republican congressman Marjorie Taylor Greene that he “killed” the two sons of Rebecca Kiessling, who testified before Congress on the fentanyl crisis.
Kiessling demanded an apology from the president. The White House wouldn’t say if she would get one.
Jean-Pierre defended Biden’s laughter, saying the American people know his personal history – he lost his first wife and daughter to a car accident; his son Beau died of brain cancer – and his condolences to those who have lost loved ones.
“When it comes to this president, I believe the American people know who he is,” she said at her daily press conference. “They saw him mourn.”
“He expressed sympathy for her last night. And his heart goes out to every person, every person who has to go through that kind of trauma, that kind of pain,” she said.
White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said President Joe Biden expressed “compassion” when he spoke of a mother who lost her two sons to fentanyl drugs and that his words were “mischaracterised.”
Jean-Pierre accused his critics of manipulating his words.
“His words are mischaracterized by someone who is regularly discredited for things she says are really conspiracy theories, and those lies are caused by a particular network,” she said in an apparent dig at Greene and Fox News, which Kiessling interviewed. about the issue.
Kiessling’s sons Caleb and Kyler died in 2020 before Biden took office after taking what they thought were painkillers but were laced with fentanyl.
On Thursday, she unleashed herself on Biden.
‘What a horrible person. How can he sit there and joke about it? He thought he was with a room full of Democrats and he’s among friends and they can screw up. What kind of person does that?,” she said on Fox News.
“He just doesn’t care. He is completely heartless and what about all the thousands – hundreds of thousands who lost their children under his rule. In his first year in office, after he lifted all border controls in place, there was a 22% increase in fentanyl deaths,” she said.
Kiessling, who lives in Michigan, testified before Congress earlier this week at a hearing on the escalating fentanyl crisis.
In her testimony, she said she was told the drug that killed them came across the southern border.
Greene claimed the boys died as a result of the Biden administration’s policies and tweeted a clip of the distraught mother testifying before the House Homeland Security Committee.
Listen to this mother, who lost two children to fentanyl poisoning, tell the truth about the murders of both her sons because of the Biden administration’s refusal to secure our border and prevent the cartels from killing Americans every day with Chinese fentanyl the Georgia Republican congressman wrote.
Rebecca Kiessling, a Michigan mother who lost two sons to fentanyl poisoning, wipes away tears during her testimony on Tuesday
President Biden laughed off a claim by Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene that he “killed” a mother’s two sons who died from fentanyl in 2020
Biden spoke to House Democrats Wednesday night about Greene’s impeachment
He said with a chuckle that the fentanyl they took “came during the last administration.”
“I read that she was very specific the other day saying that a mother – a poor mother who lost two children 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.
Fentanyl deaths in the US have been rising since the 2010s, peaking during Covid-19 and continuing to rise under the Biden presidency.
In 2022, 107,000 Americans will die of drug overdose.
Kiessling responded in a video posted online Wednesday night furious at Biden’s comments.
‘Is that what you talk about the death of my sons? Because a congressman made a mistake? Do you mock the loss of my sons?’ she said.
‘How dare you. What is the matter with you. Virtually every Democrat on the committee offered condolences, at least they had the decency to do so.
‘Can’t you even do that? Must you mock my pain?’
Kiessling testified before Congress about the death of her sons earlier this week. Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene said Biden administration was doing ‘nothing’ to stop youth fentanyl deaths
Rebecca Kiessling in a video recorded last night that she posted to Facebook. She accused Biden of laughing at her story and demanded an apology
Kiessling’s sons Caleb and Kyler died in 2020 when they were 18 and 20 after taking a pill they didn’t know was laced with fentanyl
Kiessling also pointed to the rise in fentanyl deaths across the country since Biden took office, saying, “My kids died about six months before he became president.
“There has been a failed policy by many governments for far too long, since there was a spate of fentanyl deaths.
“This has been a problem for a long time.
‘[But] what about the 22% increase in fentanyl deaths since you became president? That represents tens of thousands of US citizens who died under your watch, an increase of tens of thousands. That’s double the number of parents who suffer.
‘Do you keep smiling? About those who died under your watch? Should we bring them in so you can look them in the eye and smile?
‘What’s wrong with you? This is not acceptable. Our president must apologize to me and he must be held accountable.”
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