Facebook and Instagram Ban Mother of Fallen US Marine After She Slams Biden Online
19:40 GMT 01.09.2021 (Updated: 18:21 GMT 03.11.2022)
© REUTERS / CARLOS BARRIA
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Joe Biden has drawn fire from grieving relatives and sections of the media for repeatedly referring to his son Beau, who died of cancer years after a tour in Iraq as a US Army lawyer, in a bid to equate himself with the families of the 13 victims of last Thursday's suicide bombing.
The mother of a US Marine killed in the Kabul airport bombing who was banned from social media for slamming President Joe Biden has had her accounts reinstated.
Big Tech giant the Facebook corporation said it had "incorrectly" deleted the Facebook and Instagram accounts of Shana Chappell, the mother of Lance Corporal Kareem Nikoui, after her blistering post relating how she told Biden "my sons blood was on your hands" when he met families of the 13 US victims.
“It seems Instagram took it upon themselves to delete my account because I am assuming it was because I gained so many followers over my son's death due to Biden’s negligence, ignorance and him being a traitor,” Chappell posted on Facebook on Monday, correctly predicting her account on that site would soon follow.
“All 13 of them, their blood is on your hands!!!!” #shanachappell pic.twitter.com/4j8rHPJ6R9
— 𝓕𝓐𝓙𝓢 (@Fahad_27th) August 31, 2021
30 August 2021, 15:58 GMT
Chappell was just one of several relatives of the massacred servicemen and women who laid into the president following the meeting at Dover Air Force Base in his native Delaware on Sunday. As they were boarding a bus to leave, one woman reportedly shouted at Biden: "I hope you burn in hell! That was my brother!"
Cynical Plea for Sympathy
A common accusation was that Biden spoke at length about the loss of his own son Joseph "Beau" Biden III, who died peacefully of cancer in 2015 six years after completing his one-year rotation in Iraq as a US Army lawyer in the Judge Advocate General's Corps, in a bid to claim empathy with the bereaved relations.
"I let you know that you don’t know how I feel and you do not have the right to tell me you know how I feel!" Chappell wrote. "U then rolled your f*cking eyes in your head like you were annoyed with me and I let you know that the only reason I was talking to you was out of respect for my son."
Biden had earlier mentioned Beau's death at a White House press conference on the chaotic and bloody evacuation of the US embassy and nationals from the Afghan capital
29 August 2021, 21:02 GMT
The grieving mother related how as she told Biden he "took my son away from me and how I will never get to hug him, kiss him, laugh with him again," the president turned to walk away.
"I let you know my sons blood was on your hands and you threw your hand up behind you as you walked away from me like you were saying 'ok whatever'!" she wrote, adding: "As my son and the rest of our fallen heroes were being taken off the plane yesterday I watched you disrespect us all 5 different times by checking your watch!"
Mark Schmitz, father of 20-year-old Marine Lance Corporal Jared Schmitz was another who complained of Biden's focus on his own loss six years ago.
“When he just kept talking about his son so much it was just — my interest was lost in that. I was more focused on my own son than what happened with him and his son," Schmitz "I’m not trying to insult the president, but it just didn’t seem that appropriate to spend that much time on his own son.”
The sister of recently-married Lance Corporal Rylee McCollum, who was expecting the birth of a son, told the Washington Post that Biden's comments about his son sounded "scripted and shallow".
"He cannot possibly understand. My dad and I did not want to speak to him. You cannot kneel on our flag and pretend you care about our troops," Roice McCollum said. "You can’t f*ck up as bad as he did and say you’re sorry. This did not need to happen, and every life is on his hands."
Chappell also questioned the legitimacy of Biden's government, writing: "You are not the president of the United States of America Biden! Cheating isn’t winning!"
Former president Donald Trump offered his support for the bereaved mother in a brief statement on Wednesday.
"Shana, you are 100% correct," Trump wrote. "If I were President, your wonderful and beautiful son Kareem would be with you now, and so would the sons and daughters of others, including all of those who died in the vicious Kabul airport attack."
