'It's all about him': Dead Marine's family say they walked out of meeting with Biden because he ONLY spoke about son Beau and slam his botched Afghanistan withdrawal as a 'miserable failure'
The family of one of the 13 U.S. service members who was killed in Kabul Airport last week continued to condemn the way President Joe Biden carried out the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Afghanistan and said they walked out of a meeting with other Gold Star families when Biden insisted on only talking about his late son Beau.
Jim McCollum and Roice McCollum, the father and sister of the late Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, spoke with Fox's Sean Hannity to share their frustration with Biden.
'Everything he has done is completely wrong,' Jim said. 'We had opportunities to do this the right way and we absolutely failed miserably.'
Roice added that when Rylee's pregnant wife, Jiennah Crayton, attended a Gold Star family meeting with the president, Biden only spoke about his own son while neglecting to mention the names of the 13 fallen service members.
'There was no mention of Rylee. No '"I'm sorry for your loss,"' she said. 'It was, '"My son died too…"' It was more about him.'
Jim McCollum, right, loved his son Rylee and was proud of the marine. Lane Cpl. Rylee McCollum was among the 13 U.S. service members who died in Kabul last week
Roice McCollum, left, said she walked out of a meeting with Biden because she did not want to meet the man responsible for her brother's death. Pictured, Roice and Rylee as children
The young marine had been deployed to Afghanistan a few weeks prior to the attacks and was expected home in October to reunite with his family and pregnant wife
President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden watch as a carry team moves a transfer case during a casualty return Sunday, Aug. 29, 2021, at Dover Air Force Base, Delaware
Crayton was the only one of Rylee's family members to meet with Biden after the McCollums walked out, with Roice saying she did not want to meet the man responsible for her brother's death.
While the McCollum's acknowledged that previous administrations were also to blame for the handling of the 20-year war in Afghanistan, they said Biden's rush to withdraw troops is what ultimately led to Rylee's death.
'You couldn't have picked a worse way to go about it,' the dad said.
Roice also chastised Biden for comparing the loss of his son with the loss of Rylee, as Joseph 'Beau' Biden died of cancer in 2015 while Rylee lost his life in Afghanistan following Biden's order to withdraw.
She criticized Biden for only speaking to Crayton for a few minutes because she refused to carry on a conversation about his son.
Jim McCollum added that despite the chaos that was going on in Kabul Airport, Rylee and the other fallen troops were probably proud to have helped U.S. citizens and their allies escape.
'They were there for a mission, that whole unit. That’s just who they are. They’re going to do what they need to do,' the grieving dad said.
'The humanitarian efforts that they were doing, I think they all lived that and they loved it and they knew they were doing something to help other people. I don’t know you could’ve got him away from where he was.'
Rylee, a Wyoming native, pictured during a wrestling match in school. The young man had always had aspirations of becoming a marine
Rylee McCollum (left) with his wife Jiennah Gigi Crayton (right). She shared this photo of them together in April before he was deployed
Gigi is expecting the couple's first child next month, she is 'crushed' by the news of her husband's recent death
The young widow is due to give birth in three weeks, now left to raise her child without her husband (Pictured: Gigi's sonogram photo shared on Facebook May 18)
McCollum was killed in the suicide bomb attack in Kabul last Thursday. He had been in Afghanistan only a few weeks and was expected home in October.
His wife Jiennah, who goes by Gigi, is expecting their first child next month.
She wrote on Facebook last Friday: 'I lost my best friend. And nothing will ever make that hurt less. He would've been the best dad.
Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum
'I wish he could see how much of an impact he made on this world. I'm so proud to call him my husband.
'Much love to the other families affected by this. They are all heroes forever.'
McCollum, who was sent to Afghanistan as evacuations started, is believed to have been killed while manning an airport checkpoint at the time of the suicide bombing.
The ISIS-K suicide bomber killed 183 people at Kabul airport.
McCollum, who graduated from Jackson Hole High School in Wyoming in 2019 before joining the US Marine Corps, had married Crayton in February when the couple eloped in Vegas.
His mother-in-law, Jill Miller Crayton, lives across the country but is rushing to be by her 20-year-old daughter's side. She never got the chance to meet her son-in-law but was excited by how happy and in love the couple appeared even from a distance.
'I didn't get to know him, I didn't even get to meet him, but I do know that she was madly in love with him. He was her everything her future and her best friend,' she said.
'I couldn't wait to meet him, he made her so incredibly happy. I hadn't known her to be so happy until she married him and found out she was pregnant. It was like she was complete.'
McCollum had recently tied the knot with Gigi when they eloped in Las Vegas in February
McCollum is remembered as 'a beautiful handsome man, a young man who had his whole life in front of him'
McCollum wanted to be a soldier since childhood, first telling his parents he would join the Marines age eight
The soon-to-be grandmother continued, 'I was so proud of him, I was incredibly proud of him because he was a Marine who served his country but I was even more proud of him for the respect and the love that he showed my daughter.
'I kept telling her 'He's okay sweetheart, don't worry, he's okay.' And then she got that knock on the door, that knock that every military spouse hates to get at 3am.
'She loves him. And even though I've been through this, grief is very personal.'
Unfortunately, Crayton can relate all to well to her daughter's devastating situation.
'My husband died when I was nine weeks pregnant with Gigi's brother, 15 years ago, and unfortunately history is repeating itself,' she shared.
'I never thought one of my daughters would go through what I did, it's unreal and it's awful.
'They met while he was in the military, I don't know exactly how long they had been dating. I moved from San Diego two years ago, we had lived there our whole lives.'
The US Marine Corps posted a photo to Twitter Sunday evening, of the flag flag-draped caskets of their fallen brethren killed in Thursday's suicide bomb attack in Kabul
Biden met privately with McCollum's family, in addition to families of the 12 other fallen service members, before quietly observing flag-draped cases transport their bodies off a plane
While many have attacked the Biden Administration for their poor coordination in withdrawing and evacuating Afghanistan, Jill believes that now is 'not a time for finger-pointing.'
She does not want politics to be the focus of her son-in-law's death.
'He was a beautiful handsome man, a young man who had his whole life in front of him, who loved my daughter and was about to be a father. That's what I focus on.'
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September 03, 2021
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