DENVER — A grief-stricken Colorado mother whose son was killed last week in Kabul pinned the blame squarely on President Biden and those who voted him into office, declaring “you just killed my son.”
Kathy McCollum, whose son, Marine Corps Lance Cpl. Rylee McCollum, was one of the 13 U.S. service members slain Thursday at the Hamid Karzai International Airport, lashed out the next day at the president in an emotional call to SiriusXM radio host Andrew Wilkow.
“My son was one of the Marines that died yesterday,” Ms. McCollum said on “The Wilkow Majority,” which airs on the Patriot channel. “Twenty years and six months old, getting ready to come home from fricking Jordan to be with his wife to watch the birth of his son, and that feckless, dementia-ridden piece of crap just sent my son to die.”
The distraught mother continued: “My son is gone, and I just want all you Democrats who cheated in the election or who voted for him legitimately, you just killed my son.”
More than 100 people were killed and 180 reportedly injured in the blast as thousands swarmed the airport to evacuate after the Taliban overran Kabul on Aug. 15 as U.S. troops withdrew.
Ms. McCollum, who lives in Montrose, said she woke up at 4 a.m. Friday when Marines arrived at her door to inform her of her son’s death.
“I never thought in a million years he would die for nothing, for nothing, because a feckless, dementia-ridden piece of crap decided he wanted a photo op on September 11,” she said. “That’s what kills me. I wanted my son to represent our country, to fight for my country. But I never thought that a feckless piece of crap would send him to his death.”
While she was told that her son did not die in vain, she disagreed, saying, “Guess what, my son did die in vain.”
“This was an unnecessary debacle that could have been handled properly,” Ms. McCollum said. “They had months and months to remove everyone from Afghanistan, and they chose not to, and so they sent in, fricking what, 6,000 troops? And my son, through the laws of statistics, my son was one of the ones who just got blown up in a fricking terrorist bomb yesterday.”
#RyleeMcCollum https://t.co/wZMMHHUCL8
— Andrew Wilkow (@WilkowMajority) August 29, 2021
Mr. Biden and first lady Jill Biden attended the solemn transfer of the fallen troops Sunday at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware.
“The 13 service members that we lost were heroes who made the ultimate sacrifice in service of our highest American ideals and while saving the lives of others,” Mr. Biden said Saturday in a statement. “Their bravery and selflessness has enabled more than 117,000 people at risk to reach safety thus far.”
Ms. McCollum said that her congresswoman, Republican Rep. Lauren Boebert, “will be at my house tomorrow, and we’ll speak, and hopefully she’ll be able to convey my message to the rest of the United States.”
In a speech at the Steamboat Institute Freedom Conference, Ms. Boebert said she spoke Friday with Ms. McCollum, calling it “one of the most disturbing phone calls I’ve ever experienced in my entire life.”
“And I make no apology after hearing the voice of his mother in saying that his blood is on Joe Biden’s hands,” Ms. Boebert told the crowd. “Her son was murdered yesterday because of this poor execution of getting our troops, our American citizens out of Afghanistan. This has been disgusting and shameful.”
Ms. Boebert is one of nearly two dozen House and Senate Republicans who have called for Mr. Biden to resign over the chaotic withdrawal.
May God bless the memory of Lance Corporal Rylee McCollum. pic.twitter.com/OV7IccGlAc
— Rep. Lauren Boebert (@RepBoebert) August 27, 2021
In the radio interview, which was posted Saturday on Twitter by Mr. Wilkow, Ms. McCollum said Mr. Biden “needs to be removed from office. It never would have happened under [former President Donald] Trump.
“Every Democrat that’s listening, you did this to my son, to prop up a disgusting human being,” she said.
Several crowdfunding pages have been established to benefit the fallen Marine’s wife and unborn child.
Ms. McCollum said her son was married and his wife is expecting their first child on Sept. 26, adding that she was “too mad to cry.”
“But when I see that baby in a month, when his baby is born, I’m sure I’ll break down and cry,” Ms. McCollum said.
• Valerie Richardson can be reached at vrichardson@washingtontimes.com.
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