Thursday Fox News anchor Harris Faulkner was interviewing Rebecca Kiessling, a grieving mother who testified to Congress earlier this week about the deaths of her two sons due to Fentanyl, Mediaite [1] reports.
“Rebecca Kiessling in Focus. First of all, so sorry for your loss and the time of life that your young sons were in. One was already, as I understand, Caleb was talking to students about staying off drugs. Tell me about these young men,” Faulkner said in the emotional interview.
But then the interview turned political, and Faulkner played a clip of a speech by President Joe Biden on Wednesday. Biden was mocking fact-impaired Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) who falsely claimed [2] he was responsible for the death of Kiessling’s sons.
“Listen to this mother, who lost two children to fentanyl poisoning, tell the truth about both of her son’s murders because of the Biden administrations [sic] refusal to secure our border and stop the Cartel’s [sic] from murdering Americans everyday by Chinese Fentanyl.”
Listen to this mother, who lost two children to fentanyl poisoning, tell the truth about both of her son’s murders because of the Biden administrations refusal to secure our border and stop the Cartel’s from murdering Americans everyday by Chinese fentanyl. pic.twitter.com/HRD5SX0Td8 [3]
— Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene🇺🇸 (@RepMTG) February 28, 2023 [4]
Twitter posted a note right under Greene’s tweet that noted “The Fentanyl overdose deaths Greene refers to occurred in July 2020 during the presidency of Donald Trump. Joe Biden was not in public office when the Kiessling brothers died.” The post provided a link to a story from The Detroit News. [5]
And Biden, perhaps tired of being targeted by Greene, roasted her while speaking to a gathering of Democrats at the Maryland governor’s mansion, saying “And you know, a little bit more Marjorie Taylor Greene and a few more, you’re gonna have a lot of Republicans running our way.”
The audience applauded and Biden joked, [6] “isn’t she amazing? Oof.” Then he recalled how she blamed him for the deaths of the two young men. That’s the clip Faulkner played for Kiessling, conveniently omitting the context involving Greene.
Anyone foolish enough to take Faulkner and her show seriously would be completely unaware that Biden is not responsible for the deaths of the two young men.
“You know what is remarkable about all of this, and I don’t mean in a good way, is how the president of the United States responded to your testimony that millions of people across the country with our hearts, with our spirits, who were right there with you, I don’t know what he watched, but President Biden for a moment discussed your family’s tragedy this way,” Faulkner said. “Let’s watch.”
“She was very specific recently saying that a mom, a poor mother who lost two kids to fentanyl, that that I killed her sons. Well, the interesting thing is that fentanyl they took came during the last administration,” Biden said, laughing.
“He laughed at that,” Faulkner told Kiessling, who was crying. “We have had people coming across that border drug cartels for quite some time. It has become a historic problem now. What do you say to the president of the United States?” Faulkner asked her.
“Just what a horrible human being. How can you sit there and joke about it?” Kiessling said and added:
“You know, he thought he was with a roomful of Democrats and, you know, he’s amongst friends and they could all yuck it up. And what kind of a person does that? I mean, somebody asked me, ‘oh, you know, did he just, like, misspeak?’ Like this shows his heart. And to me, it’s like it shows this is why he just opened the border so wide. He just doesn’t care. He’s completely heartless.”
It’s unfortunate that Faulkner didn’t play the entire clip, but this is typical for Fox News. Kiessling’s two sons, Caleb, 20, and Kyler, 18, died on July 29, 2020, along with 17-year-old Sophia Harris. The teens believed they were taking Percocet pills that were actually fentanyl, which can be lethal even in tiny doses. Both drugs are opioids, but Percocet is Oxycodone and it also contains acetaminophen. Fentanyl is used to treat severe pain.
But this drug is so toxic that these young people didn’t overdose. They simply died of fentanyl poisoning. And it’s sad that Fox News made it look like Biden was joking about this when he wasn’t. He was merely calling Marjorie Taylor Greene out on her stupidity again. This happened under Trump’s watch, not Biden’s.
Maybe Greene will get her facts straight one day. That would be a nice change.
I’ve included the clip below.