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A staff member of President Trump's reelection campaign is being intensely criticized for mocking Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden on Twitter while he visited his family's graves over the weekend.
The mocking comment came from Trump staffer Francis Brennan, who is director of strategic response for the campaign, and drew widespread outrage on Twitter from those who found Brennan's remark crass and insensitive.
Brennan's tweet included a video clip of Biden waving to reporters while visiting the graves, and a wisecrack about Biden "meandering along."
REPORTER: "Mr. Vice President come talk to us."
Joe Biden just keeps meandering along. pic.twitter.com/6tnNQj2Ucg
— Francis Brennan (@FrancisBrennan) September 6, 2020
In the video Brennan included, reporters are heard calling to Biden to come speak with them as he walks through the cemetery following church services at St. Joseph on the Brandywine church in Wilmington, Delaware. The former vice president simply waves to the reporters and continues walking.
Biden was at the cemetery to visit the graves of his son Beau, an Iraq War veteran who passed away of cancer in 2015, and his first wife Naomi and daughter Neilia, who died together in a car crash in 1972. Biden has frequently spoken of the deaths of his first wife and children as major turning points in his life, including during his 2020 Democratic National Convention campaign speech.
Brennan's comment is believed to be a reference to the Trump campaign's frequent characterization of Biden as being in cognitive decline. Brennan is a member of the so-called Trump War Room, the reelection campaign arm that has previously drawn criticism and faced social media bans for using Nazi imagery and symbols in its campaign ads, among other controversies.
Biden's cemetery visit and Brennan's mocking tweet occurred as President Trump was playing golf at his Trump National Golf Club in Sterling, Virginia.
On Twitter, the cruelty of Brennan's joke drew intense outrage.
You are a ghoul
— Jennifer Gunter (@DrJenGunter) September 7, 2020
In July, a RNC spokesman mockingly tweeted a photo of Biden and his dead son as a boy. Today, a Trump campaign spokesman mockingly tweeted a video of Biden visiting his son's grave. pic.twitter.com/3v15U4eWe7
— Edward-Isaac Dovere (@IsaacDovere) September 6, 2020
So much of the criticism of Biden from the Trump campaign, I look at and I can't understand who it's appealing to. Biden politely declined to talk to a reporter while at the cemetery visiting his son's grave. Which voters will dislike Biden for this? https://t.co/cNuo3XTpTN
— Michael David Smith (@MichaelDavSmith) September 6, 2020
You are a sick person who will live with the stain of enabling @realDonaldTrump for the rest of your life.
— Joe Lockhart (@joelockhart) September 6, 2020
Some found Brennan's comment so cruel they questioned his basic humanity.
It's a cemetery. Where his son is buried. Are you human? https://t.co/MSEIPlUxUq
— Rep. Eric Swalwell (@RepSwalwell) September 6, 2020
You have no soul, Francis.
— Jon Cooper 🇺🇸 (@joncoopertweets) September 7, 2020
.@FrancisBrennan, like the next President @JoeBiden, I understand what it's like to go to a cemetery to visit your child. I actually do meander and focus on my personal grief and my daughter. What sub human life form are you that you would tweet this & think it was a good idea? https://t.co/XHruNFdG3h
— Fred Guttenberg (@fred_guttenberg) September 7, 2020
Joe Biden was visiting his son's grave. You are not even human https://t.co/VXXoCHb0gK
— Mia Farrow (@MiaFarrow) September 6, 2020
Brennan's comment seemed of a piece with recently revealed comments Trump reportedly made mocking veterans and fallen soldiers as "losers."
Every week, after he attends church, @JoeBiden visits the grave of his late son. But because you work on behalf of the vile piece of human excrement that called our fallen soldiers suckers and losers, it's incomprehensible that people make love and family a priority. Enjoy hell. https://t.co/gqnVNlopAp
— ken olin (@kenolin1) September 6, 2020
Meet Trump campaign Director of Strategic Response @FrancisBrennan mocking Joe Biden for visiting the grave of his late son who is a US military vet. It's not just Trump- it's the entire Trump team that hates our veterans! #TrumpHatesOurVeterans https://t.co/eQYbX2iy6Y
— (((DeanObeidallah))) (@DeanObeidallah) September 7, 2020
This sleaze, Trump campaign's @FrancisBrennan gets video of @JoeBiden visiting his veteran son's grave & ridicules Joe for not running to speak to someone - probably Brennan. Then Brennan sneers. So Francis, next ya gonna call his vet son a loser & a sucker like your boss does? https://t.co/9WjGmNdIbl
— Kurt Eichenwald (@kurteichenwald) September 6, 2020
As of this writing, neither Brennan nor the campaign has offered any apology, nor has the tweet been deleted.