Speaker 1 (00:00):
We will never forget or forgive the Biden administration for
its disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan that got thirteen service members killed,
left behind Americans and Afghanistan. No accountability, no answers, just
utter shamefulness from this administration. Recently, some of the gold
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Star families were able to testify before a congressional forum,
telling their stories about the loved ones that they lost,
trying to get some answers on behalf of their loved ones,
answers that this administration refuses to answer. Let's take a
listen to Cheryl Rex. She is a gold Star mother.
She lost her son, Dylan Morola. He was a Marine
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lance corporal. Let's take a listen when Joe Biden, our
elected president, entered the room. When he approached me, his
words to me were, my wife, Jill, and I know
how you feel. We lost our son as well and
brought him home in a five draped coffin. My heart
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started beating faster and I started shaking, knowing that their
son died from cancer and they were able to be
by his side. Also wondering how someone could, honestly sorry,
be so heartless to say he knew how I felt.
A little over twenty four hours and learning of my
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son's death. After this encounter, I have never had any
personal correspondence, nor has my son been honored or his
name spoken by this commander in chief or his administration.
I was ryl Rex. We're gonna hear from her in
this episode, her son, as I mentioned, one of the
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thirteen that were killed at the Kabble Airport with the
withdrawal from Afghanistan. We're going to talk to her about
her son, just hear a little bit more about Dylan
and what her experiences have been like with this meant
just trying to get some answers. Here's Cheryl with Cheryl.
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I really appreciate you taking the time to come on
the show and tell us about your son and what
happened with the withdrawal from Afghanistan. Thank you, Lisa, Thank
you for having me join. Before we get started, tell
us about Dylan. Dylan was amazing, very kind hearted to everybody,
always smiling, always happy, just a great personality towards everything,
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never negative, just always wanting to support the next person
right next to him. It sounds like someone who really
made an impact in a lot of lives. How long
was Dylan in Afghanistan. Dylan was in Afghanistan only for
a little less than two weeks, so he went specifically
for the withdrawal. Correct Dylan and his battalion were actually
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deployed to Jordan at the time when the withdrawal process
was happening so quickly. When it turned from the withdrawal
too an evacuation is when the units were sent out
there to assist. Why did he decide to join the military?
You know, I'm sure he was very proud of having
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done that. We have a long history of family that
has been in the military. He grew up listening to
a lot of their stories and the pros the cons.
He he loved the military channel at a very young age,
always just enthused with it. I can't pick one specific
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aspect of why he committed to it, but I know
it was never not something on his mind from a
very young age. So it's just something he grew up
with and always kind of had on his heart and
his mind. How did you find out that he had
lost his life in Afghanistan? Actually had woken up that
morning to an alert on my phone from a news
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that had said that there had been an explosion in Afghanistan.
Knowing my son's location, I immediately started to call him.
I was calling him over and over. I was texting
him and zero response. I kept looking for whatever I
could in any information I could find on the Internet
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that was linked to Afghanistan, and I wasn't being able
to find anything. I spent the rest of the day
just trying to call my son and contact him. I
had left the house for a short time because I
hadn't eaten all day because of my stretit* level. My
parents actually received the knock on the door. I received
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the phone call from my dad to get to the
house and meeting, and I kept asking why, and he said,
I already know. I mean, I just I can't imagine
as a parent to have to go through that. I
just I'm so sorry. I just I can't even imagine
the pain with that. I'm just truly sorry. At first,
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you're kind of shocked, and then it just leads into
so many emotions. I actually collapsed knowing what that meant.
I heard you talking about when you had discussions with
President Biden. He tried to tell you that he understood,
but you know, he lost his son to cancer, or
he didn't lose his son in the line of duty.
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So tell us about that conversation with him, and why
why do you think he lied? We were all awaiting
this plane arrival to go on this tarmac to receive
the dignified transfer of our children. We awaited in this
room for a couple of hours, not knowing the process.
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It was asked whoever wishes to remain in the room
that he Biden would be coming in to meet with us.
I chose to say. I said I was going to
stay on behalf of my son and my country. And
as he approached me, he just looked at me and said,
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my wife, Jill, and I know how you feel. We
lost our son as well, and we brought him home
in a flag draped coffin. He never once mentioned my
son's name. He didn't acknowledge what was just happened in Afghanistan. Nothing.
He made the entire conversation, which lasted limited to that
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about himself and his son, knowing that he died from cancer.
There was no correlation on my son's death versus is his.
I was really upset. I was hurt. I was angry
every emotion that this person as an individual, not even
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being the president of the United States just being a
human being could honestly compare losing a child to an
illness versus losing my son in a combat situation defending
our country and saving lives. It's almost as if he's
trying to use his son's death to shield himself from
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the consequences of his actions that led to the death
of your son and twelve other military men and women.
It was and after the process, I did realize people
had started to tell me that he has done this
multiple times, that I wasn't the first one to hear
the story. It was very heartbreaking. Did you see him
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looking at his watch? Reported? I did so. They had
us outside to a witness our kids coming off this
aircraft and be placed into transport vehicles. And the first
time I did not see it personally, I heard somebody
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from behind me said, did you just see that? Did
he really just do that right now? And I looked
up and I saw him putting his hand down. After that,
I kept my eyes between watching our kids come off
that plane and him personally as to witnessing him for
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the rest of the rest of the Marines to come
off that aircraft. Every single one he looked at his watch.
I mean, it's just incredibly disrespectful to not give the
families of the fall in the dignity of his time.
On top of that, we had been waiting for a
very long time. It was probably two and a half hours,
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and we kept questioning why we were waiting so long.
Shouldn't we be outside, shouldn't we be watching this plane
come in? Why are we still in this room? And
nobody was understanding why we were two and a half
hours late. They just kept saying, they're staging, They're staging.
I believe in my heart just from the results I
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guess of how he has treated us, that he was
the reason that he was late. Do you feel like
they've been this administration has been transparent about the death
of your son and what happened that day. I personally
have not received a phone call, an email, any personal
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correspondence with any of them. The next time I had
anything was a letter sent to my address that was
a dressed or signed I don't even think of a signed.
I think it was stamped of Joe Biden. And that
was the only thing I've ever received from him, was
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a letter. What do you want people to know about
the way that the Biden administration handled the withdrawal from Afghanistan.
I believe if you're hiding something and not telling the truth,
you're going to push the situation aside, and you want
people to forget, and you want people to not see
what was truly happening. Our whole situation got locked into
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a classified file and pushed away. So every time that
we try to find anything or get answers or anything
on our kids, it's unavailable. Everything is classified by this administration.
I can't imagine being a parent and watching the subsequent
press conferences and you know, Joe Biden addressing the nation
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because Ida as America and who did not lose you know,
my and who did not lose someone I love so much.
I was frustrated with the lack of answers, him continuously
turning his back to answering questions, and just the lack
of consequences for this failed withdrawal. You know, no one
was held accountable in the administration. It's very heartbreaking, and
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not just for our situation, but if it was any
other president, I would feel the same exact way I
feel about this one. If you disrespect why you have
freedoms and those who are serving our country to fight
for those freedoms, then you're probably the problem. And it
was also frustrating. You know, not only did he get
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our military men and women killed as you know, way
too closely, but you know, we left Americans behind. It's
just that's not the way that we're supposed to be
as a country. You know, we don't leave Americans behind
like that. We left Americans behind and our Afghan allies behind.
We did we say sorry, there's no we wasn't there.
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Our military service members did it such an incredible job
of evacuating as many civilians as they possibly could to
ensure their safety and freedoms for their life. I just
I don't understand why they were so unhonored and unrespected
for their sacrifices that they did have. I would assume
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it's because this administration doesn't want to bear the accountability
with that, you know, and to give these service members
the honor they deserve. I think this administration is afraid that,
you know, they're going to get the blame. But they
should get the blame because you know, these are their
decisions and this is their doing. Right, if I made
the decision to go down the street and harm another person,
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I would have consequences as a civilian. Why do these
people think that they're above the law per se, feel
that they can get away with cover ups and lies
on something I ultimately feel was because they conducted this
and they failed at conducting this in the correct manner.
What was it like to testify before Congress and to
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share your story and have that opportunity to be heard.
Leading up to it, I honestly felt, here's our chance
to be heard, here's our chance to have our stories
be known. Just a glimpse of them. This is just
a very, very small beginning of it. I got up
there and obviously my nerves got the best of me,
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and I had a really hard time speaking publicly. But
I really hope that my messages got across in the
appropriate manner to show people that it was a cover
up and it's being pushed away and our voices are
not being heard. You did a great job. You should
be very proud of yourself. That takes a lot of
guts to you to stand there in front of America
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and to tell the truth and to tell people about
what happened. So you should be very proud of yourself.
In the way that you honored your son with that.
What else would you like people to know? This is
your platform, so say whatever you want. I just want
people to know that my son did not die because
of your ethnicity, your religious beliefs, or ultimately your political background.
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My son died saving as many lives as he possibly
could to ensure their futures and their freedoms to live
a life like his. I don't want my son's story
to be based on politics, even though those have chosen
to make it politics. This basically goes down to good
versus evil, and we need to stand up together. And
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I'm going to keep fighting for those answers to my
questions that I've been holding in for two years because
I feel I have the right to know exactly how
my son died, where exactly he was located at the time,
and not be lied to about it. Well, I think
we can all agree with that. Hon your son, and sure,
how can people help out? You know, how can people
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help get answers? You know? What can we do at
this point? I guess what I've been told, keep calling
your congress members. We need to keep the I guess
pressure on the situation so that we can declassify these
documents that they've ultimately pushed away and classified. I feel
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that if more American people put the pressure, we can
get those documents declassified and we will have some answers
to our questions and people will know the truth of
what was really happening in Afghanistan, not what they want
you to believe on National TV. That's all been chopped
up and bits and pieces here. I feel it's really
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important that some people believe that divide and conquer is
the way when actually we stand as united we stand
in America. We need to keep that unity together and
demand answers. Well. I hope you're testimony, along with others,
helps encourage that to happen and helps relight a fire
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underneath members of Congress to seek and get those answers
for you and the other families. Cheryl, I really appreciate
you taking the time. I know this is hard. Thank you,
I appreciate it. I greatly appreciate you living as me
personally have a voice. I think it's important that people
learn the truth at this point. That was Cheryl Rex,
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mother of the following Marine Lance Corporal Dylan Marola. Appreciate
her joining the show. I can't imagine how hard that
is for her to have to talk about all of this.
I truly hope that she gets the answers that she deserves,
that the other families deserve. What a shameful time in
American history. I want to thank you guys at home
for listening every Monday and Thursday, but you can listen
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throughout the week. I want to thank John Cassio, my producer,
for putting the show together. Till next time.
