When Joe Biden Said 'I Lost My Son' When an Adamant Heckler Complained About His Friends' Death

Back in 2016, when Vice President Joe Biden was campaigning for Hillary Clinton in Cleveland, he encountered a resolute heckler. The unidentified person was intent on getting Biden to respond to some of the administration's Middle East policies. "My American friends died!" the unidentified man had shouted. "Why did you tell the YPG to go back across the Euphrates?" The heckler kept on yelling, "My friends died, my American friends," as he argued with the vice president about US actions in Syria. He reiterated, "My friend died," pressing Biden to explain his recent insistence that Kurdish allies leave the area that they had taken over from ISIS. As per The Guardian, the Democratic leader who had been patiently continuing with his speech snapped at the heckler and said: “Will you listen? So did my son, OK?”,  instantly quieting the disruptor and the people in the audience who were trying to block out the disturbance by yelling, "Hillary, Hillary."

As per ABC News, Biden asked the audience to cease chanting over the demonstrator and offered to have a quiet conversation with him backstage.  “Look let me answer your question. Come back after and talk to me about this. OK? You have my permission,” Biden said. Subsequently, the individual was observed conversing with Secret Service agents and seemed to be making his way to a backstage section. As per CNN, The White House announced in a statement in 2015 that Joseph "Beau" Biden III, an attorney general of Delaware and veteran of the Iraq War, had died at the age of 46. The vice president's office said that Beau passed away following his battle with brain cancer. “Beau Biden was, quite simply, the finest man any of us have ever known,” his father had stated in an official note. 

The demonstrator was referring to the contentious US decision to have the victorious Kurdish YPG troops evacuate the town of Manbij and cross the Euphrates River to appease Turkey, which considers them to be terrorists. “Why did you tell the YPG to go back?” he had yelled at Biden after the latter interfered while on a recent trip to Turkey. “Because the deal was to get them into Manbij – and to work – was that they would go back across the Euphrates so we could have US special forces move in. That’s why,”  the then-vice president had responded. Following the encounter, the heckler—who went by the name Reinas or 'Renas Isis-slayer' had explained in a video why he fought in Syria and said he was still waiting to talk with the vice president. 

“At first they toyed with the idea of my meeting Biden, but in the end, I was told that he didn’t have time for me,” he told the leading publication back then. “So I offered my phone number so that Joe Biden could contact me. I’m still waiting. I respect Biden’s son and everything he did. But I was a bit confused as to the relevance to the conversation,” added Reinas by email. “I am not against the Obama administration and I respect Joe Biden. After hearing what he said, I think maybe he means well, but it was evident that he hasn’t been briefed on the situation in Syria.”