Vice President Joe Biden faced off Thursday against a heckler who yelled “my friend died” during a recent battle in Syria.
Biden was speaking at a campaign event for Hillary Clinton in Parma, Ohio, when a man interrupted and criticized the Obama administration’s decision to demand the retreat of Syrian Kurdish fighters back east of the Euphrates River after helping U.S.-backed Syria Democratic Forces achieve victory against the Islamic State in Manbij earlier in the month.
The man identified himself as a Kurdish armed forces veteran, and said his friend in the force, Levi Shirley, died near Manbij, according to the New York Daily News. He was reportedly killed by a land mine in July.
Biden replied the reason was because “the deal was to get them into Manbij, and to work, was they’d go back across the Euphrates [River] so we could have special forces moved in.” Last week during a visit to Turkey, Biden assured his Turkish counterparts that the Kurdish YPG, which Ankara views as a terrorist organization, would make the retreat away from the northern Syria city near the Turkish border or else lose the support of the U.S.
When the man, seemingly unappeased by the vice president’s response, again mentioned that his friend died, Biden replied, “so did my son.” He was referring to his son Beau, who served in Iraq, later died of brain cancer in 2015.
The crowd at the rally attempted to drown the heckler out with chants of “Hillary!”, but Biden waved them off and invited the man to speak with him in private after the event.
