Parents of Marine Veteran Imprisoned in Russia 'Disheartened' After Biden Snub
The White House has told the family of a Marine held in Russia that President Joe Biden is just too busy to squeeze a patriotic family into his schedule during his trip to Texas on Tuesday.
In 2019, Trevor Reed was visiting his girlfriend in Moscow when he had a run-in with police officers and was arrested. A year later, Reed was sentenced to nine years in prison for what U.S. officials say was a trumped-up charge, according to The Dallas Morning News.
His parents, Joey and Paula Reed, wanted to get a word with Biden when he visits their town of Fort Worth on Tuesday.
“It’s devastating,” Paula Reed told the Morning News.
“We thought that this would be the perfect opportunity for us to see him and be able to talk to him for just a quick few minutes, and they couldn’t get that done,” she said. “So we’re pretty disappointed.”
“We’re very disheartened about it, and we obviously wish we just had a couple of minutes to talk to him,” Joey Reed said Monday on Fox News’ “Fox & Friends First.” “Our son protected [Biden] at Camp David when he was vice president.”
The Marine’s father says he still has hopes Biden might get the message that his son needs help.
“The president, like all presidents, is heavily insulated by a staff, and we just think that, if he saw us standing there, that he might say, ‘Pull over, is that Trevor Reed’s family?’ and talk to us,” Joey Reed said.
“And if he doesn’t, at least he might just see the signs, and then we might get the meeting later. But we’re grabbing at straws. Our son is seriously ill, and we need the president to bring him home,” he said.
The family got updates directly from their son on Friday and Monday after months without a word.
“We were glad to get it. It was a surprise, but then, at the same time, it was not a good thing because we got to hear exactly how sick he is and what poor condition he’s in physically,” Paula Reed said. “It was great to hear from him, but then it kind of wasn’t. It was more sad because he is not doing very well at all.”
The Reeds said their son has tuberculosis, which is getting worse the longer he is in prison.
“He said that he’d been sick for a very long time,” Paula Reed said on “Fox & Friends First.”
“They were still denying his TB testing. He had that exposure in December, and he had symptoms that he wanted to be tested or receive medical treatment, which they were denying everything.”
“He sounds disheartened,” she said. “He sounds a little bit hopeless for a release, and it was just, it was a good thing to hear his voice but also sad because he really sounds terrible.”
The veteran’s father told Fox News that others have said they support getting their son home but a few minutes with Biden could make the difference.
“We’re happy that the administration and everyone in it is either working or spoken out forever, everyone, including the president, but we’ve met with just about everyone but the president, and the president is the one who makes the final decision on these issues,” Joey Reed said.
According to the Morning News, Reed was diagnosed with COVID-19 last May. In November, he began a hunger strike to protest his imprisonment.
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