The most disturbing spectacle on Wednesday, the third night of the Republican National Convention, was when family members of fallen U.S. soldiers and Marines took the stage, blamed President Joe Biden for the deaths of their loved ones, and endorsed Donald Trump for a return to the White House.

Honoring the fallen and their “Gold Star families” is one of the dignified ceremonies in American life. The unloading of their flag-draped caskets at Dover Air Force Base in Delaware is called the “dignified return.” Presidents sometimes join the grieving families at the airport and share a few moments; they don’t give speeches. It is private, it is supposed to be beyond politics, and it usually is.

But the 13 fallen who were honored on Wednesday were the troops ambushed by a suicide bomber during the rushed, often chaotic withdrawal from Afghanistan, in August 2021. And the speakers on the RNC stage, especially the fathers and mothers, blamed Biden for their children’s deaths and said he should no longer be commander in chief.

One of the mourners added that then ex-President Donald Trump came to comfort her, talked with her for hours about her family, and really understood the loss.

I wondered about two things while watching this emotional display. First, family members of just six of the 13 fallen troops were onstage. Did families of the other seven feel the same way? Do they also despise Biden and endorse Trump, or did they (quite properly) want to keep their views private?

Second, I wondered what this proud mother would have thought if she’d known how Trump behaved with the families of soldiers and Marines killed on his own watch as president.

Not very honorably, it turns out.

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