Late GOP Rep. Jackie Walorski’s bro: Biden ‘doing best he can’ despite forgetting sister’s death
The late Rep. Jackie Walorski’s brother told The Post Wednesday that President Biden placed a heartfelt call to the family when the Indiana Republican died in a car crash last month, and said that he’s not angry that the president publicly forgot her death — because Biden is “doing the best he can do with what he’s got right now.”
Keith Walorski, one of the deceased lawmaker’s two brothers, is preparing to visit the White House on Friday with his mother and one of his sister’s close friends.
“It’s par for the course,” Walorski told The Post of Biden’s bizarre gaffe. “I feel sorry for him, really.”
“He made a phone call after my sister was killed and he was very sincere in his relaying the grief process because he’s been through that grief process, he knows all about it,” Keith Walorski added.
“All I’m saying right now about the president is bless his heart for trying. Yeah, it was a big mess-up today. Inexcusable? No. Unforgivable? No. I’m not gonna hold it against him. I just feel sorry for him.”
Biden put out a lengthy written statement after Rep. Walorski’s death and even lowered the White House flags for two days in her honor — but on Wednesday asked where she was during an event on hunger and nutrition.
“Jackie — are you here? Where’s Jackie?” said Biden, despite the fact that he publicly mourned her death eight weeks earlier.
The late congresswoman’s brother said he believes the 79-year-old president may simply be forgetful due to his age.
“That’s probably a nice way of putting it: He’s forgetful,” he said. “I don’t think anybody would look at the things that he’s done and said and say that his mind is as sharp as it used to be.”
Keith Walorski added, “I don’t know what else to say. He is doing the best he can do with what he’s got right now.”
Walorski’s widower Dean Swihart declined to comment when reached by The Post.
The daily White House briefing descended into chaos Wednesday after press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre stuck to talking points and said repeatedly that Walorski was simply “top of mind” for the president, without addressing why he forgot she was dead.
“The confusing part is, why if [Walorski] and the family are top of mind does the president think she’s living and in the room?” Matt Viser of the Washington Post asked Jean-Pierre at one point.
Newsmax reporter James Rosen added, “Karine, I have John Lennon top of mind just about every day, but I’m not looking around for him anywhere.”
As Jean-Pierre’s evasions persisted, Al Jazeera’s Kimberly Halkett said to Jean-Pierre, “[We’re] asking about the mental acuity of the president … [You are] being rude to us by not answering … ‘Top of mind’ is not an answer.”
Keith Walorski, who repairs electric motors and generators, said that he was grateful for the outpouring of sympathy for his sister after her death.
“When I was in the receiving line and when I went through the whole funeral process, the number of people that came that I didn’t know and really hardly knew Jackie, but they said, ‘When I needed help, she helped me’ — whether it was the VA, whether it was food or hunger or whatever it was, there were thousands of people who came through that line,” he said.
“So many of them a lot of people would look at and say, ‘I’m not gonna walk across the room to talk to that person because they look like they’re homeless or they look like they’re down on their luck and they’re gonna ask me for something.’ And a lot of people would stick their nose in the air and walk away. But what they said was, ‘She helped me.'”
