The Oregon father of four who quickly rose to infamy by blurting out “Let’s Go Brandon” during a Christmas Eve call with President Joe Biden is—of course—now fully leaning into his newfound right-wing celebrity status.
Jared Schmeck on Monday donned a red MAGA hat and embraced election denialism during an appearance on former Trump strategist Steve Bannon’s insurrectionist podcast.
While taking calls from the NORAD “Santa tracker,” the president and First Lady Jill Biden were connected with Schmeck, a 35-year-old ex-cop now working for an electric company. After a fairly pleasant chat featuring the Bidens asking what his children wanted for Christmas, Schmeck ended the call by giddily exclaiming “Let’s Go Brandon,” a popular right-wing euphemism for “Fuck Joe Biden.”
Once the moment went viral on social media and sparked outrage, however, Schmeck claimed to a local Oregon newspaper that he meant “no disrespect” and that it was merely a “joke.” At the same time, he said he was “being attacked for utilizing my freedom of speech” and had received some vaguely threatening phone calls.
“I understand there is a vulgar meaning to ‘Let’s go, Brandon,’ but I’m not that simple-minded, no matter how I feel about him,” Schmeck told The Oregonian on Christmas Day. “He seems likes he’s a cordial guy. There’s no animosity or anything like that. It was merely just an innocent jest to also express my God-given right to express my frustrations in a joking manner… I love him just like I love any other brother or sister.”
Schmeck is having trouble settling on his own message; double messages abound. Now the equivalent of a “gofundme” page called a GiveSendGo page has been set up so Jared’s fans can send him and his family on a vacation; the statement is as follows:
Jared had the opportunity of a lifetime… To speak with the current President of the United States, Joe Biden. Jared calls into NORAD every year with his kids to see were Santa is heading. He had no idea that this year he would be speaking to none other than Joe and Jill Biden themselves.
GiveSendGo
While he was very cordial on the phone during the conversation, he ended the conversation in a very light mannered way by saying let’s go Brandon. He was immediately cut off from the White House communications department, so what he didn’t realize what is that Joe Biden was live streaming his responses and said “let’s go Branden, I agree!”
Regardless of what you consider the term let’s go Brandon to represent, for millions of Americans it voices the utter contempt for how Joe Biden has led and is leading this country. Jared did not mean it in a derogatory way, he could’ve use the other explicit term that very much demenes the president, but he used the phrase that conservatives and Christians alike have come to accept as a phrase that means we dislike how this current president is running our country.
Jared is a family man, with young children, and currently lives in Oregon. The Oregonian reached out for an interview with him and did with most leftist publications do, they took things out of context, and made Jared seem like the bad guy. He has since been getting death threats at his home.
He and his wIfe have been praying about moving. I’ve encouraged him to use this as an opportunity to share his side of the story, and also be willing to except donations from those that may want to help him get out of Oregon or just take a much needed vacation. That’s why I set up this Fund for him and his family.
Please give what you can as a tip, as a thank you, or as a let’s go Brandon of your own to help this young man and his family get to an area of the country that would appreciate him for what he did.
Source: The Daily Beast