By Daniel Chaitin
An Oregon man who trolled President Joe Biden on Christmas Eve by saying “Let’s go Brandon” at the end of a NORAD Santa tracker call claims he was just joking with the commander in chief and is now receiving threatening messages, according to a new report.
Jared Schmeck, a 35-year-old father of four in Central Point, talked about the now-viral moment with the Oregonian/OregonLive on Christmas.
“At the end of the day, I have nothing against Mr. Biden, but I am frustrated because I think he can be doing a better job,” Schmeck said. “I mean no disrespect to him.”
The short conversation Schmeck had with the president and first lady Jill Biden was otherwise polite. At the end of it, he wished the First Family a merry Christmas before saying, “Let’s go Brandon,” which has become a popular phrase to criticize or mock Biden in conservative circles.
The president did not appear phased by what he heard. “Let’s go Brandon, I agree,” Biden replied. Biden then asked if he was calling from Oregon, but the call ended.
Schmeck said he is being “attacked” for his use of free speech and noted that he has been receiving vague and threatening phone calls since speaking with Biden on the live-streamed broadcast, according to the report which identified him as working for an electric company and a former Medford police officer who resigned in 2018.
“I understand there is a vulgar meaning to ‘Lets go Brandon,’ but I’m not that simple minded, no matter how I feel about him,” Schmeck said. “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.”
Among those to comment publicly on the interaction was Rep. Eric Swalwell, a California Democrat.
“I refuse to believe we are this indecent as people. Not on Christmas Eve. And not to a person who lost his wife and daughter at Christmastime. We are better than this. Be kind and #MerryChristmas,” Swalwell tweeted.
Rep. Eric Swalwell on X (formerly Twitter): “I refuse to believe we are this indecent as people. Not on Christmas Eve. And not to a person who lost his wife and daughter at Christmastime. We are better than this. Be kind and #MerryChristmas. https://t.co/CLZJY9VCxt / X”
I refuse to believe we are this indecent as people. Not on Christmas Eve. And not to a person who lost his wife and daughter at Christmastime. We are better than this. Be kind and #MerryChristmas. https://t.co/CLZJY9VCxt
The “Let’s go Brandon” phrase originated Oct. 2 from an interview between an NBC News sports reporter and Brandon Brown, a NASCAR driver. NASCAR fans behind the reporter chanted, “F*** Joe Biden,” but she said they were saying, “Let’s go Brandon.”
Brown himself recently spoke out about the phrase, saying he isn’t a fan of how it’s being used. “I don’t want [“Let’s go Brandon”] to just be the substitute for a cuss-word,” Brown said. “I mean, if it’s making it more polite, then, by God, I guess, go ahead.”
“I have zero desire to be involved in politics,” Brown told New York Times columnist Ben Smith on Sunday.
Schmeck said he is not a “Trumper,” but rather a “free-thinking American and follower of Jesus Christ.”
