The family of the murdered marine finds an ally in Trump

Quets’s father and brother-in-law spoke with him Washington Examiner on Friday about separate meetings they had with Trump and Vance in Arizona this week, just days after learning that Nicholas, a 31-year-old Pima County resident, was fatal shot after being ambushed by another vehicle while driving in northern Mexico last Friday.

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The father, retired Army Lt. Col. Warren Douglas Quets, admitted he initially wasn’t sure what to expect from Trump ahead of their Thursday meeting, but was hoping for the best.

“I didn’t know what to expect because he’s a TV star, a billionaire and a populist,” Quets said. “He looked at me, he looked at Nick’s picture. He had tears in his eyes and said, ‘Tell me what happened.’ And he was actually angry when we told him the story. … He said, ‘Tell me what I can do for you and your family.’”

Quets said the conversation, which lasted 10 to 15 minutes while Trump campaigned in Tempe, Arizona, made him feel “like I would know him (Trump) forever.”

“I can tell you, at least I know, if I know nothing else, that both Trump and Vance care about us,” said Quets, who spoke with the Washington Examiner in a phone call while holding her son’s ashes in her lap Friday morning.

“My family is more comfortable with this horrible, horrendous event that we have been dealing with,” said retired Air Force Capt. Philip Sweet, brother-in-law and best friend of Nicholas Douglas Quets. “To feel the comfort of someone who we have never met, but who we felt was a member of our family and who cared about us, who really cared about us.”

During Trump’s remarks in Tempe on Thursday, Quets said Trump made eye contact with him and his family nearly a dozen times as if to assure them of his sincerity.

The family met with Vance on Tuesday while campaigning in Tucson.

“(Vance) says, ‘You’re talking to me like JD. I want you to tell me exactly what I need to know and I want you to tell me how I can help you,’” Quets said. “That’s what he said. So it was a very elegant and sincere move.”

The conversation with Vance lasted 15 minutes. Vance, a retired Navy buddy, took the stage and fiance in their public statements to “kick the cartels’ butt.”

“As an apolitical person, you want the best for the country, which is what I have dedicated my life to,” Quets said. “I left the meeting thinking I was ready to follow Vance anywhere.”

In the meeting with Trump, Quets outlined exactly what he wanted the US government to do: get directly involved in the active investigation of the incident and continue the extradition, prosecution and conviction of those involved in his son’s death.

“Sir, what I would like is that when you take office, we have a picture of these criminals and thugs being extradited at the border in cooperation with the Mexicans and my son-in-law, who is a federal law enforcement agent, handcuffing the person responsible for this and bring him to the United States to be prosecuted,” Quets said.

Trump told Quets, “We’ll make that happen on January 20 if I’m elected,” the father said.

Both of the Marine’s relatives had shared with him Washington Examiner earlier this week that elected officials within the US government had not reached out to them to offer condolences or discuss what to expect regarding the investigation.

Based on their decades of combined experience in the military and federal law enforcement, both said President Joe Biden would have been briefed on Quets’ murder while in Mexico as part of his daily briefing last Saturday.

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“I have no doubt that the president of the United States was informed Saturday morning in his presidential briefing that a United States Navy veteran was killed in Mexico. I have no doubt,” Sweet said.

“How can this Marine be killed 30 minutes south of the border?” Quets said. “I haven’t heard from anyone, elected or appointed government officials, at all. And I prayed for that to the point where, yesterday, I wrote to the console and said, ‘Don’t worry about it anymore.’ “I’m going to go ahead and contact (President Claudia Sheinbaum) in Mexico and ask her for help in getting the United States involved.'”

Sheinbaum was elected earlier this year and took office on October 1. It remains to be seen how his administration will handle the growing Mexican cartels that make billions of dollars annually from human smuggling and trafficking, drug and firearms smuggling, and other nefarious operations around the world. .

Local police who arrived at the scene when Quets was shot on October 18 have turned the investigation over to Mexican federal police for the time being.

Quets wanted the United States government to participate jointly or take over if Mexico was willing to do so.

But in the absence of communication from the Biden-Harris administration, the family said they would meanwhile lobby Mexico and the United States until January, when they expected Trump to be sworn in.

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“Speaking on behalf of my family, we have 100% confidence in his leadership and his ability to achieve justice for Nick and handle this appropriately,” Sweet said.

The White House and the Justice Department did not respond to requests for comment.