Slain Marine’s family finds an ally in Trump

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

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The father, retired Lt. Col. Warren Douglas Quets, admitted that he was initially unsure what to expect from Trump ahead of their meeting Thursday, but that he had hoped for the best.

“I didn’t know what to expect because he is a TV star, billionaire and populist,” Quets said. “He looked at me, looked at Nick’s picture. He had a tear in his eye 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 as Trump campaigned in Tempe, Arizona, left him feeling “like I would know (Trump) forever.”

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

“My family feels more at ease with this horrible, horrific event that we’ve had to deal with,” said retired Air Force Capt. Philip Sweet, Nicholas Douglas Quets’ brother-in-law and best friend. “To feel comfort from someone we’ve never met, but felt like he was a member of our family, and that he cared about us, really cared about us.”

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

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

“(Vance) says, ‘You’re talking to me as 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 classy move, and it was sincere.

The conversation with Vance lasted 15 minutes. Vance, a fellow retired Marine, then took the stage and promised in his public comments to “overrun the cartels.”

“As an apolitical man you want the best for the country, and I have dedicated my life to that,” Quets said. “I left the meeting feeling ready to follow Vance anywhere.”

During the meeting with Trump, Quets outlined exactly what he wanted the US government to do: be directly involved in the active investigation into the incident and follow that up with the extradition, prosecution and conviction of those involved in his son’s death.

“Sir, what I would like is that when you are inaugurated, we have a picture of these criminals and thugs being extradited at the border in collaboration with the Mexicans and my son-in-law, who is in federal law enforcement. officer), to handcuff the person responsible and bring him to the US for prosecution,” Quets said.

Trump told Quets: “We will make that happen on January 20 if I am elected,” the father said.

Both of the Marine’s family members had shared with the Washington Examiner earlier this week, elected officials within the U.S. government had not contacted them to offer their condolences or discuss what to expect regarding the investigation.

Based on their decades of combined experience in military and federal law enforcement, both said President Joe Biden would have been briefed on Quets’ killing 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 in his presidential letter Saturday morning that a veteran of the United States Marines had been killed in Mexico. I have no doubt about it,” Sweet said.

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

Sheinbaum was elected earlier this year and took office on October 1. It remains to be seen how her government will deal with the growing Mexican cartels that make billions of dollars annually from human smuggling and trafficking, drug and gun smuggling, and other nefarious operations worldwide. .

The local police who responded to the scene when Quets was shot on October 18 have provisionally handed over the investigation to the Mexican Federal Police.

Quets wanted the U.S. government to become jointly involved or take over if Mexico was willing.

But in the absence of communication from the Biden-Harris administration, the family said it would keep pressure on Mexico and the United States in the meantime until January, when they hoped Trump would be sworn in.

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“On behalf of my family, we have 100% confidence in their leadership and their ability to get justice for Nick and handle this appropriately,” Sweet said.

The White House and Justice Department did not return requests for comment.