President Biden was 'extremely gracious' during bill signing, Walorski's brother says

A brief White House press release issued Friday was the only indication President Joe Biden had signed a bill renaming a Mishawaka veterans affairs clinic in honor of the late U.S. Rep. Jackie Walorski.  

The intimate, as far as Oval Office meetings go, nature of the signing didn’t surprise Keith Walorski — Jackie Walorski’s older brother — given the President’s slip-up earlier that week when he mistakenly called out for the deceased congresswoman at a conference. 

President Biden apologizes for 'Where's Jackie'

However, Keith said Biden was “extremely gracious” to his family during the signing and apologized for the gaffe.  

“He brought the ‘Where’s Jackie?’ comment and basically said, ‘I’m sorry that that went out like it did,’ and that it was basically a slip. He was the one to bring it up, he apologized and we basically told him we were fine, we had no hard feelings about that,” Keith recalled. 

When Biden first broached the topic, Martha Walorski, Keith and Jackie's mother, quickly interjected that the President didn't have to ask where Jackie was, because "she's with Jesus in Heaven."

The gaffe wasn’t intentional or malicious, Keith feels, and said he felt the President’s apology was genuine given Biden’s first wife, Neilia Biden, and daughter were killed in a car crash in 1972.

Jackie Walorski died in an Elkhart County wreck on Aug. 3, along with two of her staffers — 27-year-old Zach Potts and 28-year-old Emma Thomson. The driver of the other vehicle involved in the crash, 56-year-old Edith Schmucker, also was killed.  

'Excessive speed' led to Walorski crash:Police say driver likely attempting to pass truck when crash happened

Joining Keith and Martha in the Oval Office were Dean Swihart, Jackie’s widower, and two of Jackie’s staffers. The group traded stories with the President and First Lady for around 30 minutes before Biden signed the measure into law, Keith said.  

The bill was introduced by the Indiana congressional delegation shortly after Jackie’s death and unanimously passed the U.S. Senate in September. Jackie Walorski, 58, had served Indiana's 2nd district in the U.S. House of Representatives since 2013 and was on the Committee on Veterans’ Affairs for two terms. She, along with former senator Joe Donnelly, worked to secure funding to open the St. Joseph County VA Clinic in 2017.  

“People should know that she was a true patriot,” U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said at a bill enrollment ceremony last month. “She worked very hard for our veterans on the Veterans’ Affairs Committee, so this is such an appropriate designation.” 

As of Friday, the building is to be called the "Jackie Walorski VA Clinic.” 

For Keith, the renamed clinic is a “huge honor,” but just as meaningful were the numerous people who spoke with the family at Jackie’s visitation and told of how she touched their lives. 

“She would be honored to have that,” Keith said of the clinic. “But she would be just as honored to know how many people that we talked to at the visitation … who came and said to us, ‘She helped me.’ I learned a lot about how far her influence went after she was gone.” 

After signing the bill, Biden took the family on a tour of the White House’s personal quarters. 

In review:Five things that have happened since Rep. Jackie Walorski died two months ago

Now back in Michiana after driving through the vestiges of Hurricane Ian, Keith said the family is trying to move forward and regain a sense of normalcy following Jackie’s death. Though he appreciates the political community’s efforts to honor Jackie’s legacy, attending events often reminds him of his sister’s death, Keith said, making it difficult, at times, to move on.

“We’ve been ready to move on for a long time,” Keith said. “Considering all of the things that are still happening, like this signing, everything you go to takes you back to where you started.” 

Locally, Swihart has resumed work with his and Jackie's nonprofit Impact International Ministries. Swihart's endorsement also propelled former Walorski campaign finance director Rudy Yakym to win the Republican Party caucus to succeed Walorski. Yakym will face Democrat Paul Steury and Libertarian candidate William Henry in the general election.

Email Marek Mazurek at mmazurek@sbtinfo.com. Follow him on Twitter: @marek_mazurek