He did it three times in a single speech last month – falsely claiming to have witnessed a bridge collapse in Pittsburgh in 2022 (he actually visited the site more than six hours after the collapse), falsely claiming his grandfather had died just days prior to his own birth at the same hospital (his paternal grandfather died more than a year prior in another state), and again repeating a long-debunked false story about a supposed conversation with an Amtrak conductor who was deceased at the time the story would have had to take place.
In 2021 and 2022, he falsely claimed to have been arrested during a civil rights protest (he had previously said merely that an officer had taken him home from a protest), falsely claimed he “used to drive an 18-wheeler” (the White House said he once had a job driving a different vehicle, a school bus), falsely claimed to have visited the Pittsburgh synagogue where worshippers were killed in a 2018 mass shooting (he had spoken to its rabbi by phone but had not gone), falsely claimed to have visited Iraq and Afghanistan as president (he made repeated visits as a senator and vice president but not as president), told a false story involving a late relative and the Purple Heart, and falsely described his interactions decades ago with late Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir.
Hmm. Most of these seem like fairly minor inaccuracies. Some are more inaccurate, but all seem to have some bearing on real events he was involved in. I’m not really seeing an intentional weaving of untruth like I see in many other politicians at this time. I more see the unscripted memory recall of an older person.
i see it as more of an example of why we shouldnt want septuagenarian or octogenarian politicians of either party.
Be probably just meant to say “week” instead of “day.” Such a minor screw up. I do shit like that all the time, and I’m half his age.
It’s called confabulation, and it’s not “normal” aging, it’s a sign of memory loss. Dementia is a common cause.
I find it staggering that the democratic party are going with him as their presidential candidate. Feels like a mix of the sunken cost fallacy and a fear of turning away from someone who is currently beating Trump in the polls.
Arguably Trump confabulates too but it gets dismissed as he’s been a liar for so long no one notices.
2024 is looking like an election with two elderly men with dementia vying for the whitehouse, and another one as senate leader. That’s how extreme US politics has become - you could put up a literal monkey now and as long as he’s in the right party he would get nearly 1/2 the vote.
It’s all a sign of how dangerously broken the US electoral system is.
I hate it. I’ll still vote for the puppet with dimentia that’s commanded by Democrats over the one commanded by Republicans if that ends up being my only choice to fend off fascists.
They’re not even puppeting him very well if they’re letting him make all these inaccurate statements in speeches.
I’m not sure you can puppeteer away being a bad public speaker with dimentia. You can puppeteer policy though, which is what actually matters.
If the speech was written down and he read it as it was written then that’s on his staff as much as him. But yeah bad situation all the way around.
Removed by mod
The Amtrak conductor one is pretty bad.
https://apnews.com/article/ap-fact-check-biden-amtrak-e79af0cd7015ea3d559609817cceb144
AP FACT CHECK: Biden tale of Amtrak conductor doesn’t add up
From the article:
“I apologize because some have heard this,” Biden told a crowd Monday in New Jersey, starting up a story he has repeated in various forms at least five times, dating back to the 2020 campaign.
“I swear to God. True story,” he said Monday, for emphasis.
THE FACTS: The tale as Biden spins it is wrong. Negri could not have had that conversation because he was already deceased by the time Biden logged 1.2 million miles on Air Force Two.
It’s plausible that Biden logged 1.2 million train miles as vice president by early 2016, based on accounts around the time by Biden and David Lienemann, the vice president’s official photographer. But Negri had long retired as an Amtrak conductor, in 1993, and died in May 2014.
That honestly just seems like he got the guy’s name wrong. Like Angelo Negri and Arturo Nuncio were friends and he mixed them up. If he made the story up whole cloth, it’s definitely unnerving
5 times?
I’m sound of mind and I’m on the 1000th time of swapping Tuesday and Thursday in sentencess. Every time. Brains are weird.
9 times out of 10 if I try to name one of either Daniel Radcliffe or Elijah Wood, I’ll name the wrong one by accident.
Well yeah, if you’re certain that the name you have is right, you’ll repeat it. He’s old and has been famously misspeaking his whole career.
https://www.cnn.com/2021/06/30/politics/fact-check-biden-amtrak-angelo-negri-miles-traveled/index.html
I noticed that reference in the other piece, but I don’t see why they think that from the quote they used. I used to commute a lot when my mom was dying =/= I only commuted when my mom was dying.
I just don’t see this as more likely to be made up than to have a misremembered detail. Do you think Biden invented it fully?
I don’t know man, it’s as bizarre as my dog staring at me when dropping a deuce. Why do it 5 times, and then boldly (after having it debunked after the third) “swear to God true story” on top?
This is what happens when politicians are allowed stay in office through old age. He probably thinks it’s true and it probably is 95% true, but the details got fuzzy
Context is everything man…even if EVERYTHING you point out was a deliberate lie, entirely made up, for personal and political gain, it still pales in comparison to the dangerous lies being told daily by EITHER of the other 2 guys he’s likely to run against.
I’d almost rather they were all lies in this instance because keeping lies straight is a lot more cognitive burden than misremembering is…at least that would be evidence the lights were still on
I shared a small office every day for 2 years with a guy whose name I can’t remember. I went to his wedding and traveled to New Mexico to meet up with him and his family once. I still can’t remember his name half the time.
I mix up my girlfriend’s friends’ names ALL the time, and I’ve hung out with them on a regular basis for the last 5 years.
I’m only in my 40s, while Biden is in his 80s. I give leeway to the memories of people that old. Whether we should be electing people that old is a different argument (he’s the same age as Trump), though.