It’s one thing to have a well-earned rep for goofy, harmless gaffes. It’s another if you serially distort your own record. @JoeBiden is in danger of creating a more damaging meme.https://t.co/ThCVCz4Fjb
— David Axelrod (@davidaxelrod) September 6, 2019
Joe Biden’s “gaffes” aren’t the real problem with his candidacy, contends former Obama White House adviser David Axelrod, it’s the former vice president’s regular habit of distorting his own record.
In a tweet Thursday, Axelrod linked to a Slate article about Biden’s misleading remarks about when he began opposing the Iraq War, writing Biden was “in danger” of creating a harmful meme about his candidacy, the Washington Free Beacon reported.
“It’s one thing to have a well-earned rep for goofy, harmless gaffes,” Axelrod wrote. “It’s another if you serially distort your own record. @JoeBiden is in danger of creating a more damaging meme.”
In a recent NPR interview, Biden claimed he voted to authorize President George W. Bush to use military force in Iraq only because Bush promised it was about Saddam Hussein possessing weapons of mass destruction. Biden contended that once “shock and awe” began, he publicly spoke against the war.
But NPR said that claim was false, citing multiple public remarks made after the invasion began in 2003.
Last week, the Washington Post challenged a story Biden frequently tells about pinning a war medal on a Navy captain. The Post found almost every detail was false.
Biden reacted: “The details are irrelevant in terms of decision-making.”
Political commentator Mark Steyn said last week that Biden’s telling of the moving but fact-starved war story – the Washington Post found at least seven stated falsehoods – was no mere “gaffe” by a politician who sadly has lost a few steps.
It was a premeditated act typical of Biden’s efforts to “aggrandize” himself throughout his nearly 50 years in politics, Steyn said on the Fox News Channel’s “Tucker Carlson Tonight.”
“This is classic Biden,” he said of the 2020 presidential hopeful.
“This is Biden in top form where he does this vivid, coherent, brilliant narrative in which not a single detail is correct.”
Biden is the 2020 frontrunner in his third try for the Oval Office. He dropped out of the 1988 race before the primaries due to a plagiarism scandal. In 2008, he exited after a weak showing in Iowa.
