By Matt Vespa
Source:
AP Photo/Michael Dwyer
Former Vice President Joe Biden is on the struggle bus.
He’s ahead in the polls, yes. But he’s also become a gaffe machine. From not
knowing which is his current location on the campaign trail to telling fake war
stories, Joey has done it all in less than a week. We have a long way to go
before Election Day 2020. And a frontrunner who can’t get simple things right
has to have Democrats a bit uneasy.
Biden is at the top of the heap because of
his name recognition and this notion that he can attract white working-class
voters. He can do that, but not with this Democratic Party.
Biden will be
forced to answer about abortion up until the moment of birth, health care for
illegal aliens, and open borders. He will have to adopt or appear to be not
hostile to those positions—all of which are unpopular. Even health care is a
crapshoot now that Democrats appear to be totally fine with nuking private
health insurance in their quest to adopt Medicare for All across the country,
which will lead to the mother of all tax increases.
Yet, before that all happens, we have to discuss this war
story fiasco. The former VP told this anecdote at a campaign stop in New
Hampshire this week—and it’s pretty much all false. Even The Washington
Post couldn’t
spin it [emphasis mine]:
Joe
Biden painted a vivid scene for the 400 people packed into a college meeting
hall. A four-star general had asked the then-vice president to travel to Konar
province in Afghanistan, a dangerous foray into “godforsaken country” to
recognize the remarkable heroism of a Navy captain.
Some
told him it was too risky, but Biden said he brushed off their concerns.
“We
can lose a vice president,” he said. “We can’t lose many more of these kids.
Not a joke.”
The
Navy captain, Biden recalled Friday night, had rappelled down a 60-foot ravine
under fire and retrieved the body of an American comrade, carrying him on his
back. Now the general wanted Biden to pin a Silver Star on the American hero
who, despite his bravery, felt like a failure.
“He
said, ‘Sir, I don’t want the damn thing!’ ” Biden said, his jaw clenched and
his voice rising to a shout. “ ‘Do not pin it on me, Sir! Please, Sir. Do not
do that! He died. He died!’”
The
room was silent.
“This
is the God’s truth,” Biden had said as he told the story. “My word as a Biden.”
Except
almost every detail in the story appears to be incorrect. Based on interviews with more than
a dozen U.S. troops, their commanders and Biden campaign officials, it appears
as though the former vice president has jumbled elements of at least three
actual events into one story of bravery, compassion and regret that never
happened.
What’s worse is that Biden pretty
much doubled down on it, saying that the essence of this war
story that never happened was true. Julio Rosas at The
Washington Examiner has
more[emphasis mine]:
Biden
appears to have recalled inaccurately a 2011 awards ceremony in Afghanistan's
Wardak province, when he pinned the Bronze Star on Army Staff Sgt. Chad Workman
after Workman had attempted to save a friend from a burning vehicle.
"In
the space of three minutes, Biden got the time period, the location, the heroic
act, the type of medal, the military branch and the rank of the recipient
wrong, as well as his own role in the ceremony," the Washington Post
reported, adding he appears to have muddled three different stories into one.
Talking
with the Post and Courier on Thursday, Biden said he did not read the
Post's report.
“I
don’t understand what they’re talking about, but the central point is it was
absolutely accurate what I said,” Biden said. “He refused the medal. I
put it on him, he said, ‘Don’t do that to me, sir. He died. He died.’"
“There
was one that relates to the forward-operating base in Afghanistan that I went
to and a separate one where I went on the streets of Afghanistan where a young
man pulled someone from a burning humvee,” Biden said.
Joe, it was false. It either happened or it didn’t—and it
looks like this story didn’t happen.
Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D-CT) also got
into some hot water during his 2010 Senate race, where he said he served in
Vietnam. He didn’t.
Disgraced anchor Brian Williams, one of the founding
fathers of fake news, also told some war stories about Iraq, one of which was a
harrowing tale about being on a helicopter that was taken down by
rocket-propelled grenade fire. That
was a lie.