President Joe Biden railed off two false statements in two sentences during a speech in Florida on Tuesday.
The 79-year-old President first claimed that there’s a war ongoing in Iraq, confusing the nation with Ukraine as he outlined his excuse for crippling inflation and sky-high gas prices gutting Americans at the pump.
After correcting himself, followed up the misstatement by falsely taking on the mantle of a Gold Star father for himself.
“Thinking of Iraq because that’s where my son died,” Biden said, in reference to his deceased son Beau Biden.
BIDEN: “Inflation is a worldwide problem right now because of the war in Iraq and the impact on oil from what Russia’s doing — excuse me, the war in Ukraine — I’m thinking of Iraq because that’s where my son died, because he died.”
— Breaking911 (@Breaking911) November 1, 2022
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“The, uh, because he died,” Biden followed up, in an unclear statement that could’ve been meant as a correction.
Beau Biden deployed to Iraq as a JAG lawyer in a Delaware National Guard unit in 2009. Biden’s older son, who also served as Delaware Attorney General, died of brain cancer six years after he returned from the deployment.
Biden has described his son as an Iraq War casualty numerous times — reason enough to think his statement might be more than a gaffe and is instead a sincere belief.
Joe Biden said that Beau Biden “lost his life in Iraq” as recently as last month.
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Biden has previously suggested that his son’s fatal brain cancer was the result of breathing in fumes from military burn pits in Iraq, according to The Washington Post.
Granted, the long-term health consequences of burn pit exposure are real and can be linked to fatalities. Many veterans of the Global War on Terror have health problems in connection to the pits.
The theory may very well have merit.
But it’s speculation. Not fact. And there is a difference between being killed in action in a combat zone and dying of long-term health consequences incurred through military service.
Biden’s statement gives the impression of the latter.
It is not appropriate for Biden to take on the guise of a Gold Star relative, especially in the politically charged context of election speeches.
That honor is reserved for Americans who lost their loved ones in the line of military duty.
