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Prevaricating Presidents (Part 2 – Biden)

&NewLine;<p><em>&lpar;Disclaimer&colon;&nbsp&semi; In Part One – Trump&comma; I dealt with the list of the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;most notable lies” in the opinion of CNNs fact-checker Daniel Dale&period;&nbsp&semi; The <&sol;em>Washington Post<em> has documented more than 30&comma;000 of what they contend to be misstatements&comma; lies and repeated lies by President Trump&period;&nbsp&semi; There is no doubt that Trump has taken a lot more heat for making statements of questionable validity – or in some cases&comma; clearly not true&period;&nbsp&semi; Despite a history of lapses in honesty&comma; President Biden does not suffer the intense scrutiny and the withering attacks on his veracity&period; &nbsp&semi; That is one reason why this list is much longer&period;&nbsp&semi; It covers a long list of lies that may not be in the public’s mind&period;&nbsp&semi; This commentary is not based on &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;whataboutism” – although I feel confident that those on the left will be diverting the subject back to Trump&period;&nbsp&semi; This commentary is about BIDEN&comma; not Trump&period;&nbsp&semi; That is a different discussion&period;&nbsp&semi; Though not as well reported&comma; there has been some media fact-checking of Biden’s statements&period;&nbsp&semi; In addition to my own few contributions to the list of Biden lies&comma; the vast majority of those below are drawn from lists developed either by Politifact&comma; a publication of The Poynter Institute&comma; or the Washington Post – two organizations that even the most radical left-winger cannot call anti-Biden&period;&rpar;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>So&comma; let us look examples from a much more extensive Biden Record – first getting rid of a few oldies&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<ol class&equals;"wp-block-list"><li><strong>Biden lied about his schooling<&sol;strong> – claiming to be in the top quarter of his class when he was near the bottom&period;<&sol;li><li><strong>He said he was given an award for being an outstanding political science student<&sol;strong>&period;&nbsp&semi; He was not an outstanding student&comma; and never got an award&period;<&sol;li><li><strong>He claimed that he was on a full scholarship<&sol;strong>&comma; when&comma; in fact&comma; he received a very small scholarship&period;<&sol;li><li><strong>Biden was caught plagiarizing several times<&sol;strong> – serious enough to force him to end his 1987 campaign for President&period;<&sol;li><&sol;ol>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>Let us move on to some of the more recent and more dangerous lies by Biden&period;&nbsp&semi; Of course&comma; the worst of the worst have to do with his decision to precipitously remove all American troops from Afghanistan&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<ol class&equals;"wp-block-list" start&equals;"5"><li><strong>Biden said he had no choice because President Trump had reached an agreement with the Taliban&period;<&sol;strong>&nbsp&semi; Biden is deceptive on several points&period;&nbsp&semi; Trump’s agreement was conditional on Taliban participating in a coalition government – and explicitly banned them from taking over the country&period;&nbsp&semi; Trump had postponed his own deadlines because the Taliban were not complying&period;&nbsp&semi; Furthermore&comma; there was nothing in the Trump&sol;Taliban agreement that forced any action on Biden&period;&nbsp&semi; The Agreement could have been cancelled or amended by Biden&period;&nbsp&semi;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;li><li><strong>Biden reported to the world that the Afghan military was strong enough to keep the Taliban at bay<&sol;strong> even though he was told by his own intelligence and America’s allies that that was not true&period;<&sol;li><li><strong>On August 20&comma; 2021&comma; in a push-back against predictions of future terrorism&comma; said that al Qaeda is &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;gone” from Afghanistan&period;<&sol;strong>&nbsp&semi; The was despite a UN report that the terrorist group had significant presence in at least 15 provinces&period;<&sol;li><li><strong>In announcing the withdrawal&comma; Biden said that every American citizen and Afghan supporter would be taken out of Afghanistan before all troops would be withdrawn&period;<&sol;strong>&nbsp&semi; In fact&comma; hundreds of American citizens were left behind and thousands of Afghan supporters – and their families&period;<&sol;li><li><strong>He further stated that he would extend the exit deadline if that was necessary&period;<&sol;strong>&nbsp&semi; Both were lies – and as a result hundreds of U&period;S&period; citizens and thousands of Afghans with Special Visas have been left behind&comma; and many have already been murdered by the Taliban&period;<&sol;li><li><strong>Biden promoted his own lies about the withdrawal from Afghanistan in an earlier phone conversation with then-Afghan President Ashraf Ghani<&sol;strong>&comma; in which he confirmed that the experts believed that the government in Kabul was imperiled&comma; but &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;whether true or not&comma;” Biden said they had to change the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;optics&period;”&nbsp&semi; Not only was Biden lying&comma; but he wanted Ghani to lie&period;<&sol;li><li><strong>When the withdrawal turned chaotic and deadly&comma; Biden and the administration advanced the lie that they always knew it would be thus – and that no such withdrawal could be smooth&period;<&sol;strong>&nbsp&semi; In fact&comma; Biden repeatedly claimed it would be a peaceful withdrawal – saying it was not another Saigon&comma; a reference to the chaotic and deadly withdrawal from the Vietnam War&period; He also ignored the relatively more peaceful and organized departure from Afghanistan by the Russians&period;<&sol;li><li><strong>Biden called the evacuation of Americans and Afghans from the country a &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;great success&period;”&nbsp&semi; <&sol;strong>Planes leaving with empty seats and departing 40 minutes apart &&num;8230&semi; planes remaining idle on the tarmac &&num;8230&semi; the inability of thousands to reach the Kabul airport … and enabling the Taliban to control access to and security of the airport resulting in the deaths of 13 U&period;S&period; military and more than 200 potential evacuees … makes the statement an outrageous lie&period; Biden<strong> said that he assumes all responsibility for the withdrawal and the chaos&period;&nbsp&semi; He repeatedly said he regrets nothing and that the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;buck stops” at his desk&period; <&sol;strong>&nbsp&semi;Yet he blamed that tragic withdrawal on Trump&comma; the Afghan government&comma; the Afghan military and his own intelligence reports – although there are reports that suggests he was lying about that&period;<&sol;li><li><strong>Biden said all his military advisors were in agreement with the planned withdrawal&period;&nbsp&semi; <&sol;strong>That is contrary to most credible reports about the advice Biden received from the Pentagon&period;<&sol;li><li><strong>Biden said the withdrawal was supported by American allies<&sol;strong>&period;&nbsp&semi; That was strongly disputed by the public criticism by those allies&period;<&sol;li><li><strong>Biden said that American adversaries – such as Russia and China – would love to have the United States remain in Afghanistan&period;<&sol;strong>&nbsp&semi; In fact&comma; the withdrawal of America has been a huge benefit to both Russia and China – as well as other international adversaries&period;&nbsp&semi; China has already recognized the Taliban government and has offered aid in return for access to Afghan natural resources&period;&nbsp&semi; They are currently teaching the Taliban how to use the highly technical weaponry and equipment that Biden left behind&period;<&sol;li><li><strong>Biden said that over-the-horizon intelligence capability is as effective at fighting terrorism in Afghanistan as was the now ended on-the-ground network&period;&nbsp&semi; <&sol;strong>That lie has been effectively refuted by logic&comma; common knowledge and virtually every intelligence expert outside the Biden White House&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;li><&sol;ol>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p><strong>GENERAL SUBJECTS<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<ol class&equals;"wp-block-list" start&equals;"17"><li><strong>Biden claimed that he knew nothing about his son Hunter’s business dealings&period;<&sol;strong> It was later shown that he had had several meetings with Hunter’s business partners – and was alluded to as benefactor of some deal&period;<&sol;li><li>In Another theatre of operations&comma; <strong>Biden said&comma; <&sol;strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;politifact&period;com&sol;factchecks&sol;2019&sol;sep&sol;05&sol;joe-biden&sol;oe-biden-falsely-claims-he-immediately-opposed-ira&sol;"><strong>&OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;the moment it &lbrack;the Iraq&rsqb; started&comma; I came out against the war at that moment&period;&&num;8221&semi;<&sol;strong><&sol;a>&nbsp&semi; At the time&comma; Biden not only made public statements in support of the War&comma; but he voted to authorize it as a member of the Senate&period;<&sol;li><li><strong>Biden claimed that it was HIS plan to inoculate 100 million Americans in the first 100 days of his administration&period;<&sol;strong>&nbsp&semi; In fact&comma; the Trump administration announced in December its plan to have 100 million folks inoculated in the first 90 days of 2021&period;&nbsp&semi; Nothing the Biden administration could do in those first 100 days – moneywise or restructuring the inoculation programs &&num;8212&semi; could be changed&period;&nbsp&semi; Those 100 days were all the momentum of the Trump policies and programs&period;<&sol;li><li>Trump got roundly criticized for saying that things would be getting back to normal by Easter of 2020&period;&nbsp&semi; Of course&comma; that was not the case&period;&nbsp&semi; For his part&comma; <strong>Biden promised that 70 percent of Americans would be fully vaccinated by the Fourth of July 2021<&sol;strong>&period;&nbsp&semi; At one point prior to July Fourth&comma; the White House claimed that the number had passed the 60 percent mark&period;&nbsp&semi; By the end of August&comma; however&comma; fewer than 50 percent of Americans were fully vaccinated according to the Center for Disease Control&period;<&sol;li><li>During the 2020 campaign&comma; <strong>Biden made the absurdly untrue claim that ALL those who died of the Covid-19 Virus would still be alive if it were not for Trump’s policies&period;<&sol;strong><&sol;li><li>Biden accused Trump of saying Covid-19 was the &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Democrats’ new hoax&period;”&nbsp&semi; In the speech&comma; Trump mentioned Covid-19&comma; but NOT in conjunction with the word &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;hoax&period;”&nbsp&semi; That was an unrelated subject in the same speech&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;li><li>On May 3&comma; 2021&comma; <strong>Biden claimed there was &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;virtually no difference between white&comma; black&comma; Hispanic and Asian Americans 65 or older in the vaccination rates&period;<&sol;strong>&nbsp&semi; While there is no specific data to establish his claim&comma; other reports at the time indicated blacks and Hispanics had lower rates of vaccination than whites – and Asians had higher rates<&sol;li><li><strong>Biden claimed that he was &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;the first person to propose invoking the Defense Department Act to accelerate the production of Covid vaccines&period;”<&sol;strong>&nbsp&semi; In fact&comma; Trump’s Secretary of Health and Human Services had proposed it 18 days early and Trump approved the use of the Act prior to Biden’s speech&period;&nbsp&semi; Scores of folks on both sides of the aisle had proposed it before Biden&period;<&sol;li><li>Upon taking office&comma; <strong>Biden said&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;When I took office three weeks ago&comma; America didn’t have a plan or enough supplies to vaccinate most of the country&period;”<&sol;strong>&nbsp&semi; In fact&comma; Trump had a plan for both the purchase and distribution of the recently developed vaccine – and his Warp Speed program brought vaccines to the market in record time&period;&nbsp&semi; The Washington Post give Biden three Pinocchios for this one and awarded two to Vice President Harris for making the same false claim&period;<&sol;li><li>On September 12&comma; 2019&comma; during his campaign&comma; <strong>Biden insisted that the Obama administration &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;didn’t lock people in cages”<&sol;strong> – referring to those crossing the southern border illegally&period;&nbsp&semi; Not only were migrants locked in the same cyclone-fence &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;cages” that were criticized during the Trump administration&comma; but they were built and used by the Obama administration&period;<&sol;li><li><strong>Biden said that many racists had tried to become President of the United States&comma; but Trump is the only one to get elected<&sol;strong>&period;&nbsp&semi; This is a whopper&period;&nbsp&semi; Virtually all the presidents prior to Abraham Lincoln had racist tendencies and policies – even those who longed for the end of slavery&comma; such as Washington and Jefferson&period;&nbsp&semi; Andrew Jackson was a brutal white supremacist&period;&nbsp&semi; In post slavery times&comma; the most notable white supremacist presidents were Woodrow Wilson and Franklin Roosevelt – each of whom imposed harsh racist policies against black Americans&period;<&sol;li><li><strong>Biden claimed that the NAACP endorsed him &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;every time I ran<&sol;strong>&period;”&nbsp&semi; The NAACP does not endorse candidates&period;<&sol;li><li><strong>Biden claimed that 300&comma;000 babies are born deformed because of alcoholic mothers each year as part of his pitch for more government spending&period; &nbsp&semi; <&sol;strong>In fact&comma; the number of newborns affected with Fetal Alcohol Syndrome is approximately 40&comma;000 – and not all are deformed&period;<&sol;li><li><strong>Biden&comma; pushing for more money for cancer research&comma; claimed that more than 3000 Americans die each day of cancer&period;<&sol;strong>&nbsp&semi; That is essentially double the actual number&period;<&sol;li><&sol;ol>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<ol class&equals;"wp-block-list" start&equals;"31"><li><strong>Biden said his 1990s crime bills put 100&comma;000 additional police on the streets of American cities and resulted in an 8-year decline in crime rates&period;<&sol;strong>&nbsp&semi; The number of new police was actually around 60&comma;000 and the Government Accounting Office reported that those extra police had no meaningful effect on crime rates&period;<&sol;li><li><strong>In pushing for gun control&comma; Biden said that <&sol;strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;politifact&period;com&sol;factchecks&sol;2021&sol;jun&sol;25&sol;joe-biden&sol;joe-biden-gets-history-wrong-second-amendment-limi&sol;"><strong>&&num;8220&semi;The Second Amendment&comma; from the day it was passed&comma; limited the type of people who could own a gun and what type of weapon you could own&period;”<&sol;strong><&sol;a><strong>&nbsp&semi; <&sol;strong>The Second Amendment made no distinction of what kind of weapon a person may own&period;&nbsp&semi; State laws later barred freeman Negroes and slaves from owning guns&period;&nbsp&semi; The first federal restriction came in 1934&period;<&sol;li><li>In a related false claim&comma; <strong>Biden said that during the Revolutionary War&comma; private citizens were not allowed to own cannons&period;<&sol;strong>&nbsp&semi; Historians have found no evidence of such laws – and certainly not by the federal government&period;<&sol;li><li>At a CNN townhall&comma; <strong>Biden said <&sol;strong><a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;politifact&period;com&sol;factchecks&sol;2021&sol;feb&sol;18&sol;joe-biden&sol;joe-bidens-town-hall-mistake-about-inflation-index&sol;"><strong>&&num;8220&semi;If we kept &lpar;the minimum wage&rpar; indexed to inflation&comma; people would be making &dollar;20 an hour right now&period;”<&sol;strong><&sol;a>&nbsp&semi; In fact&comma; indexing the minimum wage to inflation would have produced a wage between &dollar;8&period;98 and &dollar;12&period;27&comma; depending on which year you started the process&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;li><li>In a CBS &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;60 Minutes” interview&comma; <strong>Biden said&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;I can send every qualified person to a four-year college in their state for &dollar;150 billion&period;” <&sol;strong>&nbsp&semi;The actual figure is between &dollar;300 and &dollar;450 billion&period;&nbsp&semi; A White House spokesperson conceded that Biden had &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;misspoken&period;”<&sol;li><li>In October of 2020&comma; <strong>Biden said &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The boilermakers union has endorsed me because I sat down with them and went into great detail with leadership &lbrack;about&rsqb; what I would do&period;”<&sol;strong>&nbsp&semi; He was specifically referring to Pittsburgh’s Local 54&period; &nbsp&semi; Biden was not endorsed by the international Union and Local 54 endorsed President Trump&period;<&sol;li><li>At an ABC townhall&comma; <strong>Biden accused the Trump administration of &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;eliminating funding for community policing&period;”<&sol;strong>&nbsp&semi; The program was not eliminated and was providing more than &dollar;200 million per year to local communities&period;<&sol;li><li>In a campaign interview with reporters&comma; <strong>Biden alleged that confirming Judge Amy Coney Barrett to the Supreme Court in an election year is &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;not constitutional&period;”<&sol;strong>&nbsp&semi; Totally untrue – and Judge Barrett was duly confirmed by the Senate in accordance with the Constitution&period;<&sol;li><li>In an effort to diminish the importance of a quick confirmation of Barrett&comma; <strong>Biden said that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;there were no Court sessions between now and the election&period;”<&sol;strong>&nbsp&semi; Untrue&period; The high Court was in session prior to the election&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;li><li>In a July 2020 meeting with leaders of the Service Employees International Union &lpar;SEIU&rpar;&comma; <strong>Biden said that McDonalds Corporation makes its members &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;sign noncompete contracts that you cannot go across town to try to get a job at Burger King&period;” <&sol;strong>&nbsp&semi;McDonalds did not – and never had&period;<&sol;li><li>In bragging about the success of the General Motors bailout&comma; <strong>Biden said that the auto company was &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;the largest company in the world again&period;”&nbsp&semi; <&sol;strong>Not even close&period;&nbsp&semi; GM is not among the top 50 largest companies in the world and is not even the largest auto company&period;&nbsp&semi; On the Forbes list&comma; GM was topped by Mercedes-Benz&comma; Toyota and Volkswagen&period;<&sol;li><li>In pumping up his international creds&comma; <strong>Biden said&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Secretary Blinken can tell you&semi; I spent a lot of time with President Xi — traveled over 17&comma;000 miles with him&period;”<&sol;strong>&nbsp&semi; The Washing to Post worked up a summary of Biden’s time travelling with Xi and reported that they could not come even close to that number&period;<&sol;li><li><strong>Biden repeatedly said that the new Georgia election law reduced the number of hours available for voting&period;<&sol;strong>&nbsp&semi; Totally untrue&period;&nbsp&semi; He repeated it so often that the Washington Post gave him four Pinocchios and referred to Biden as &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;a serial liar&period;”<&sol;li><li><strong>Biden also claimed that GOP election laws eliminate absentee balloting&period;<&sol;strong>&nbsp&semi; None of the laws being considered in the state legislatures eliminated mailed ballots&period;<&sol;li><li>Again&comma; referring to Georgia’s new election law&comma; <strong>Biden said&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;This is Jim Crow on steroids&comma; what they are doing in Georgia&period;”<&sol;strong>&nbsp&semi; The Washington Post considered this exaggeration to be so extreme it declared it a lie&period;<&sol;li><li><strong>Biden claimed that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;There’s a broad consensus of economists — left&comma; right&comma; center — and they agree that what I’m proposing will help create millions of jobs and generate historic economic growth&period;”<&sol;strong>&nbsp&semi; Not only is there no such consensus&comma; but many economists deemed to be liberals have raised concerns about Biden’s major spending plans&period;<&sol;li><li><strong>Biden claimed that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;The majority of &lbrack;gun owners&rsqb; think we should not be selling assault weapons&period;”<&sol;strong>&nbsp&semi; Virtually all polls show that the majority of gun owners oppose a so-called assault rifle ban&period;<&sol;li><li>In support of his tax-the-rich strategy&comma; <strong>Biden said&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;You know&comma; if you’re a husband and wife&comma; schoolteacher and a cop&comma; you’re paying at a higher rate than the average person making a billion dollars a year is&period;”<&sol;strong>&nbsp&semi; The Washington Post flagged this as a lie since the American tax code is progressive – meaning that higher income individuals pay a high rate of taxes&period;<&sol;li><li><strong>Biden claimed that 83 percent of the Trump tax breaks went to the upper one percent of the taxpayer<&sol;strong>&period;&nbsp&semi; In fact&comma; 80 percent of all Americans received a tax cut&period;<&sol;li><li>Shortly after his inauguration&comma;<strong> President Biden said&comma; &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;Under the previous administration&comma; the federal government contracts awarded directly to foreign companies went up 30 percent&period; That is going to change on our watch&period;”<&sol;strong>&nbsp&semi; The actual spending on foreign contracts decreased during the Trump administration&period;<&sol;li><li>In calling for a hike in the minimum wage&comma; Biden said that those earning less than &dollar;15-an-hour for a 40-hour week were living below the poverty level&period;&nbsp&semi; Actually&comma; that person would be above the poverty lever of &dollar;26&comma;500 for a family of four&period;<&sol;li><li>Biden planned to spend &dollar;9 billion for everyone to attend a community college for free&period;&nbsp&semi; <strong>He said the government &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;spends almost that much money as a break for people who own racehorses&period;”<&sol;strong> Way wrong&period;&nbsp&semi; There is a very small support for racehorse owners&comma; but it is so small that it is not even calculated in budget analyses&period;<&sol;li><li><strong>On March 25&comma; 2021&comma; Biden falsely stated that &OpenCurlyDoubleQuote;We’re sending back the vast majority of the families that are coming &lbrack;to the border&rsqb;&period;”<&sol;strong> &nbsp&semi; Border Patrol data for February 2021 – the first month that Biden effectively controlled the border – less than half the families were sent back&period;&nbsp&semi; More than half were sent back in January&comma; but that was still according to Trump policies that were immediately changed when Biden took office on January 20<sup>th<&sol;sup>&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;li><li>Biden said … &nbsp&semi; &nbsp&semi; &lpar;sigh&rpar; …<&sol;li><&sol;ol>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>This could go on for pages&comma; but you get the point&period; Many of the fact-checkers stopped or curtailed their activities after Biden was elected&period;&nbsp&semi; Based on my research &&num;8212&semi; and this is only a fraction of the documented lies I uncovered&period;&nbsp&semi; I do believe if the media used the same standards and the same resources&comma; Biden would be right up there in the tens of thousands of lies&period;&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;&NewLine;<p>The major difference between Trump and Biden is that Trump tends to tell more outrageous and lies that are more obviously untrue&comma; while Biden is much more strategic and tells lies that take unbiased research to uncover&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;

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