An Awkward Relationship with Truth

President Trump had a reputation for saying things that simply failed to correspond to reality, and many people thought President Biden would bring to the White House a welcome change in this regard.

Boy, were they mistaken. In the prevarication sweepstakes it's hard to say which of the two men is the frontrunner, but given that we're only sixteen months into the Biden tenure, it seems safe to say that by the time he's done in office, old Joe will be the undisputed GOAT among presidential taradiddlers.

Jim Geraghty documents some of Mr. Biden's more egregious affronts against the truth:

By the time Omicron arrived and as runaway inflation had become the most pressing problem facing the country, Americans had heard a lot of assurances from President Biden that the problems on Americans’ minds weren’t as bad as they looked, or would be short lived, or that he and his team had everything under control.

• “It happens every single, solitary year: There is a significant increase in the number of people coming to the border in the winter months of January, February, March. That happens every year.”
• “There’s nobody suggesting there’s unchecked inflation on the way — no serious economist. That’s totally different.”
• “I trust the capacity of the Afghan military, who is better trained, better equipped, and more re- — more competent in terms of conducting war.”
• “The Taliban is not the south — the North Vietnamese army. They’re not — they’re not remotely comparable in terms of capability. There’s going to be no circumstance where you see people being lifted off the roof of an embassy in the — of the United States from Afghanistan.”

It wasn’t just that Biden’ pledges and promises were contradicted by subsequent events; it’s that the contradiction came quickly, indisputably, vividly, and memorably. It is as if the weatherman assured you that it wouldn’t rain, and then you survived a hurricane.

Under Biden, long-simmering problems like the border, or crime, suddenly take a turn for the much worse, while the seemingly oblivious president tells his favorite not-quite-true story of riding a million miles on Amtrak for the 30th time.

In the past year, Biden has claimed he used to drive a tractor-trailer; that he was arrested during the civil-rights movement; that “for four years, I was a full professor at the University of Pennsylvania” (he never taught a class and was paid nearly $1 million to be a guest lecturer); that, “during the Six-Day War,” former Israeli prime minster Golda Meir wanted him to be her “liaison between she and the Egyptians about the Suez”; and that he nearly hit a home run in the congressional softball game (he grounded out and struck out).

Is Biden senile? The problem in attempting to answer this question is that it’s hard to separate a near-octogenarian’s failing memory with Biden’s long history of exaggerations, half-truths, and lies.

As David Harsanyi tracked, in previous years Biden claimed to have been shot at, participated in sit-ins, represented the Black Panthers in court, and attended law school on a full academic scholarship, and he also claimed that everyone on Capitol Hill calls him “Middle Class Joe” as a derisive nickname — claims that either have no corroborating evidence or have been proven false.

Geraghty links to all of this in his column so you should go there if you want to follow up on some of his claims.

Whether senility is the appropriate diagnosis or not, Mr. Biden is clearly confused, which is quite alarming given that he's ostensibly the most powerful man in the world. After a recent speech, for example, he appears to attempt to shake hands with someone who's not there:

The suspicion is growing that someone else, or perhaps several others, are making decisions for him and that he's just a figurehead. Geraghty hints at this when he notes that:

On any given day, Biden can say something that his staff later emphatically insists is not his administration’s policy or position.

Just recently we have been informed that Biden’s shouting “for God’s sake, this man cannot remain in power!” does not mean that the Biden administration believes Vladimir Putin cannot remain in power, and that Biden’s repeated declaration that Putin is committing genocide does not mean that the Biden administration is accusing Vladimir Putin of committing genocide.

We are stuck with a president who does not speak on behalf of his own administration.

Little wonder that his approval ratings are about as dismal as these things can possibly be.