I have nothing but the utmost respect for Fox News senior political analyst Brit Hume, but I have to take exception to a tweet he posted last weekend in response to Joe Biden’s Vermont-New Hampshire confusion. Hume wrote that some of the former veep’s recent gaffes “suggest the kind of memory loss associated with senility. E.G: This one, plus forgetting remembering he was not vp when meeting Parkland students, twice confusing Theresa May with Margaret Thatcher.”
With all due respect, this is the sort of blind conjecture the Left is guilty of when it renders diagnoses of Donald Trump’s mental state. Unless Hume obtained a degree in psychiatry when no one was looking, he was out of his depth when he penned that tweet.
Having said that, I agree that Biden’s missteps are becoming more frequent and more colossal. So much so that on Thursday, the Washington Post (yes, the Washington Post!) chronicled what is likely a record for any candidate running for high office, writing, “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.”
Will this presidential election be the most important in American history?
When you’ve lost the the Washington Post…!
The megagaffe occurred at “a college meeting hall” packed with 400 people for whom “Biden painted a vivid scene”:
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.
We can lose a vice president, but we can’t lose many more of these kids? That’s bad grade B movie writing! But the most quotable line from this flight of fancy should become Joe’s new campaign slogan, and should be flashed on a screen behind him when he speaks at all future campaign events. That line is “My word as a Biden.”
