'Oh my gosh this is really bad': A lot of details in Joe Biden's war story just don't add up

Sarah D | 1:56 PM on August 29, 2019

Just when you thought it couldn’t get any worse for Joe Biden, along comes … Joe Biden:

NEW: As he campaigns for president, Joe Biden tells a harrowing story of military sacrifice, punctuating it with “This is the God’s truth.” The only problem? Every detail in the story appears to be incorrect. Via @mviser and @gregjaffe https://t.co/XS2r0qM1xz

— Ashley Parker (@AshleyRParker) August 29, 2019

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.

Biden visited Kunar province in 2008 as a U.S. senator, not as vice president. The service member who performed the celebrated rescue that Biden described was a 20-year-old Army specialist, not a much older Navy captain. And that soldier, Kyle J. White, never had a Silver Star, or any other medal, pinned on him by Biden. At a White House ceremony six years after Biden’s visit, White stood at attention as President Barack Obama placed a Medal of Honor, the nation’s highest award for valor, around his neck.

The upshot: 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.

Yeesh.

Oh boy….

— ☞ carey moore ☜ (@careymoore615) August 29, 2019

Oh my gosh this is really bad.

“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.” https://t.co/5lu6NTWpe4

— Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) August 29, 2019