PHOTOS20 Times Joe Biden's Stories Needed to Be Fact-Checked
A Conversation with an Amtrak Conductor
The world heard the story about the Amtrak conductor again when President Joe Biden delivered a speech at an event in Milwaukee on August 15.
Every time he shares it, the POTUS always mentions a conductor named Angelo Negri, who praised him for traveling more on Amtrak than on Air Force planes when he was vice president. He also proclaims it as a "true story" whenever he does the retellings.
In her interview with CNN, Negri's stepdaughter confirmed that the conductor adored Biden, however, none of the events happened as Negri retired in 1993, 16 years before he became vice president.
Cancer Slip-Up
Biden tried to relate his "cancer battle" in his speech at the Somerset, Mass., power station, but he left everyone confused about his health status.
"That's why I and so d--- many other people I grew up (with) have cancer and why can — for the longest time, Delaware had the highest cancer rate in the nation," he said, according to the transcript released by the White House.
The public immediately responded to his speech on X, formerly Twitter, and shared the breaking news about Biden's announcement that he has cancer.
But White House spokesperson Andrew Bates wrote on the platform that the president was referring to the skin cancer he suffered from before becoming president.
Did He Work with Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir?
In December 2021, Biden spoke at a White House menorah lighting for Hanukkah and recounted his 1973 meeting with former Israeli Prime Minister Golda Meir.
"And during the Six-Day War, I had an opportunity to – she invited me to come over because I was going to be the liaison between she and the Egyptians about the Suez, and so on and so forth," he said in the speech.
In reality, the meeting happened five weeks before the Yom Kippur War in 1973. The Six-Day War he spoke about took place in 1976.
Did Joe Biden Become a Full-time Professor at the University of Pennsylvania?
Biden frequently claims he served as a full-time professor at the University of Pennsylvania for four years. According to the tax reforms he shared, he reportedly received over $900,000 from the university for the position – although he never taught a single class.
The Daily Pennsylvanian featured the time the university hired Biden. Spokesperson Stephen MacCarthy said the president's role was "still uncertain," but a student wrote that he would do nothing but "show his face on campus."
Driving an 18-Wheeler With Big Mama
In April 2022, Biden praised truckers for their contributions and related their stories to what reportedly happened to him. In his speech, he said he used to drive a truck and mentioned a woman he called Big Mama.
But fact-checkers discovered that he never drove an 18-wheeler truck and only "rode in" one for one night in 1973.
Gay Men in Suits Kissing
On August 10, he told another version of his story about gay men in suits kissing in the early 1960s in downtown Wilmington.
Biden himself told The New York Times and Los Angeles Times the same story, but they had different plots.
He Hit a Ball at a Congressional Baseball Game
The public does not know if Biden was truly able to hit the ball 368 feet off the right-centerfield wall or if it was the storytelling that went overboard.
According to a 1974 article, the latter was the one that happened as the game went 0-2.
His Involvement in the Civil Rights Movement and His Arrests
In Biden's lifetime, he has recollected his civil rights activities less than ten times in public, and yet his reminiscences constantly shift.
For instance, he claimed in his speeches that his mother warned him not to join the protests and that he was arrested for standing with a Black couple.
"Remember when I told you not to go down there, Honey, because everybody is protesting and you got arrested standing with the family on the porch," he cited his mother in the 2017 version of the story.
While a Black couple indeed protested in the same neighborhood, it turned out that the president was referring to a protest that occurred outside a real estate agent's home near where he lived as a teenager.
In 2020, Biden insisted he was arrested in South Africa when he tried to see Nelson Mandela. He changed his narrative and said he was "stopped" at the airport while traveling with a congressional delegation.
Both accounts were proven false.
His Meeting with the Inventor of Insulin
Biden spoke about the Inflation Reduction Act in October 2022, telling his supporters in Hallandale Beach, Fla., that he talked to the man who invented the insulin.
"How many of you know somebody with diabetes and needs insulin?" he asked. "Do you know how much it costs to make that insulin drug for diabetes? … It was invented by a man who did not patent it because he wanted it available for everyone. I spoke to him, OK?"
Frederick Banting, a physician and scientist who discovered the hormone, died on February 21, 1941, over a year before Biden was born.
His Nomination to the Naval Academy
In May 2022, the president delivered a speech to the Naval Academy graduates and said he was appointed to the academy in 1965 by a senator he went up against in the 1972 election.
Biden, who has been known for sharing stories that did not happen, graduated from the University of Delaware in 1965 – the same year he falsely claimed he was appointed to the Naval Academy. The United States Naval Academy does not have graduate degrees.
When asked about the claim, White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said she did not see that part in Biden's speech.
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His Work at an Idaho Lumber Company
At an event in Idaho about wildfires, Biden said he received his first job offer from Boise Cascade — a local lumber company in the state — and that he always told the late Democratic Senator Frank Church about it.
"And in the meantime there was a war going on. Anyway. But the whole point was that I used to always kid Frank," he declared.
The business responded to Biden's speech and told The New York Post they have no record of his application or having him worked for the company since they started.
His Grandpa Was a Coal Miner
Biden's slip-ups and missteps also include stories he created about his family members, including his grandfather working as a coal miner. He repeated the same story over the past few years, although he admitted in a 2004 interview on The Daily Show that he just made it up.
The Story of Grandfather's Death and His Birth
During the April North America's Building Trades Unions Legislative Conference, the 80-year-old president claimed that his grandfather died in the same hospital where he was born two weeks later.
According to an obituary, his grandfather, Joseph H. Biden, died on September 26, 1941, in Baltimore's Johns Hopkins Hospital. Biden was born on November 20, 1942, at St. Mary's Hospital in Scranton, Pa.
Was Joe Biden on the Football Team?
Biden created his own football team and a nonexistent football position when he appeared in an interview with Norah O'Donnell on a CBS Super Bowl pregame show. He took his time to recall an account that never happened, saying he was a pretty good receiver when he was young.
"I had wild dreams," Biden said. "It wasn't to be president. I thought I could be a flanker back in the NFL."
He repeated the same statement in a 2022 speech, saying he could have been an All-American member because of his flankerback's skills.
While he made up the story and the football position, his University of Delaware roommate Donald Brunner confirmed that they indeed played football – but as part of a freshmen team. However, Biden quit after his father made him do so because of his grades.
That Small Fire That Burned Down the House
Biden was caught making another exaggerated story when he spoke about his Delaware home and the fire that burned it down while his wife, Jill Biden, was inside. He also claimed they almost lost a lot of firefighters who tried to contain it.
"And I know, having had a house burn down with my wife in it — she got out safely, God willing — that having a significant portion of it burn, I can tell: 10 minutes makes a hell of a difference," he said.
However, fire officials and responders told the Associated Press that only a small fire in the kitchen happened and there were no injuries.
The Story of a Dead Dog
During the 2022 National Association of Counties conference, Biden recalled the time he was a County Council member when a woman asked him to remove a dead dog from her lawn.
"And I said, 'Yes, ma'am.' I said, 'Have you called county?' She said, 'Yes, they're not here,'" Biden reminisced. "I said, 'Well, I'll get them in the morning.' She said, 'I want it removed now. I pay your salary.' So, I went over. I picked it up. She said, 'I want it out of my front yard.' I put it on her doorstep."
He suffered criticism after the event, with people calling him out for leaving the dog on the doorstep.
But a year later, he told the same story but said he did not leave it and completely removed it.
Tree of Life Synagogue Fact-Checked Biden's Claim
Biden made another bizarre story about how he was "raised in the synagogues" of Delaware.
"I, you might say, was raised in the synagogues of my state. You think I'm kidding, I'm not," he said. "I probably went to shul more than many of you did. You all think I'm kidding … I'm not. I'm not."
He previously claimed he was raised by a Puerto Rican community, leaving everyone confused about the two stories.
Where Was He Raised?
In relation to his "raised in the synagogues" claim, Biden attracted condemnation in Puerto Rico in 2022 when he said he was raised in the Puerto Rican community at home, although there were only around 2,000 Puerto Ricans in Delaware when he started his career.
He also only mentioned it when he had to establish his connection to his audiences.
Uncle Frank Never Had a Purple Heart
On December 16, 2022, at a Delaware Veterans Summit Town Hall, Biden told the veterans about his Uncle Frank, who fought during World War II's Battle of the Bulge and was awarded with Purple Heart but never received it.
According to Biden, he arranged an event to give it to his uncle after he became the vice president. However, his uncle died in 1999 – a decade before he was elected.
Was He Shot Abroad?
Biden's habit of creating stories started decades ago, and his lying spree also reached the CNN-hosted Democratic Presidential Debate in 2007.
He claimed he was shot at while in Iraq but later changed his story and said, "I was near where a shot landed."
