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President Biden on Friday again exaggerated the number of times he had traveled to the Middle East as he gave an award ceremony to graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy in Maryland.
“I’ve been in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan for over 40, I think 38 times,” he said.
However, this number was incorrect. A spokesman for the Biden National Security Council (NSC) said on Friday that Biden’s exact number of visits to Iraq and Afghanistan was 21.
US President Joe Biden, March 31, 2022. The Biden White House recently relinquished several of the president’s comments. (REUTERS / Kevin Lamarck / Photo)
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Biden commented on Friday in the context of congratulating Naval Academy graduates on being “members of the greatest military force in the history of the world.” The president said that based on his visits to the Middle East and his family’s military service, he had first-hand information on the quality of the US military.
“I’ve seen you in action, this is the best army, it’s not a joke, we have the best army in the history of the world,” Biden said.
Friday’s statement is not the first time Biden has made false claims about how often he has visited the Middle East. While running for president, Biden said at least once that he had been to Iraq and Afghanistan “more than 30 times,” according to the Washington Post.
President Biden spoke with alumni of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, on Friday. (iStock)
As a presidential candidate, Biden also told at least one “touching but false” military story, according to the Washington Post, which mixed several events freely together to create a story that “never happened.”
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Friday’s explanation from the NSC is just the latest of several recent comments from the president that his team must return.
Most recently, the White House was forced to clear Biden’s comment that the United States could defend Taiwan militarily if attacked by China.
Earlier this year, Biden made a blunder, saying the United States may have no response to Russia’s “minor invasion” of Ukraine, from which its staff returned. And in Warsaw, Poland this year, Biden said “this man cannot stay in power,” referring to Putin. The White House quickly clarified that Biden was not calling for regime change in Russia.
President Joe Biden spoke at the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus on Tuesday, July 6, 2021, in Washington. (AP Photo / Evan Vucci) (AP Photo / Evan Vucci)
Also during a speech to Naval Academy graduates, Biden highlighted his approach to US foreign policy, including his focus on alliances. He also said that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine was having the opposite effect as Western alliances grew stronger.
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“The actions taken by Putin were an attempt to use my phrase, to Finnishize the whole of Europe, to make it neutral,” Biden said, using a term that refers to Finland’s neutrality during the Cold War. “Instead, he harassed the whole of Europe.”
“Putin’s brutal, brutal war in Ukraine, he is not only trying to take over Ukraine, he is really trying to erase the culture and identity of the Ukrainian people,” Biden said, raising his voice in outrage. “Attacking schools, crèches, hospitals, museums with no purpose other than eliminating culture, direct encroachment on the basic principles of the rules-based international order. That’s what you graduate from. “
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