Is Everything About Joe Biden Just an Act? – Over his more than five decades as a lawmaker, President Joe Biden has told numerous stories where the facts don’t always add up.
That is true of his anecdotes about an Amtrak conductor, his tales of driving a truck, his yarns of how he once taught the law, and of course, his seemingly improbable quip of how as a lifeguard he confronted a local hoodlum named “Corn Pop!”
If a biography is ever made of the president, it will be hard to know where the truth ends and the fiction begins.
What is True About Biden?
We know he has had a life of tragedy – his wife and young daughter were killed in an automobile accident, while his son Beau Biden died of brain cancer. It is also true that Biden never lost to a general-election opponent in a political career that saw him rise from Delaware’s New Castle Country Council all the way to the Oval Office.
Those are of course undisputable facts, while everything else remains questionable, blurry, muddied, and at times even confusing. He’s a smiling senior who talks of his love of ice cream, only to yell at staffers to the point that no one wants to confront him alone.
He has tried to paint himself as a family man – he’s a senior citizen who loves his grandchildren and talks to them all the time. Yet, it was only recently that he acknowledged he has seven not six grandchildren after finally acknowledging his son’s illegitimate daughter.
Biden has called for stricter gun laws, so much so that he essentially made up facts about the Second Amendment that simply aren’t true. Yet, his troubled son Hunter (father of the aforementioned daughter) received what Republicans say was a “sweetheart” deal on federal tax and firearm possession charges.
Moreover, President Biden has expressed pride for his son – despite those legal troubles, despite the ongoing investigations, despite Hunter’s drug addiction, despite his being forced to resign from the U.S. Navy after receiving special treatment, and even despite the fact he had an affair with his brother’s widow. Such unconditional love may not seem uncommon, and maybe these issues should be seen as a personal matter, but it suggests that perhaps Joe Biden wasn’t an ideal parent!
As NBC News even reported, there is now some concern within the Democratic Party that all of the Hunter Biden storylines are creating a distraction from former President Donald Trump’s character. It may not be enough to sway Democratic voters, but it could be cause for some independents to consider whether they believe the Biden narrative.
Then there are all of those stories – the ones mentioned previously, as well as countless others. Biden is a master storyteller. Much of it goes back to those five decades of not losing an election. Biden was used to a time when the media didn’t fact-check every statement that came out of a candidate’s mouth and in a time before social media, where a quip was forgotten minutes after it was said.
Of course, Joe Biden is hardly the first politician – even hardly the first president – who has exaggerated, fibbed, or even lied. Yet, Biden does it so often and with so much authority, while at the same time talking down to all of us “folks” that we have to wonder if he just thinks the voters are stupid.
Author Experience and Expertise
A Senior Editor for 19FortyFive, Peter Suciu is a Michigan-based writer. He has contributed to more than four dozen magazines, newspapers, and websites with over 3,200 published pieces over a twenty-year career in journalism. He regularly writes about military hardware, firearms history, cybersecurity, politics, and international affairs. Peter is also a Contributing Writer for Forbes and Clearance Jobs. You can follow him on Twitter: @PeterSuciu.
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