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President Biden Friday again exaggerated the number of times he has been to the Middle East, while delivering a graduation speech to graduates of the United States Naval Academy in Maryland.
“I’ve been in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan more than 40 times, I think 38 times,” the president said.
This figure, however, was incorrect. A spokesman for Biden’s National Security Council (NSC) said on Friday that the correct number of times Biden had visited Iraq and Afghanistan was 21.
U.S. President Joe Biden March 31, 2022. The Biden White House has backtracked on some of the president’s comments recently. (REUTERS / Kevin Lamarque / Photo Archive)
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Biden made the comment Friday in the context of congratulating Naval Academy graduates for being “members of the largest combat force in world history.” The president said that from his visits to the Middle East and his family’s military service, he knew first-hand the quality of the U.S. military.
“I saw you in action, this is the best military man, it’s not a joke, we have the best military man in the history of the world,” Biden said.
Friday’s statement was not the first time Biden has made a false statement about how often he has visited the Middle East. While running for president, Biden said he had been to Iraq and Afghanistan at least once “more than 30 times,” according to the Washington Post.
President Biden spoke with graduates of the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, Maryland, on Friday. (iStock)
As a presidential candidate, Biden also told at least one “shifting but false” war story, according to the Washington Post, which combined several events to create a narrative that “never happened.”
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The NSC’s Friday clarification is also just the latest from the president’s recent comments that his team should return.
More recently, the White House was forced to clear a comment Biden made stating that the U.S. could defend Taiwan militarily if attacked by China.
Earlier this year, Biden made a joke saying that the US might not have a response to a “minor raid” by Russia on Ukraine, which its staff returned. And in Warsaw, Poland, this year, Biden said, “this man cannot remain in power,” referring to Putin. The White House quickly clarified that Biden was not calling for a regime change in Russia.
President Joe Biden speaks in the South Court Auditorium on the White House campus on Tuesday, July 6, 2021 in Washington. (Photo by AP / Evan Vucci) (Photo by AP / Evan Vucci)
Also during his speech to Naval Academy graduates, Biden promoted his focus on U.S. foreign policy, including his emphasis on alliances. He also said that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s war against Ukraine is becoming counterproductive as Western nations’ alliances become stronger.
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“Putin’s actions were an attempt, to use my phrase, to Finnishize the whole of Europe, to make everything neutral,” Biden said, using a term that refers to Finland’s neutrality during the Cold War. “Instead, he NATOized the whole of Europe.”
“Putin’s brutal and brutal war in Ukraine is not only trying to take over Ukraine, but it is really trying to eliminate the culture and identity of the Ukrainian people,” Biden also said, raising his voice indignantly. “Attacking schools, kindergartens, hospitals, museums with no other purpose than to eliminate a culture, a direct assault on the fundamental principles of the rules-based international order. That’s what you graduate from. “