Get all your news in one place.
100’s of premium titles.
One app.
Start reading
Axios
Axios
Politics
Rashaan Ayesh

"The details are irrelevant": Joe Biden responds to war story misrepresentation

Photo: Alex Wroblewski/Getty Images

Former Vice President Joe Biden said that his verbal slip-ups and gaffes over the course of the 2020 campaign — specifically his misrepresentation of a 2008 war story — do not impact his ability to be president during an interview with NPR.

"I was making a point about a generation. That has nothing to do with judgment of whether or not you send troops to war, the judgment of whether you bring someone home, the judgment of whether you decide on a health care policy. ... The details are irrelevant in terms of decision-making."

The backdrop: Biden got almost every detail incorrect about the 2008 war story, first reported by the Washington Post, which centered on him pinning a medal on a U.S. service member in Afghanistan. His account seems rooted in an actual medal ceremony that took place in 2011, and Biden has defended his misrepresentations, saying he got the "essence" of the story correct.

Sign up to read this article
Read news from 100’s of titles, curated specifically for you.
Already a member? Sign in here
Related Stories
Top stories on inkl right now
One subscription that gives you access to news from hundreds of sites
Already a member? Sign in here
Our Picks
Fourteen days free
Download the app
One app. One membership.
100+ trusted global sources.