President Biden on Monday repeated a false personal story about an Amtrak driver who allegedly proclaimed, “Joey, baby!” as he extols Biden’s train ridership, even as fact-checkers repeatedly debunk the story.
Biden told the anecdote twice on Monday during a pro-rail event in Delaware, bringing his total number of stories to at least 12 since he took office as president.
The first version Monday was heard by the group’s reporters as the 80-year-old president spoke with Amtrak employees just before a speech in Bear, Delaware, near Wilmington.
After taking the stage, Biden retold the big story, adding details that moved the version even further from established facts.
“When I was vice president, I flew more than a million miles on Air Force Two, but I traveled farther on Amtrak over the years,” Biden said while touting rail spending in the bipartisan 2021 infrastructure bill.
Workers look on as President Joe Biden delivers remarks on his “Bidenomy” economic agenda on Monday. AFP via Getty Images
“I was coming home to see my mom and I just…she was living at the time, my dad had passed away. And I got on the train on a Friday and I’m not picking it up. [the Amtrak conductor] in complete trouble, I’ll only tell you his name, but I’ll only tell you his name. He was number two in seniority at the time, Angelo,” Biden said.
“And Ang came up to me as I was walking in and said, ‘Joey!’ and she grabbed my cheek and said, ‘Joey, baby!’
President Biden greets attendees during his visit to an Amtrak maintenance facility in Bear, Delaware, on Monday.REUTERS Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg listens as President Biden delivers remarks Monday on infrastructure during an event in the Amtrak maintenance facilities.REUTERS
“They had just published in the newspaper that I had traveled 1,200,000 miles on Air Force planes as vice president, they published it regularly,” the president continued.
“He said ‘Great…’ (I won’t quote him exactly) but he said, ‘Great deal, Joey!’
“And I said, ‘What does it mean, Ang?’ And he said…do you know how many miles you traveled on Amtrak? I said no.’ He said: ‘A million… [and] 320,000 miles.’ And I said, ‘How do you figure that out?’ And he said, ‘Well, 180 days a year, almost 300 miles a day, 36 years.’ “
Biden told the contrived anecdote twice at the event.AFP via Getty Images
The story was rated “False” in 2021 by CNN “Facts First” reporter Daniel Dale, who noted that Biden did not reach 1 million miles aboard Air Force Two until September 2015, long after Biden’s retirement. Amtrak’s Angelo Negri in 1993 and his death in May 2014. Biden’s daily private agenda as vice president included a note about how many Air Force miles he had traveled.
Biden, who will turn 81 this month, retold the story as polls indicate that most voters think he is too old to serve another four-year term, and a New York Times poll released Sunday found that the 71% of voters in swing states say so.
The oldest commander in chief in history also has a decades-long propensity for embellishing personal stories and was forced to abandon his first presidential bid in 1987 due to plagiarism of speeches and a law school paper, as well as exaggerations about their academic performance. .
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Source: vtt.edu.vn