Biden Reiterates False Claim He's Been to Afghanistan, Iraq Over 50 Times

Earlier this week, Politico reported that Joe Biden’s aides avoid using the Oval Office for press events “in part because it can’t be permanently equipped with a teleprompter”. The 46th US president has repeatedly been mocked for numerous slipups, with some observers claiming that POTUS’ cognitive abilities are only deteriorating with time.

US President Joe Biden has reiterated his debunked assertions that he has visited Afghanistan more than 50 times over the course of his long political career, while also apparently mixing up Iraq and Iran.

“I’ve been in and out of Afghanistan, Iran, and Iraq, I mean Iraq over 50 times, 48 times, and now what we are doing in Ukraine. Been there. Tell you what, you make a gigantic difference,” POTUS told workers during a tour of United Performance Metals in Hamilton, Ohio on Friday.

The 46th US president has repeatedly made weird claims about the number of times he has visited Iraq and Afghanistan. In his State of the Union speech in March, Biden asserted that he had “been in and out of Iraq and Afghanistan over 40 times.”

In 2019, POTUS argued that he had been to Iraq and Afghanistan “over 30 times” while telling a dramatic yet fake story about him travelling to Afghanistan to give kudos to the heroism of a US Navy captain.

The Washington Post's debunking of the story was followed by Biden’s election campaign pointing out at the time that the correct number of his trips to Afghanistan stands at 21. According to the campaign, most of the trips took place when Biden was serving as a US senator from 1973 to 2009.

Friday’s Afghanistan gaffe was the latest in a series of Biden slip-ups over the past several weeks. On Thursday, he hosted Mexico's First Lady Beatriz Gutierrez Muller during a Cinco de Mayo event in the Rose Garden of the White House, calling her “Madam President”.

This came a few days after Biden’s speech on Tuesday in Alabama about Washington’s military aid to Kiev, in which he, in particular, said that the US “made sure Russia had Javelins [shoulder-fired anti-tank missile systems]” and praised the successful “Hungarian” resistance to Moscow’s “invasion”.

POTUS referred to Russia’s ongoing special military operation to "demilitarise and de-Nazify" Ukraine that was ordered by President Vladimir Putin on 24 February, following a request for help from the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics, which saw weeks of intense shelling by the Ukrainian Army.

Biden’s Tuesday jab was preceded by POTUS referring to himself as Delaware’s first senator instead of its first president. Also, he has repeatedly spoken about “President” Kamala Harris, who currently serves as the US vice president.

A Politico/Morning Consult poll conducted late last year revealed that only 40% of respondents believe that Biden - the oldest president in US history - is in good health. The survey also indicated that just 41% of voters think the 46th president is capable overall to lead the US.