NY Times Ripped Over “Euphemism-Stuffed” Report on Biden’s Lies

The New York Times was mocked Tuesday for a euphemism-stuffed report on President Biden’s falsehoods, filled with such softened language as “embellished narratives, sometimes only loosely based on the facts, to weave together his political identity.”

The article, “Biden, Storyteller in Chief, Spins Yarns That Often Unravel,” by reporter Michael Shear and fact-checker Linda Qiu, noted the president “has been unable to break himself of the habit of embellishing narratives to weave a political identity.”

The Times piece spotlighted Biden’s recent claim that he “had a house burn down with my wife in it” when it turned out to actually be a small kitchen fire that was under control in 20 minutes. 

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“The story is not an isolated example of embellishment,” the Times noted. “The exaggerated biography that Mr. Biden tells includes having been a fierce civil rights activist who was repeatedly arrested. He has claimed to have been an award-winning student who earned three degrees. And last week, speaking on the hurricane-devastated island of Puerto Rico, he said he had been ‘raised in the Puerto Rican community at home, politically.’”

None of the claims made by Biden were accurate. 

“Biden’s folksiness can veer into folklore, with dates that don’t quite add up and details that are exaggerated or wrong, the factual edges shaved off to make them more powerful for audiences,” the Times reported. 

But the Times also made sure to note that former President Trump “lied constantly” and “Biden’s fictions are nowhere near that scale” before admitting Biden isn’t exactly truthful himself. 

“The president, over nearly five decades in public life, has been unable to break himself of the habit of spinning embellished narratives, sometimes only loosely based on the facts, to weave together his political identity. And they provide political ammunition for Republicans eager to tar him as too feeble to run for re-election in two years,” the Times article said.

“His stories have been repeatedly and publicly challenged, as far back as his 1987 campaign for president, when his attempts to adopt someone else’s life story as his own, and his false claims about his academic record, forced him to withdraw,” the article continued. 

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President Biden has been exaggerating stories for decades, The New York Times pointed out. 
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The Times then spoke with a Biden spokesperson who “disputed the characterization of Mr. Biden as a serial exaggerator” and an author who insists Biden’s constant lies are harmless. 

“With Biden, people have decided these are not the kind of lies that matter,” author Eric Alterman told the Times. “These are the kinds of lies that people’s grandfathers tell.” 

The Times then examined Biden’s recent claim that he had been “raised in the Puerto Rican community at home,” which appears to be a downright fib.  

“Biden made not a single mention of Puerto Rico in either of his biographies,” the Times reported before getting into whataboutism. 

“Many presidents, of course, have stretched the truth — in ways big and small,” the Times article said, noting that Bill Clinton famously lied under oath and “[Ronald] Reagan exaggerated his own actions.” 

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The Times then took the Republicans-pounce approach by declaring, “Biden’s critics have seized on his falsehoods to depict him as either a purposeful liar or a forgetful old man.” The piece revisited decades-old lies told by Biden, such as bogus claims he made during his first presidential run in 1987. The paper then pointed out claims he made in 2019 also turned out to be false. 

“Since becoming president earlier this year, he has continued to shave the truth,” the Times reported before publishing a laundry list of recent lies, exaggerations and falsehoods. 

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Many readers were less-than-pleased with the Times’ article and accused the paper of downplaying Biden’s lies. National Review senior writer Charles C.W. Cooke blasted the article in a short rebuttal piece.

“Check out these euphemisms! ‘Yarns that often unravel.’ ‘Unable to break himself of the habit of embellishing narratives to weave a political identity.’ ‘Folksiness can veer into folklore.’ ‘The factual edges shaved off,’” Cooke wrote. “So: Lying, then? Notably, the Times does not shy away from using that word — accurately, of course — to describe Biden’s predecessor.”

Others took to Twitter to criticize the Times: 

Fox News’ David Rutz contributed to this report. 

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