(DCWatchdog.com) – President Joe Biden has told a bizarre story in which he claimed that as Vice President of the United States, he helped his uncle receive a Purple Heart military medal even though his uncle had passed away years earlier.
Biden’s narration about his uncle’s alleged Purple Heart came during a town hall meeting with veterans in New Castle, Delaware.
He claimed that after he was elected Vice President in 2008, he took advantage of his status to ensure his uncle received the military medal.
According to Biden, his uncle Frank Biden had been awarded a Purple Heart for fighting in the Battle of the Bulge in France in World War II but had never actually received it.
“But the story’s timeline doesn’t add up, and there is no firm record that Frank Biden was awarded the medal, prompting head-scratching about the story,” The Washington Times wrote in a report.
According to the Democrat president’s story, Joseph Biden Sr., his father, prompted him to go through with the effort.
“My dad, when I got elected vice president, he said, ‘Joey, Uncle Frank fought in the Battle of the Bulge,’” the president said.
“He was not feeling very well now — not because of the Battle of the Bulge, but he said, ‘and he won the Purple Heart and never received it. He never got it. Do you think you could help him get it? Then, we will surprise him,’” he elaborated.
“So I got him the Purple Heart. He had won it in the Battle of the Bulge. And I remember he came over the house, and I came out, and [Biden Sr.] said, ‘Present it to him, OK?’ We had the family there,” Biden added.
The president’s timeline, however, does not add up since his father and uncle had passed away by the time he was elected vice president in 2008.
His uncle died in 1999 and his father – in 2002, which “makes the scenario impossible.”
The report noted that Bide may have “misspoken’ as he may have been thinking about when he became a US senator in 1973 rather than the vice president in 2009.
The New York Post reported it could not find any evidence that Joe Biden’s uncle, Frank Biden, was ever awarded the Purple Heart medal.
“Frank Biden’s tombstone does not identify him as a Purple Heart honoree, nor does his obituary. A partial registry of known Purple Heart recipients also doesn’t note anyone by that name receiving the award, though that database is not comprehensive,” the NYP said.
The report cautioned that registration with the Purple Heart “Roll of Honor” is voluntary, and not all recipients are registered.
Biden’s story about his uncle sounds similar to the story about his friendship with an Amtrak conductor, who passed away long before the story timeline. The president has told the debunked story seven times in public, claiming the conductor.
