Biden falsely claiming he turned against Iraq War 'the moment' invasion was launched
by Joseph Simonson
| September 06, 2019 12:21 PM
Joe Biden has given a false account of when he turned against the Iraq War and cited details of a conversation with George W. Bush that the former president's aides in 2003 and his current spokesman dismiss as wholly untrue.
Biden, his party 2020 front-runner, said in the second Democratic presidential debate: "From the moment 'shock and awe' started, I was opposed to the effort and outspoken as much as anyone at all in the Congress and administration."
He amplified the claim this week, adding vivid detail about what he claims President George W. Bush told him beforehand.
“He looked me in the eye in the Oval Office," he told NPR this week , referring to 2002, when he was Senate Foreign Relations Committee chairman. "He said he needed the vote to be able to get inspectors into Iraq to determine whether or not Saddam Hussein was engaged in dealing with a nuclear program. He got them in and before you know it, we had ‘shock and awe.' Immediately, that moment it started, I came out against the war at that moment."
But Biden continued to publicly back military action in Iraq for many months after the March 2003, U.S.-led invasion. In a July 2003 Senate floor speech, Biden, by ranking member on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, stood squarely behind the invasion.
"I personally think this job is doable, or I wouldn't have voted for us going into Iraq in the first place. I think it is doable," Biden . "And I voted to go into Iraq and I'd vote to do it again."
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