Biden today repeated the falsest version of his claim about where he'd stood on the Iraq War

[Mersky]

84. Biden opposed the Gulf War (1990-91) from the beginning

Last edited Wed Jan 8, 2020, 12:48 PM - Edit history (1)

Is it possible that he could have had long-standing resistance to military action against Iraq, but reluctantly voted for action after 9/11 based on the bush administration push with claims of WMDs, etc? Yes. Seems he DID have a different idea in his initial work with Lugar, and before the unfortunate vote (see below).

I wonder if this is what he’s meant all along, but hasn’t been able to explain for reasons that can’t fit into a sound bite for these gotcha moments.

And if he seems defensive, perhaps that’s because holding up his vote for the Iraq War (2003) as evidence of being some kind of unilateralist warhawk is inconsistent with his record and reputation. No one insinuates this with Bernie, and really shouldn’t with Biden either.

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References below pulled from citations 121 & 127 as seen on Joe Biden’s Wikipedia page on January 8, 2020: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Biden

https://www.nytimes.com/1991/01/13/world/confrontation-gulf-congress-acts-authorize-war-gulf-margins-are-5-votes-senate.html

Senator Joseph R. Biden Jr., Democrat of Delaware, scorned the other members of the anti-Iraq coalition, "a coalition that has allowed us to take on 95 percent of the sacrifice across the board."

https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-2008-aug-24-na-foreignpol24-story.html

When the current Bush administration began pushing for war with Iraq, Biden was less enthusiastic. He had voted against authorization for the Persian Gulf War in 1991. Now he joined Lugar in drafting legislation that would have authorized the president to take action to eliminate weapons of mass destruction in Iraq but not to remove Saddam Hussein.

And the two senators wanted to require United Nations authorization before any military action could be taken.

Biden was undercut, however, by House Democratic Leader Richard A. Gephardt, who got behind a more sweeping war authorization. Biden nonetheless voted for the war authorization.