On Tuesday, Joe Biden shamelessly inserted himself into the Francis Scott Key Bridge collapse by saying that he regularly commuted over the bridge during his days in the Senate.
"At about 1:30, a container ship struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which I’ve been over many, many times commuting from the state of Delaware either on a train or by car," he said.
The problem with this claim is that the four-lane bridge doesn't have any train tracks on it — just two lanes for car traffic in each direction. So Biden never once took the train over that bridge. As we previously pointed out at PJ Media, he earned a reputation as "Amtrak Joe" for his years of commuting via train while in the Senate.
While many pointed out that Biden had once again embellished his biography with a lie, the left-wing fact-checking site PolitiFact came rushing to his defense.
"President Joe Biden came under criticism following his remarks about the collapse of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge," the site reported Wednesday.
Some news coverage also focused on Biden’s comments about taking trains. And former President Donald Trump’s campaign cited it as evidence that "Biden (confused — again) claims to have gone over the Francis Scott Key Bridge by train ‘many times.’"
Before it collapsed, the four-lane bridge spanned 1.6 miles — and, no, the bridge does not have train tracks.
But these social media posts did not present Biden’s full statement that allowed for some ambiguity; he mentioned commuting by car.
Here’s what he said March 26 at the White House: "At about 1:30, a container ship struck the Francis Scott Key Bridge, which I’ve been over many, many times commuting from the state of Delaware either on a train or by car."
PolitiFact then cited the White House explanation of the quote, in which White House spokesperson Robyn Patterson said, "The President is clearly describing driving over the bridge while commuting between Delaware and (Washington) D.C. during his 36-year Senate career."
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Umm. No. Biden's claim is as clear as day. He said he regularly went over the bridge "either on a train or by car." There's nothing confusing or ambiguous about what he said. He mentioned both train and car as modes of transportation he used to commute over the bridge.
Why didn't he just say he commuted over the bridge by car? The reason is that Biden's reputation is that of an Amtrak commuter, and claiming to have crossed the bridge many times by rail presented a stronger connection to the tragedy to insert himself into the story and play the empathy card.
To its credit, PolitiFact didn't rate claims that Biden said he commuted via rail over the Key Bridge as "False" but rather "Missing Context," but even the reports and posts they cited didn't omit the fact that he said he commuted over the bridge by train or "by car."
Headlines and posts focused on the rail part because that was the lie. But I've yet to uncover an article or a social post that doesn't include Biden's full quote in context or a video of his remarks. It may not have been as egregious as calling the claim that Biden said he traveled by rail over the bridge false, but there is no missing context here. PolitiFact was just doing what it usually does: covering for Biden's lies.
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