According to readers and editors at PolitiFact, an organization which claims to be a neutral arbiter of truth in politics, the biggest lie of 2024, surely a competitive category, was Donald Trump suggesting that cats and dogs were being eaten by Haitian migrants in Springfield, Ohio.
But I think we can all remember a much, much bigger one.
On Thursday, June 27th of this year, Joe Biden and Donald Trump participated in a presidential debate that not only changed the fate of the country, but exposed the lie of this century, namely that octogenarian Biden was fit as fiddle.
It was with pure shock that America watched its sitting president, life all but drained from his cold visage, barely capable of coming up with words. And at that moment, years of lies about Grandpa Joe’s mental fitness utterly collapsed.
There had been signs of Biden’s decline, even though he was hidden as much as possible. But we were assured by the White House that behind closed doors Joe had the stamina of a 20-year-old and recited Aquinas’ proofs of God in Latin while doing jumping jacks.
Back in February, after Joe Biden told a story about how had recently talked to French President Francois Mitterand, who, um, died in 1996, Fox News’ Peter Doocy asked Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre about Biden’s fitness. Here is the exchange:
"I’m not even going to go down that rabbit hole with you, sir," KJP said.
"Why is it a rabbit hole?!" Doocy asked.
"You saw the president in Vegas, in California," Jean-Pierre replied. "You’ve seen the president in South Carolina. You saw him in Michigan. I’ll just leave it there."
They should have left Biden there.
So, not only was Jean-Pierre lying about Biden’s mental state, she basically accused anyone who dared to question it of being a tin foil hat wearing conspiracy theorist.
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Even when Mumbly Joe was caught on camera enduring an episode or two, the White House told us those videos were "cheapfakes," despite the fact that they were not manipulated at all.
On the Mount Rushmore of political lies, "Biden is fine" will be right up there between Richard Nixon’s "I am not a crook," and Bill Clinton’s "I did not have sexual relations with that woman."
However, instead of choosing the White House’s triple whopper of blatant prevarication regarding Biden’s ability to serve, the geniuses at PolitiFact say that the top lie is Trump saying pets are being eaten by migrants in Springfield.
First of all, we do not actually know that reports of Haitian migrants eating pets in Ohio are, in fact, lies. In September, I travelled to Springfield and spoke to multiple people who had heard accounts of the pet eating practice, and believed them.
Even if those accounts are false, the purpose of highlighting them as Trump did was to draw attention to the very real crisis brought to that community by settling 15,000 migrants in the small city of 60,000 souls in just 2 years.
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I heard directly from the citizens there about the havoc wrought, overcrowding in schools, rents soaring, and public safety at risk. Even if Trump did get the details wrong in terms of the pets, he was at least pointing to something very real.
Conversely, the pernicious lies that hid the true, decrepit state of the man supposedly running the nation served absolutely nobody’s interests except for Biden himself, and his band of lying flunkies.
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Politico would have you believe that Trump was engaging in dangerous, racist attacks against the migrants by platforming the plight of Springfield’s natives, but in Springfield I found no racism, no threats to migrants.
What I did find was raw anger at the Biden administration and local government who the people think threw their beloved city under the bus.
Ultimately, Joe Biden’s lie of the century blew up in his face, leaving him to limp out of his single term as president in disgrace.
Meanwhile, Trump, fresh off of his convincing win in November, is poised to finally help the desperate people of Springfield, whether that includes saving cuddly animals or not.
Sorry Politifact, a year from now nobody will remember the cats and dogs of Springfield, but 100 years from now everyone will still be learning about the president who wasn’t there in their history books.
And sadly, for Joseph Robinette Biden, the 46th president of the United States, this lie of the century will be his sad and enduring legacy.
