From the first Morning Jolt of Jim-Relentlessly-Promotes-His-New-Book-Week:
Biden: Oh, That Heartbreaking Anecdote in Dowd’s Column? Never Happened.
Okay, somebody’s lying.
Vice President Joe Biden, last night on 60 Minutes: “You’re being very polite the way you’re asking me the question because some people have written that, you know, Beau on his death bed said, “Dad, you’ve got to run,” and, there was this sort of Hollywood moment that, you know, nothing like that ever, ever happened. Beau from the time he was in his 30s — or actually his late 20s — was my, he and Hunter were one of my two most reliable advisers. And, Beau all along thought that I should run and I could win. But there was not what was sort of made out as kind of this Hollywood-esque thing that at the last minute Beau grabbed my hand and said, “Dad, you’ve got to run, like, win one for the Gipper.” It wasn’t anything like that.”
Maureen Dowd, writing in her column, August 1:
Beau was losing his nouns and the right side of his face was partially paralyzed. But he had a mission: He tried to make his father promise to run, arguing that the White House should not revert to the Clintons and that the country would be better off with Biden values.
Hunter also pushed his father, telling him, “Dad, it’s who you are.”
Politico, October 6: “According to multiple sources, it was Biden himself who talked to her, painting a tragic portrait of a dying son, Beau’s face partially paralyzed, sitting his father down and trying to make him promise to run for president because ‘the White House should not revert to the Clintons and that the country would be better off with Biden values.’”
Occam’s Razor: It is easier for one person to lie than for multiple people to get together and coordinate a lie.
Recall that after Politico wrote its story, a spokesperson for the vice president said, “The bottom line on the Politico story is that it is categorically false and the characterization is offensive.”
Either A) Dowd made it up B) Biden told Dowd this, then didn’t want anyone to know he told her so he started denying the tale or C) someone else told Dowd, and “multiple sources” got together to make Joe Biden look bad by telling Politico that he leaked the story of his son’s deathbed words.
<!–*/
*/
/*–>*/