President Biden on Thursday repeated a long-debunked claim while giving a speech in Arizona on democracy, bragging that he traveled 17,000 miles with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
“I’ve spent more time with Xi Jinping than any world leader has. 68 hours alone with just he and I and an interpreter. I’ve traveled 17,000 miles with him here and China,” Mr. Biden said.
“On the Tibetan Plateau, he turned to me and he asked me — he said — ‘Can you define America for me?’ I was deadly earnest. I said, “Yes. In one word: Possibilities,’” he said.
Mr. Biden has told the story at least 21 times during his presidency, despite it widely being debunked. In November 2022, The Washington Post gave Mr. Biden a “bottomless Pinocchio” rating for its lack of veracity and the number of times he’s repeated it.
During the Obama administration, Mr. Biden was tasked with getting to know Mr. Xi better, once it was clear that he would become the next leader of China. Mr. Biden met Mr. Xi three times during the Obama administration.
Yet, during those meetings, the two only traveled together once — in 2011. The pair visited a high school together about 50 miles outside of Beijing.
As president, Mr. Biden met with Mr. Xi once, last year at the Group of 20 leaders summit in Indonesia. There is no record that the two traveled together ahead of their sit-down.
In 2016, Mr. Biden told a different version of the same story at a Hillary Clinton campaign event.
“Because the former president of China and President Obama seven years ago thought we should get to know one another, I traveled 17,000 miles through his country and our country over nine days,” he said.
In 2021, a White House official conceded to the Post that the president’s claims were inaccurate.
“This was a reference to the total travel back and forth — both internally in the U.S. and China, and as well as internationally — for meetings they held together,” the official told the Post. “Some travel was in parallel, some was separately to joint destinations.”
However, the Post added up Mr. Biden’s travel for meetings with Mr. Xi as of November 2021 and only came up with 3,300 miles and expanded it to 5,600 miles if you count Mr. Biden’s return trips.
Either way, Mr. Biden won’t stop telling the story, repeating it as recently as April.
• Jeff Mordock can be reached at jmordock@washingtontimes.com.
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