Biden is accused of repeating long-running lie in commencement address at West Point military academy

President Biden is accused of repeating the long-running lie that he was appointed to a Naval Academy in 1965.

The president delivered the commencement address at the Military Academy at West Point, New York, as he delivered the remarks before 1,036 cadets.

During the ceremony, Biden told the crowd of graduates that he had been “appointed” to the Naval Academy.

Biden said, “I was appointed to the Naval Academy by a guy I ran against at the age of 29. I was one of ten, I wanted to play football.

“The day I was supposed to go down for the job interview, there was a classmate of mine who was also one of the ten assigned to choose from.”

Biden continued, “He came to pick me up, I found out two days earlier that they had a quarterback named Roger Staubach and a halfback named Joe Bellino. I said, oh, I’m not going there, I went to Delaware.’

Biden had previously made the same claim when he addressed 2022 graduates of the US Naval Academy.

Biden said Sen. J. Caleb Boggs of Delaware, whom he confronted in 1972, had tried to get him into the Annapolis school seven years earlier.

The New York Post reported at the time that curators at the Delaware Historical Association were going “box by box” to search for Academy nominations.

Chief curator Leigh Rifenburg had told the newspaper that the president’s claim was “unlikely.”

Rifenburg at the time: ‘Our employees have spent a large part of the past week on this project.

‘We lugged and sorted several dozen boxes from the relevant years. That turned out to be, as we feared, a needle in a haystack.’

‘To be sure, we searched all dates from 1960 to 1965. It seems extremely unlikely that an appointment would have been made in 1965, given President Biden’s years of matriculation at the University of Delaware, but we wanted to be thorough. ,” she continued.

“We could not find any appointments to participate in 1961, 1963, 1964 or 1965,” Rifenburg added.

Graduates listen as President Joe Biden speaks during the U.S. Military Academy commencement ceremony, Saturday, May 25, 2024, in West Point, NY

During the ceremony, Biden told the crowd of graduates that he had been “appointed” to the Naval Academy

Also during his speech on Saturday, the president faltered through one sentence when talking about Putin and NATO.

He said: ‘Putin was sure that NATO would fall apart right after I was sworn in. We have talked about this issue.

“The fall, he made a draw, that fall he decided, look, I probably shouldn’t go into this. But it does make me a little excited.”

Since clips of the speech in which he slurred his words and mentioned the Naval Academy surfaced on social media, the president has faced criticism online.

One person wrote: ‘Keep him at home Jill. You’re embarrassing your husband, allowing vulnerabilities in America, and revealing which woman you are not. Pathetic behavior.’

Another wrote: “Another day, another lie from Biden. When will the left stop making excuses for this man’s blatant dishonesty?’

While another said: ‘Anyone have ‘Briben says he’s been appointed to the Naval Academy’ on their bingo card?’

Biden presents a diploma to a graduating cadet during the U.S. Military Academy commencement

The president used his speech to emphasize the critical role of U.S. support for allies around the world, including Israel, Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific.

Gaffes aside, the president used his speech to emphasize the critical role of U.S. support for allies around the world, including Israel, Ukraine and the Indo-Pacific.

Biden described U.S. soldiers as “working around the clock” to support Ukraine in its effort to fend off a two-year Russian invasion, but reiterated his pledge to keep them off the front lines.

“We stand strong with Ukraine and we will stand with them,” Biden told the crowd to loud applause.

He also highlighted the US role in repelling Iranian missile attacks on Israel and supporting allies in the Indo-Pacific against rising Chinese militarism in the region.

“Thanks to America’s armed forces, we are doing what only America can do as the indispensable nation, the world’s only superpower,” Biden said.

As vice president, he twice addressed a graduating class of cadets at the academy, about 40 miles north of New York City, but this was his first time as president.

Donald Trump, Biden’s Republican challenger in the 2024 election, was the last president to speak at a commencement at West Point in 2020.