How Biden has exaggerated stories on son Beau, house fire at his home in Delaware and others

President Joe Biden was in full swing, celebrating the nation’s national parks on a visit to Colorado and paying tribute to the bravery of US military personnel.

And then the 79-year-old delivered the line that would overshadow his visit to Camp Hale, a World War II military installation used to train the United States Army’s 10th Mountain Division.

“I’m saying this is the father of a man who won the bronze star conspicuous service medal and lost his life in Iraq,” he said.

His son Beau Biden even served in Iraq but died six years later of a brain tumor, which his family believes resulted from exposure to toxic fumes from fire pits in the country.

It was ammunition for his right-wing critics, who accused him of lying about his son Beau, while supporters were quick to highlight the link with cancer.

Either way, the story was nothing new to a public figure known for being gaffe-prone, and whose record is littered with examples of exaggerated yarns harnessed to build a popular political identity.

The gaffes ended his flight to the White House in 1987, when he failed to attribute parts of a speech copied from that of a British politician.

Biden’s son Beau died in 2015 at the age of 46, six years after serving in Iraq. His family thinks exposure to toxic fumes from burns may have been responsible for his brain tumor

In the ensuing furore, he was forced into another humiliating climb down when he had to admit he didn’t finish in the top half of law school, as he previously claimed.

He actually graduated 76th out of a law class of 85. And instead of a full scholarship, he actually only got a partial scholarship.

As he approaches his 80th birthday, opponents say the falsehoods and exaggerations suggest he is incapable of running for president in 2024.

Rep. Ronny Jackson, who was a physician to President Barack Obama and Donald Trump, used the example of Beau Biden’s death to reiterate his claim that Biden was not fit for the office.

“If he has forgotten moments in his life like this, HOW would he have the cognitive ability to run the country? This has gone too far,” he tweeted.

“Biden needs to take a cognitive exam or RESIGN!”

Friends and officials dismiss the comments, stressing that Biden’s intent — such as saying Beau died of an illness caused by his time in Iraq — is clear to listeners.

And his exaggerations often seem meant to build a bridge to his audience.

In that sense, Biden is no different than someone who stumbles at times when trying to understand the past and make a broader point, according to Robert Feldman, a professor of psychology at the University of Massachusetts Amherst and the author of “The Liar in Your Life .’

“People say things that might not be 100 percent accurate and people do it to interact with other people. It makes you nicer, it makes you feel like you’re connecting with people,” he said.

While visiting the hurricane damage in Puerto Rico with his wife Jill, Biden told his audience that he had “grown up politically at home in the Puerto Rican community.”

“It’s a benign kind of phenomenon explained by normal amnesia and the desire to favor ourselves with others.”

When he recently visited Puerto Rico to see hurricane damage and recovery efforts, he talked about growing up in Delaware with its large number of Puerto Rican residents.

“And so, politically, I was raised at home in the Puerto Rican community,” he said, a fact apparently omitted from his two biographies.

A White House spokesperson defended his comments, saying he described the people and experiences that shaped his political vision.

“Since the 1970s, when President Biden first ran for the Senate, the largest Hispanic population in Delaware has been Puerto Ricans — many of whom have lived in his hometown of Wilmington,” Andrew Bates said.

“He was often in that community at a grassroots level, doing senate business, going to fairs, schools and music events, and attending mass.”

At other times, his words can shock.

When he visited Florida to see the utter devastation wrought by Hurricane Ian, he said he understood the misery of families who had lost everything.

“But we know from experience, I know from experience how much — how much fear and anxiety and concern there is in the people,” he said.

“We didn’t lose our entire house, but lightning struck and we lost an awful lot about 15 years ago, and we still had a lot to go.”

A week later, he brought the fire up again when he addressed a fire safety conference.

Biden described how lightning struck a pond near his home.

President Joe Biden claimed firefighters nearly died in a fire at his Delaware home in 2004 that lasted 20 minutes and was confined to the kitchen.

“Eventually he produced this thick, black smoke…” he said.

‘And from the basement to the third floor, the attic, everything was destroyed.

“And the kitchen floor—we almost lost a few firefighters, they tell me, because the kitchen floor caught fire between the beams in the house, and nearly collapsed in the basement.”

Reports from that time paint a different picture. They say no one was injured and the fire did not spread outside the kitchen.

“Luckily we got there pretty early,” said Cranston Heights fire chief George Lamborn. “The fire was under control in 20 minutes.”

Other times he has confused visits with phone calls.

Speaking about hate-fuelled violence last year, he described “spending time at” the Tree of Life synagogue in Pittsburgh, when a gunman shot and killed 11 people in 2018.

But the rabbi of the synagogue said there had been no visitors; the two had spoken on the phone.

And then there are the claims of getting tangled up with law enforcement at home and abroad.

Earlier this year, during a speech in Atlanta on voting rights, he ran into trouble because he claimed to have been arrested during civil rights protests.

“Because I’m so damn old, I was there too. You think I’m kidding, man,” he said with a laugh.

“It seems like yesterday that I was first arrested.”

But there’s no evidence that he was ever arrested during that time, and the Washington Post fact-checker gave the claim four Pinnochios.

Biden set the record straight during a White House meeting with South African President Cyril Ramaphosa. “I was not arrested, I stopped, prevented from moving,” he admitted

During the 2020 campaign, he repeated a claim about South Africa and Nelson Mandela.

“I had the great honor of meeting him,” he said at a campaign event in South Carolina.

“I had the great honor of being arrested with our UN ambassador on the streets of Soweto to see him at Robbens [sic] Island.’

Except he didn’t. Another four Pinnochios amid a hodgepodge of confusing statements from friends and officials suggesting he may have mixed up stories, or been separated from a congressional delegation or stopped by police rather than arrested.

Bates, the White House spokesman, confronted Biden with the previous president.

“President Biden has brought honesty and integrity back to the Oval Office, made historic progress for the American middle class and restored our leadership in the world without losing touch with his roots,” he said.

“As he promised, he gives the American people the truth straight from the shoulder and takes pride in being honest with the country about his agenda and its values; for example by sharing life experiences that have shaped his vision and with which hard-working people feel connected.’