Former Vice President Joe Biden tried to use military deaths from coronavirus to bash his rival, President Donald Trump, but botched the numbers badly.
Biden, while bragging about knowing the exact number of troops who were killed in the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars, grossly overstated the number of service members who have died to COVID-19.
He claimed during a speech Wednesday in Michigan that 118,984 members of the military have been infected with coronavirus, and 6,114 have died, when only seven have died.
Biden said (emphasis added):
I carry with me I don’t have I gave — gave it to myself. I carry with me in my pocket a … do I have that around? Where is my staff? I gave it away. Anyway, I carry a schedule in my pocket that list every single day the number of troops lost in Afghanistan and Iraq, the number wounded.
This is my schedule. The back of the schedule there’s (sic) always a black box you can’t really see it; the press may be able to. It says daily U.S. updates troops died in Iraq and Afghanistan 6,922, not ‘over 6000’ — 6,922 because every one of those women and men left behind an entire group of people who relied on them.
U.S. troops wounded and Iraq and Afghanistan: 53,188, not ‘over 53,000.’ U.S. COVID-infected (coronavirus) military — or, excuse me, U.S. COVID-infected in America: 6,344,700. U.S. COVID-19 deaths 1000 — 189,506. Military COVID infected: 118,984. Military COVID-19 deaths: 6,114.
He added: “Folks, every one of these lives matter.”
In response to a query, the Pentagon on Thursday directed Breitbart News to its website that lists the total number of military deaths from coronavirus as seven.
After Biden’s botched statistics, the Biden campaign told some media outlets that he had confused Michigan’s coronavirus numbers with the military’s numbers, but have not yet issued a public statement to correct the record.
Follow Breitbart News’s Kristina Wong on Twitter or on Facebook.
COMMENTS
Please let us know if you're having issues with commenting.