We've seen Joe Biden and his team get a lot of things wrong during his time in office.
A lot of those things have grievously harmed us -- from resulting in 13 young Americans being killed during the Afghanistan withdrawal to the economic policy mistakes that are affecting all Americans with crippling Bidenflation and high interest rates.
Democrats are always touting Biden as supposedly the "empathetic" one. My colleague Sister Toldjah wrote a great piece earlier about how CNN tried to push a piece about the "decency" of Joe Biden.
But indeed, some of his worst moves have been in dealing with people and tragedy -- when, maybe, you want to make extra sure that what you are saying is correct.
We saw Joe Biden try to talk to dead people from the White House podium in the past, when he was looking for Rep. Jackie Walorski (R-IN). This despite having issued a statement of condolence on her death a month before.
Biden checked his watch multiple times during the dignified transfer ceremony, when Americans killed during the bombing at the Kabul airport were brought home, and then spoke about his son to the grieving parents, making it more about what he had experienced than them. On the anniversary of the bombing in August, he had to be shamed into issuing a statement late in the day, in which he didn't even list the names of those who had been killed. The families let Biden have it in a recent ABC interview.
Then there was how he handled the disastrous fire in Maui, with a "no comment" and a smirk about the death toll. Then, he again made it about himself, telling the survivors about the small kitchen fire at his house in 2004 that was put out in 20 minutes, claiming that he almost lost his wife, his '67 Corvette, and his cat.
A lot of this is Biden's issue with making things up and incoherence. But another part is just the incompetence of his team in general. They showed that again, in what should be a very simple condolence statement in the wake of the death of former New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson.
Here's the relevant part of the statement Biden issued.
Bill and I crossed paths for the first time decades ago, when he was a staffer on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, which I served on as Senator. Over the years, I saw firsthand his passion for politics, love for America, and unflagging belief that, with respect and good faith, people can come together across any difference, no matter how vast. He was a patriot and true original, and will not be forgotten. Jill and I send our love to his family, including his wife of over 50 years, Barbara, and their daughter Heather.
The problem? Maybe when you're trying to send people your "love," you might want to get the family correct. There is no daughter named Heather. They had no daughter at all, so it wasn't even a mistake about the name.
Now, that would seem like just basic fact-checking, but as with so many things, Biden dropped the ball big time there.
CBS' Weijia Chang asked White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre how such a thing happened.
"I had another question about the fact checking at the White House. The initial statement from the President about the passing of Governor Bill Richardson included condolences for his wife of 50 years, Barbara, and their daughter Heather. That line about Heather, the daughter, has been removed because they didn't have a daughter named Heather, or a daughter. So, can you walk us through how these press releases are fact checked, who signs off on them in the end, and then in this case, how this error was made?"
In response, Jean-Pierre seemed to chuckle or try not to laugh at one point, as she apologized. But then she didn't truly answer the question. She said they have "fact checkers" but never walked through the process or explained how such a thing could have happened or how they would prevent it in the future. "This was just a miss," she said. That's one way of downplaying it.
Jiang tried again, "Has the source of the error been identified and dealt with to prevent it from happening again?"
Again, Jean-Pierre ducked answering that, saying that they were going to try not to do it again, but not revealing how it had happened or if any corrective action had been taken.
Unfortunately, they show every day how their "fact checkers" and their team are inept, when they can't even get basic things right. It all flows from the top, starting with Joe Biden.