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DURING THE 2020 CAMPAIGN, Joe Biden promised that, if he won the presidency, his administration would be the most transparent in history. People would be spoken to clearly and the truth would always be told. Nearly two years after Biden’s election, it seems that these were merely empty words. Since taking office, Biden has engaged in a pattern of disconcerting lies and deception in an attempt to hide or minimize, the serious problems facing the country as a result of his administration’s misguided policies.
The dishonesty of this White House is truly brazen and crude. There is nothing elaborate or sophisticated about it. Faced with apparent a truth, Biden and his spokesmen simply deny it and respond that the opposite is the truth. They pretend to sell us a parallel reality, in which white is black and black is white.
The lies started early because, unfortunately, from the beginning of the administration, crises came one after another, as never seen before—all provoked or exacerbated by the policies that the president quickly put in place.
The deceitful behavior of the White House was on full display during the mismanaged withdrawal of our troops from Afghanistan. The President, at the outset, insisted that it was “highly unlikely” that the government would collapse, and that the Taliban would retake control of the entire country; however, we later learned that he already knew the Taliban were retaking power and even asked the Afghan president to lie and not acknowledge it publicly. He also promised that the troops would stay until all American citizens left the country, but, in the end, many, many Americans were stranded in Afghanistan after the troops withdrew. And in the face of the total chaos that was created at Kabul airport, when the press asked the President if he saw any similarities with the departure of American troops from Saigon, he indignantly replied, “None whatsoever. Zero“. Despite the consensus that the evacuation was a real disaster that could have been avoided, the President had the audacity to publicly declare it a “success.”
President Joe Biden signs two bills supposedly aimed at combating fraud in the Covid-19 small business assistance programs, at the White House in Washington, DC, on August 5, 2022. (EFE)
The border crisis quickly became another source of lies. His call during the election campaign to open the doors to anyone coming from abroad (followed by the White House’s decision to dismantle the effective border security policies implemented by President Trump) has produced massive and unprecedented flows of migrants to our border with Mexico, facilitating illegal entry into the country, drug trafficking, human and child trafficking, and a pervasive environment of violence and insecurity. Yet, during the spring of 2021, the president underestimated the situation by saying that these were normal flows that would subside later when temperatures rose, but this did not happen. The numbers of irregular migrants arriving at the border have not only remained extremely high month after month, but are already the highest in history.
Yet the White House, DHS Secretary Alejandro Mayorkas (and all his minions) refuse to say this is a crisis. Even testifying before Congress, when asked if this is a crisis, they juggle in order to not use the word. And as if that weren’t enough, to this day, they continue to insist that the border is under control, contrary to all the evidence and the government’s own statistics. Things are going well because they say so, period.
The economic stumbles caused by Biden’s excessive government spending and his war on fossil energy sources have provided additional opportunities for the White House to demonstrate its propensity for impudent fraud. Take the historical increase in inflation and gasoline prices. The President claims that these increases are due to the Russian invasion of Ukraine in February this year, referring to them as “Putin’s price hike“. However, we know that inflation and oil prices spiked several months after the administration was inaugurated in 2021, long before the invasion of Ukraine.
And, in these weeks, despite the fact that we have fully entered a recession as the economy has contracted for two straight quarters, which is the standard definition of a recession, the President refused to accept it, saying that “this doesn’t sound like a recession to me”. Meanwhile, his spokesman had the gall to deny that this is the definition of “recession”, even though this has always been the metric widely accepted by economists, journalists, and the country’s past presidents.
By embracing the lie as a communications strategy, the White House treats the American people with great condescension, as if they were ignorant or dull-witted and easily duped. They think that, if they repeat the same hoax ten times, people will think it’s true.
They are wrong, of course. The massive rejection of Biden, evidenced in all public opinion polls, is due to the fact that the vast majority of Americans clearly see the great trouble he has gotten us into, and they also realize that the president is not being honest with them. The White House should remind itself that lies have short legs. In the end, the truth comes out.
The author is president of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles, former head of the U.S. Citizenship Office and a columnist for El American.
Alfonso Aguilar es de Senior VP and Political Director de El American, exjefe de la Oficina de Ciudadanía de los Estados Unidos durante la administración del presidente George W. Bush y presidente del Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles. // Alfonso Aguilar is the Senior VP and Political Director of El American and former head of the Office of United States Citizenship during the administration of President George W. Bush and president of the Latino Partnership for Conservative Principles.