MSNBC host Chris Hayes received a prompt reality check on Tuesday after downplaying Democrats who embellished their past to slam Republican Rep.-elect George Santos.
Santos, a Republican from Long Island, admitted this week to lying about his personal background, education, and employment history.
What did Hayes say?
On Tuesday, writer Jonah Goldberg critiized Democrats for conveniently forgetting how often their leaders have been caught embellishing their biographies.
“I think Santos is a total embarrassment and has no place in public life,” Goldberg tweeted. “But a lot of folks on this site dinging him seem to have forgotten how much both the current president and his predecessor ’embellished’ about their accomplishments.”
In response, Hayes drew a distinction between Santos and President Joe Biden, ultimately minimizing Goldberg’s point.
“I think there’s a line between ‘normal’ politican [sic] bs-ing and conman serial lying, and he’s got infractions on either side of that line,” Hayes responded. “I mean it would have been a pretty big deal if it turned out Joe Biden didn’t actually have a law degree!”
What was the response?
Hayes’ attempt to dismiss Goldberg’s point was confronted with Biden’s history of serial lying.
- “Sure, Biden lied about being the first in his family to go to college, lied about his scholarship, lied about finishing in the top half of his class, lied about having 3 undergrad degrees, and lied about being a professor.
but, by God, the law degree is real!” journalist T. Becket Adams
explained. - “The thing is, Biden was busted for plagiarizing 5 entire pages in law school — he probably shouldn’t have a law degree,” writer Mark Hemingway noted.
- “What if it turned out he cheated his way to a law degree by plagiarizing five full pages from a published law review?
How could anyone pretend a person could accidentally type five full pages verbatim from a published law review?” commentator Phil Kerpen
pointed out. - “Biden lies about the most important moments in his life all the time. From the tragic death of his daughter and first wife to the number of grandchildren he has. He lies incessantly about his education. Find something biographical he doesn’t lie about. Hell, he’s not even Irish,” another person said.
- “Conman serial lying is literally who Joe Biden is. He says he played football in college, was in the military, his son died in Iraq, he got arrested meeting Nelson Mandela, got arrested for supporting desegregation (he actually argued *FOR* segregation) & says he beat up cornpop,” one person explained.
- “What @chrislhayes means to say is that there is a difference between a serial-lying conman on my political team and a serial-lying conman on the other political team,” one person responded.
- “And for you that line is party affiliation,” another person said, referring to Hayes’ “line” of distinction.
- “So you’re ok with Biden lying, plagiarizing, and just flat out making things up for decades? Why did he have to drop outta the 1988 Prez race again?” one person asked.
Indeed, Biden’s more notorious lies include his claim that he was arrested while trying to visit Nelson Mandela, claims about the tragic car accident that killed his wife and son in 1972, claims about his academic history and credentials. You can see more via PolitiFact here.
Most famously, Biden’s falsehoods about his academic record forced him to end his 1988 presidential campaign.