President Biden on Friday told a story involving an Amtrak conductor who supposedly grabbed his cheeks and shouted “Joey, baby!” — despite facts contradicting the tale, which Biden has told on at least six prior occasions as president.
The amusing anecdote — in which Biden apes former Amtrak conductor Angelo Negri’s Italian-American accent — was declared “False” last year by CNN “Facts First” journalist Daniel Dale.
In some tellings, the encounter happened at the end of Biden’s eight years as vice president after he crossed 1 million miles on Air Force Two. But that version is impossible because Negri, who retired in 1992, died in May 2014.
Biden called the latest version a “true story” and said it happened early in his vice presidency before his mother died in 2010, which is equally difficult to square with facts because Biden didn’t cross 1 million miles on Air Force Two until September 2015.