Biden defends his Afghanistan story after Washington Post fact-check: 'I don't understand what they're talking about'

Former Vice President Joe Biden has responded to a report that a story he's been telling on the campaign trail is largely false, saying the "central point" of it is true.

Biden spoke with The Post and Courier on Thursday after the publication of a Washington Post report that a Biden anecdote about pinning a medal on a Navy captain who felt he didn't deserve it is almost entirely incorrect, as he "got the time period, the location, the heroic act, the type of medal, the military branch and the rank of the recipient wrong." The report suggested that something like what Biden described did happen once but that he was conflating details from three separate true stories together into one false one.

"I don't understand what they're talking about, but the central point is it was absolutely accurate what I said," Biden said in response to the Washington Post story, although he has yet to read it.

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Biden seemed to concede to part of the Post's point in explaining that he has two similar Afghanistan stories, but when asked if he had been conflating the details, Biden said, "No, I don't think so," telling the press that "you guys can take it and do what you want with it." Read the original fact-check of Biden's story at The Washington Post.