Joe Biden touted what he believes was his scandal-free tenure as vice president during an Iowa campaign speech on Wednesday.
"Know what I was most proud of?" he said, in reference to former president Barack Obama's presidency. "For eight years, there wasn't one single hint of a scandal or a lie," he told a cheering crowd.
Biden has made this claim before on the campaign trail, when speaking about his proudest accomplishments as Obama's vice president.
"The thing I'm proudest of is we, coincidentally, we were each in a different part of the country and we were each talking to groups of people that were being televised. On the same day, purely coincidentally, we were asked what are you proudest of from your administration? You know what I said—he said the same thing, though probably a bit more clearly than I did: Not one single whisper of scandal," Biden said in reference to Obama on ABC's The View in April. "That's because of Barack Obama."
Joe Biden: "Know what I was most proud of? For eight years, there wasn't one single hint of a scandal or a lie." pic.twitter.com/Yb8Mm8DdIC
— The Hill (@thehill) June 12, 2019
Obama also made these claims while speaking at a technology conference in May 2018.
"I didn't have scandals, which seems like it shouldn't be something you brag about," he said. "But actually, if you look at the history of the modern presidency, coming out of the modern presidency without anybody going to jail is really good. It's a big deal."
Regarding the word "lie," Biden seems to be leaving out PolitiFact's determination that "if you like your health care plan, you can keep it" was the lie of the year in 2013.
Although both Obama and Biden frequently claim a scandal-free presidency, the Obama administration was plagued by frequent mishap and misdeed. It weathered former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's email scandal, the administration's belated response to the 2012 terror attacks on the U.S. Embassy in Benghazi, and a scandal involving the IRS unfairly targeting conservative organizations. The administration was also responsible for Operation Fast and Furious, the Department of Justice's following of reporter James Rosen, and the repeated failures of the Department of Veterans Affairs to address veterans' medical needs.