Joe Biden misspoke about his coal-mining ancestor. Should we care?

Biden is not a dissembler whose minor lies betray a cold, dark soul lurking behind the mirrored aviators. So why, Andrew Naughtie asks, do even the most trivial political fibs still matter?

(AP)

If Joe Biden tells you his great-grandfather was a coal miner, should you believe him? According to a Washington Post fact-check of the president’s recent remarks in Dearborn, Michigan, you should probably stop and pause.

Investigating claims that Biden was lying about his family’s coal mining history, the Post found that “there is little doubt Biden’s great-grandfather was a politician and a mining engineer, not a mine worker. Biden’s great-great-grandfather appears to have spent more time in the mines” – and also dug up several instances of Biden describing his forefather’s job more accurately last October.

As the Post put it, “this is not a repeat of 1988, when Biden repeatedly lifted lines from a British politician’s speech and falsely said he had ancestors who worked 12 hours underground”.