Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden made a widely inaccurate claim about the number of coronavirus deaths among military members on Wednesday, saying that more than 6,000 have died from the virus.
“Military COVID infected: 118,984,” Biden said reading a list of statistics while at a campaign stop in Michigan. “Military COVID deaths: 6,114.”
According to the Department of Defense, those figures were grossly inflated. The number of coronavirus infections in the military is slightly above 40,000, while seven have died.
Former Vice President Biden said today that more than 6,000 members of the US military have died due to the coronavirus. The actual number is seven according to the @DeptofDefense https://t.co/AJmCelSpOD
— Ryan Browne (@rabrowne75) September 9, 2020
After the event, his campaign explained that he mixed up the numbers for Michigan with the military’s. The Johns Hopkins coronavirus tracker says 6,811 people in Michigan have died from the virus, however, not 6,114.
"Vice President Biden has the utmost respect for the men and women of the armed services and believes it's the sacred duty of our country to properly equip them, look after their families when they're deployed, and care for them when they return,” Biden’s Deputy Rapid Response Director Michael Gwin told Fox News. “To honor their service, the Vice President carries with him each day a card detailing the number of Americans who have given their lives for our country in Iraq and Afghanistan, and frequently cites that number to recognize their sacrifice."
This is just sad. Not only does @JoeBiden get the number of military COVID deaths disastrously wrong (a factor of 1,000) but he also struggles to read basic numbers. And the search for his notes is too jarring to be funny. Joe ain’t all there. https://t.co/fDyET1U0cp via @YouTube
— Joel Pollak (@joelpollak) September 10, 2020
Even @CNN is calling out ?@JoeBiden’s? lies??
— Kayleigh McEnany (@kayleighmcenany) September 10, 2020
“This is wrong -- and not just by a little. Biden overstated the number of military Covid deaths by 6,107 & infections by nearly 79,000. There have been 7 deaths in the military due to Covid-19...” https://t.co/jjUrEw2WR4
This is not the first time the former vice president has been wildly off when citing statistics. In June he claimed 120 million Americans had died from COVID-19, though he did correct himself to say 120,000. As of this week, coronavirus deaths in the United States stands at slightly more than 190,000 deaths.
Biden also botched the number of gun deaths during a Democratic primary debate in February, claiming that 150 million Americans had died since 2007 from gun violence. A member of Biden’s campaign later said he meant to say thousand instead of million.
President Trump and others were quick to