President Joe Biden may have been thousands miles away from the United States over the weekend, but that didn't stop him from engaging in his usual embellishment of reality (read: lies) about his supposedly masterful leadership and adults-in-charge diplomacy.
During remarks on the sidelines of this week's G7 summit in Tokyo, Biden sought to take credit for an alliance called the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue — the "Quad" for short — but, much like Corn Pop and Biden's other colorful stories, he can't take credit.
Here's what Biden said about the Quad:
"What's going on now is, look at the meeting we had here today and yesterday of the Quad. I bet you, I would- maybe some of you thought it, but I doubt many people in this audience or any other audience would have said that two years after being elected I'd be able to convince India, Australia, Japan, and the United States to form an organization called the Quad to maintain stability in the Indian Ocean and the South China Sea."
But, as usual, Biden is wrong. He did not convince any of those countries to "form" the alliance. The Quad was first created after the late Shinzo Abe, then-Prime Minister of Japan, initiated an alliance with the prime ministers of India and Australia along with then-Vice President Dick Cheney in 2007. In 2008, Australia withdrew from the Quad, putting the group out of commission until 2017.
During an ASEAN summit that year, the four original countries — including the United States and then-President Donald Trump — revived the Quadrilateral Security Dialogue and resumed joint exercises and work to push back on the Chinese Communist Party's malign activities in the region.
So, why does President Biden seem to think the Quad was recently created by him? Does he not realize the Quad was created more than 15 years ago? And restarted in 2017? Did he not know that the Quad was in place when took office in 2021? Or does President Biden just think the mainstream media and Americans will give him credit for what he is trying to claim as the fruits of his own leadership without considering the facts of the situation?
BIDEN: "I doubt many people...would've said that two years after being elected, I'd be able to convince India, Australia, Japan, and the United States to form an organization called the Quad."
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 21, 2023
The Quad was re-established in 2017 under President Trump. pic.twitter.com/TsUHE4TSqA
Instead of being some master diplomat, it's worth remembering that Biden was the one who tried using China to talk Putin out of invading Ukraine, a ploy that only brought Moscow and Beijing closer together. Biden is also the one who, much to his aides' chagrin, misstated the U.S. policy toward a Chinese invasion of Taiwan and incorrectly said American service members would fight on behalf of Taiwan in such a conflict.
Those are just two China-specific blunders, but Biden's also the one whose previous diplomatic efforts saw America's longest-standing ally, France, recall its ambassador after the president blindsided the French by snubbing them with an Australian nuclear submarine deal. Biden is also the president formally "held in contempt" by U.K. parliament for his disastrous withdrawal from Afghanistan.
So, while Biden erroneously seeks to take credit for the Quad, perhaps he does deserve at least some consolation prize for not completely destroying the alliance with his bungling of foreign policy over the past two years. That said, Biden did have to cancel a planned Quad summit in Australia this week in order to rush back to the U.S. following the G7 meeting in order to return to debt ceiling negotiations. But even that necessity is due to Biden's botched handling of the debt limit that saw the president refuse to negotiate — for more than two months — with House Republicans on a debt plan.