Biden And Trump-- More Alike... Than One Would Hope

I used to work for someone who is just like Trump. They're like doppelgängers; it's uncanny. I spoke to his biographer the other day and he said he had noticed the same thing-- the lack of empathy, the malignant narcissism, the sexual deviance, the sensitivity to criticism, impulsive behavior, the compulsive lying, the secretiveness, the self-conscious attempts to act charming... wait a minute. More of this applies to Biden than I realized when I sat down to start writing! I just wanted to talk about Biden's penchant for the easy lie.

And I'm hardly the only one to have noticed. Biden lies nearly every time he opens huis mouth. Trump lies every time he opens his mouth. Trump's a much bigger liar. But Biden's still too much of a liar to be president. Look:

Of the public utterances Trump made that PolitiFact checked, 84% were lies. Of the public utterances Biden made that PolitiFact checked, "just" 50% were lies. That's half. That's too much, as we saw a few days ago. And I know Biden doesn't mean to lie a lot of the time and that he just can't help himself but... but, that's not good enough. He lies too much. He always has.

He's still better than Trump. Low bar, sure, but Biden at least has learned to control his racist, xenophobic Trump-like instincts (most of the time). Yesterday, CNN noted that it once slipped out that Biden wanted to do just what Democrats have chastised Trump for: build that wall. Trump was worse, of course, but Biden-- bad enough. "Biden," wrote Andrew Kaczynski, "once spoke about jailing employers who hire 'illegals,' said sanctuary cities shouldn't be allowed to violate federal law, and argued a fence was needed stop 'tons' of drugs coming into the country from 'corrupt Mexico.' Then-Sen. Biden's past comments, which he made in the run-up to and during the 2008 presidential race, show an approach to the issue of immigration that could run afoul of the party's more liberal wing as Biden seeks the Democratic nomination to take on President Donald Trump in 2020. It also shows how Biden's long record in government can at times provide a contrast to where the Democratic Party has evolved in recent years.

Speaking to a South Carolina rotary club in November 2006, Biden touted his support for the Secure Fence Act-- a bill that authorized 700 miles of double-layered fence on the border through more than a billion dollars in appropriations. The bill was also supported by then-Sens. Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton. CNN's KFile reviewed the video, which had been posted on YouTube at the time.

"Folks, I voted for a fence, I voted, unlike most Democrats-- and some of you won't like it-- I voted for 700 miles of fence," Biden told the group. "But, let me tell you, we can build a fence 40 stories high-- unless you change the dynamic in Mexico and-- and you will not like this, and-- punish American employers who knowingly violate the law when, in fact, they hire illegals. Unless you do those two things, all the rest is window dressing."

"Now, I know I'm not supposed to say it that bluntly, but they're the facts, they're the facts. And so everything else we do is in between here. Everything else we do is at the margins. And the reason why I add that parenthetically, why I believe the fence is needed does not have anything to do with immigration as much as drugs," Biden continued. "And let me tell you something folks, people are driving across that border with tons, tons, hear me, tons of everything from byproducts for methamphetamine to cocaine to heroin and it's all coming up through corrupt Mexico."

Biden's decades-long record on several issues-- including criminal justice and financial regulation-- has come under scrutiny as he seeks the Democratic presidential nomination for the third time. Biden, along with other candidates like Sens. Kirsten Gillibrand and Kamala Harris, has had to contend with harmonizing his record with a more liberal Democratic Party.

But his past comments on a border barrier and sanctuary cities are similar to positions Trump has taken as President-- stances that many Democratic candidates have attacked during the campaign.

...At another 2007 event, Biden called for sending employers of undocumented immigrants to prison.

"We've got to get tougher with employers. In fact the person we should send to jail is not the illegals, we send to jail the employers," Biden said. "If you knowingly hire an illegal alien, then you should be held accountable. Because let me tell you, the next person I hear tell me that my labor guys aren't willing to work hard, that's why you have illegals putting up sheetrock, then I want to tell you, you don't know my guys."

Send this guy back to the 1950s, where he belongs-- and fast, before Trump eats him alive.