Flashback: Biden Opposed Raid That Killed Osama Bin Laden

Today marks the twenty second anniversary of the tragic attacks on September 11, 2001, which claimed the lives of 2,977 victims that day, and thousands more from illnesses related to the attacks in the decades that followed. Despite the significance of the day, President Joe Biden decided to break the 22-year presidential tradition of commemorating the 9/11 anniversary at one of the attack sites, and instead plans on doing so from Alaska today, where he’ll spend fewer than two hours. It’s unlikely any 9/11 families will be present during his remarks, as White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was evasive when asked if any would be there. 

It’s often forgotten that Biden himself opposed the specific raid that ended up leading to the death of the mastermind of the attacks, Obama Bin Laden, an admission Biden made at a Democrat congressional retreat in 2012. Biden told his colleagues that when Obama asked his top advisers for their final opinion on the mission, all were hesitant except for Leon Panetta.  

“Every single person in that room hedged their bet except Leon Panetta. Leon said go. Everyone else said, 49, 51," Biden said. “He [Obama] got to me. He said, 'Joe, what do you think?' And I said, 'You know, I didn't know we had so many economists around the table.' I said, 'We owe the man a direct answer. Mr. President, my suggestion is, don't go. We have to do two more things to see if he's there.'” Biden recalled.

Watch below:

Biden has later denied having told Obama not to pursue this particular raid, but even the Washington Post’s hack fact-checker Glenn Kessler called out Biden for that lie, giving him “Three Pinocchios.” Obama’s book “A Promised Land” also acknowledges that Biden advised against the raid. 

Among the trove of documents discovered in the aftermath of the assassination of Osama Bin Laden included a 45-page letter from Bin Laden to an al-Qaeda lieutenant in May 2010. In the letter Bin Laden outlined plans to assassinate then-President Barack Obama, but emphasized that Biden’s life would needed to be spared if such a plot unfolded because making him president would “lead the U.S. into a crisis.”