President Joe Biden has once again repeated the false claim that his son Beau Biden was killed while serving in Iraq. During his visit with United States troops stationed in Japan on Monday, President Biden misspoke, stating, "My son was a major in the US Army. We lost him in Iraq."

The president made this statement while on his way to the G7 Summit in Hiroshima, as reported by the New York Post. 

Beau actually passed away in 2015. He died at the age of 46 from brain cancer at the Walter Reed National Military Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. He served as Delaware's attorney general and did not die while fighting in the Middle East.

This is not President Biden's first time confusing the facts surrounding his son's death. it marks the third occasion he has made this particular false claim. In 2022, at two events he claimed that Beau died in Iraq. 

America's oldest living president, Biden, 80, “misspoke” for the third time in Japan. The troop visit was made as he gears up his campaign while running for a second term in 2024.

Repeated false claim about son’s death

During a speech in Colorado at Camp Hale in October, Biden said, 'Just imagine - I mean it sincerely - I say this as a father of a man who won the Bronze Star, the Conspicuous Service Medal, and lost his life in Iraq. Imagine the courage, the daring, and the genuine sacrifice - genuine sacrifice they all made.'

In Fort Lauderdale, Florida in November, he again insisted that Beau died in Iraq and even mixed up the War in Ukraine with the Iraq war. This confusion raised concerns about his command of accurate information and attention to detail.

Major Beau Biden, a decorated Army veteran, received a Bronze Star medal for his service during his deployment to Iraq in 2009. 

In 2019, President Biden speculated that his son's cancer may have been linked to his exposure to burn pits during his time in Iraq. And some claim that this is why he is confused.

The president has also faced criticism for using his son's name in military speeches as a means of deflecting criticism.

 William McGurn, a speechwriter for George W. Bush, criticized Biden in 2019, stating, "Mr. Biden is not a Gold Star father and should stop playing one on TV."

President Biden has a history of making false or overinflated statements about his history. Last year he claimed he had been a long-distance trucker. And while running for president he somehow remembered being involved in a gang fight in which he won over a black man.

But the repetition of the false claims about his son’s death raises questions about his age and sense of reality. And it has the potential to impact his credibility. It remains to be seen how this issue will affect his campaign to be President in 2024 and his political standing now.