Joe Bidens första hustru, Neilia, och deras ettåriga dotter dödades i en tragisk bilolycka i december 1972. Neilia som körde bilen kraschade med en truck. Truckföraren Curtis C. Dunn gjorde sitt bästa för att undvika krocken som enligt polisen beror på att Neilia styrde in i Dunns körfält, troligtvis för att hon tittade åt sina barns håll. Efter olyckan sprang Dunn genast ut för att hjälpa Bidens familj, men bara sonen Beau överlevde. Delawares rättsväsende bedömde att Dunn var oskyldig till olyckan och han fick inget straff. Inte heller misstänktes han ha varit berusad.
Biden har under sin politiska karriär ofta talat offentligt om denna olycka. Den gav Biden sympati hos allmänheten. Men detta räckte inte för honom. Joe Biden har vid flera tillfällen offentligt uttalat lögnen att Dunn varit berusad när olyckan inträffade. “he drank his lunch instead of eating his lunch”. har han påstått bland annat under tal år 2001, 2007 och 2008.*
Domaren Jerome O. Herlihy från Delawares högsta domstol som översåg polisundersökningen när det begav sig säger att detta är en ren lögn:
Citat:
“The rumor about alcohol being involved by either party, especially the truck driver (Dunn), is incorrect,” Herlihy said recently.
Dunn dog 1999 men hans dotter, Pamela Hamill,*skrev till Biden år 2001:
Citat:
“Growing up, my dad never talked about it. He always got very solemn around Christmastime because the anniversary was Dec. 18, and he never wanted to celebrate the holidays,” Hamill said. “When newspapers had anniversary articles (about the crash), we hid them from dad.”
Biden svarade henne i ett handskrivet brev:
Citat:
“All that I can say is I am sorry for all of us and please know that neither I or my sons feel any animosity whatsoever.”
Trots detta upprepade Biden under framträdanden 2007 och 2008 att Dunn hade varit berusad under olyckan:
https://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/14/u...s/14biden.html
Citat:
“Let me tell you a little story,” Mr. Biden told the crowd at the University of Iowa. “I got elected when I was 29, and I got elected November the 7th. And on Dec. 18 of that year, my wife and three kids were Christmas shopping for a Christmas tree. A tractor-trailer, a guy who allegedly — and I never pursued it — drank his lunch instead of eating his lunch, broadsided my family and killed my wife instantly, and killed my daughter instantly, and hospitalized my two sons, with what were thought to be at the time permanent, fundamental injuries.”
Hamill says that because she fondly recalled those tender correspondences, the revelation of Biden’s distorted story is even more overwhelming.
“We always felt like our heartstrings were attached to (Biden’s) heartstrings. Now we feel stabbed in the back,” she said.
“I just burst into tears,” Hamill said. “The story already is tragic enough, why did he have to sensationalize it by saying my father was drunk? My family is outraged.”
År 2008 erkände till slut en representant för Biden:
that the senator "fully accepts the Dunn family's word that these rumors were false."
Pamela Hamill ville dock ha en offentlig ursäkt eftersom hon oroade sig för att Bidens ihopljugna version skulle bli offentlig sanning om han i framtiden blev USAs president.
Detta vägrade förstås Biden. Han bad dock till slut om ursäkt per telefon, enligt Hamill.
In 2008, Hamill demanded that Biden make a public apology. Hearing nothing from Biden, she sent him a registered letter. The next year, after an accurate CBS television report on the accident, Hamill said she received a phone call from Biden. Hamill told Politico: "He apologized for hurting my family in any way. So we accepted that -- and kind of end of story from there."
Efter 2008 har Biden legat lågt med sina anklagelser om Dunns alkoholism. Dock påstod han 2015 vid ett tal i Yale ånyo lögnaktigt att olyckan var Dunns fel:
Citat:
My wife and three children were Christmas shopping,*a tractor trailer broadsided them*and killed my wife and killed my daughter.
https://www.newarkpostonline.com/new...0b4cda02d.html
https://www.cbsnews.com/news/driver-...-name-cleared/
https://usa.streetsblog.org/2020/08/...ing-to-end-it/