“[Bush] looked me in the eye in the Oval Office. He said he needed the vote to be able to get inspectors into Iraq to determine whether or not Saddam Hussein was engaged in dealing with a nuclear program,” Biden explained. “He got them in and before you know it, we had ‘shock and awe.'”

A spokesperson for Bush told NPR that Biden’s anecdote is an “innocent mistake of memory, [and] this recollection is flat wrong.”

Furthermore, Biden claimed during the interview that the moment the war began in earnest, he “immediately” opposed it…

Although during the time preceding and following the 2002 Authorization for Use of Military Force Against Iraq, Biden, in fact, did not oppose the broader war effort. In many instances, he openly supported it.

During a press conference outside the White House in June 2002, Biden recalled telling Bush there isn’t “a single informed person who suggests that you can take down Saddam [Hussein] and not be prepared to stay for two, four, five years to give the country a chance to be held together.”