In February 2020, back in the halcyon days when then-candidate Joe Biden was still holding in-person campaign events instead of hunkering ...
In February 2020, back in the halcyon days when then-candidate Joe Biden was still holding in-person campaign events instead of hunkering down in his basement, Uncle Joe made headlines for calling a young woman who asked about his poor performance in the Iowa caucuses a “lying dog-faced pony soldier.”
In the kerfuffle that followed, Biden said he got the line from a John Wayne movie, though nobody seemed to be able to find the quote. Everyone just chalked it up as another incidence of Biden stretching the truth.
However, have we checked all of the “Three Stooges” shorts?
I ask after the president’s contentious interview with NBC News’ Lester Holt this week. Biden gave us more than a few unpleasant viral moments during the sit-down, but the one that got the most play was an exchange on inflation.
“Back in July, you said inflation was going to be temporary,” Holt said. “I think a lot of Americans are wondering what your definition of temporary is.”
Biden had said that “most of the price increases we’ve seen were expected and expected to be temporary” and that there was “nobody suggesting there’s unchecked inflation on the way.”
That hasn’t aged well, as the kids like to say — but Holt shouldn’t have expected the president to stick to his words. That’s why he got the “lying dog-faced pony soldier” treatment.
“Well, you’re being a wise guy with me a little bit,” Biden said, “and I understand that’s your job.”
Biden went on to blame inflation on supply chain problems, the usual culprit. Wasn’t Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg supposed to be on this?
But I digress. If we’re looking for the origin of that “lying dog-faced pony soldier” insult, maybe we should take another look at “The Three Stooges.” After all, they liked calling people wise guys when circumstances went south:
So Lester Holt’s a wise guy, eh? Watch Biden put a pie in the face of that 7.5 percent inflation rate!
Of course, most media sources tend to agree the infamous insult is a mangled version of a quote from a Tyrone Power movie called “Pony Soldier” in which an Indian chief says, “The pony soldier speaks with a tongue of the snake that rattles.”
Plus there’s the fact Biden liked insulting people on the campaign trail — a lot.
For instance, take the moment in Iowa in December 2019 when he called a confrontational voter a “damn liar.” He then told the man, who was carrying a bit of avoirdupois, “Look, fat, look, here’s the deal.”
Biden’s campaign claimed he said “facts” — although this didn’t quite jibe with a challenge to the man to do some push-ups. Which is what you do when you want to impress the facts upon someone, of course.
The president was famous enough for this kind of verbiage that there’s a Joe Biden Insult Bot on Twitter:
You should sit this dance out, you three-legged flutter butt
— Joe Biden Insult Bot (@BidenInsultBot) April 28, 2020
Then the pandemic hit and Biden became the candidate of “unity” and “healing.” However, he still had the occasional slip-up during his campaign. Exhibit A:
Now that he’s president, he gets to take this urge out on the media:
Remember the outrage when former President Donald Trump used to do this? Yeah, not a whole of that seems to be resurfacing after the Lester Holt interview. I guess they just figure the Three Stooges now consist of Larry, Curly and Joe.