On Monday, Joe Biden, whose military leadership led to a botched withdrawal of Afghanistan that saw the Taliban retake the country in less than two weeks, said that for Americans to challenge the government they would "need some F-15s. You don’t need an AR-15!"
Biden was speaking about gun control when he said, "I love my right-wing friends who talk about 'the tree of liberty is watered with the blood of patriots.' Give me a—if you need to work about taking on the federal government, you need some F-15s, you don't need an AR-15. I'm serious. Think about it."
According to the Hill, Biden was delivering remarks at Al Sharpton's National Action Network’s Martin Luther King Jr. Day breakfast.
The phrase Biden incorrectly quoted comes from Thomas Jefferson, who wrote in 1787 a letter to John Adams' son-in-law William Stephens Smith, "And what country can preserve its liberties if their rulers are not warned from time to time that their people preserve the spirit of resistance? Let them take arms. The remedy is to set them right as to facts, pardon and pacify them. What signify a few lives lost in a century or two? The tree of liberty must be refreshed from time to time with the blood of patriots and tyrants."
James Madison also spoke of the right to bear arms as a bulwark to a tyrannical government and its leaders when he added the Second Amendment to the Constitution of the United States.
Biden said in 2021 during a speech on "gun crime prevention," that, "The second amendment from the day it was passed limited the type of people who could own a gun and the type of weapon you could own. You couldn't buy cannon."
This is incorrect according to the Washington Post. Cannons owned by private citizens were used from the Revolutionary War period, through the Civil War, and would appear in regional skirmishes, such as the Homestead Riot of 1892.
Biden continued in 2021, "those who say 'the blood of patriot's y'know and all the stuff about how we're going to have to move against the government. Well the tree of liberty is not water of the blood of patriots. What's happened is, that there never been, if you wanted, you think you need to have weapons to take on the government, you need F-15s and maybe some nuclear weapons. The point is that there's always been the ability to limit rationally limit the type of weapon that can be owned and who can own it."
On Twitter, "Seems like he's arguing that the second amendment covers F-15s."
"Ask the Taliban... They didn't need any F-15s," another user wrote.
Joe Biden's botched withdrawal of the American military from Afghanistan in August of 2021 saw the US military abandon Bagram Air Base in July and leave behind 7 billion dollars worth of military equipment and assets. 13 marines were killed by an ISIS-K suicide bomber outside of the Hamid Karzai International Airport and more than 60 others were injured, on August 26, 2021.
Another user on Twitter posted a picture of a Vietnamese guerrilla fighting force.
Biden also made a similar comment in August of 2022, telling a crowd,"For those brave right-wing Americans who say [the 2nd amendment] is all about keeping America independent and safe, if you want to fight against the country, you need an F-15. You need something more than a gun."
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