In a somewhat unexpected turn of events, last night’s debate in Des Moines opened with an extended segment on the Trump administration’s recent attempt to start another war in the Middle East that saw most Democratic presidential hopefuls trying their hardest to sound like peaceniks. Given the disastrous bipartisan consensus on foreign policy that dominated the politics of the early 2000s, the segment’s tone represented a noted rhetorical shift — even from the infamously hawkish Joe Biden, who has taken to calling his vote to authorize the invasion of Iraq a mistake.

Unfortunately, the former vice president’s take on the events of 2002 and 2003 don’t stop there. With a contemptible assist from former secretary of state John Kerry, Biden has recently taken to rewriting history when it comes to his support for the invasion of Iraq — a pattern he repeated last night when asked by CNN’s Wolf Blitzer about his vote to authorize the invasion:

I said thirteen years ago it was a mistake to give the president the authority to go to war if, in fact, he couldn’t get inspectors into Iraq to stop what — thought to be the attempt to get a nuclear weapon. It was a mistake, and I acknowledged that.