Joe Biden sat down for his first interview with Kal Penn, the host of The Daily Show. It airs tonight. During the video clip posted on YouTube to promote the interview, Biden tells a whopper as he talks about gay marriage.

Penn tells Biden he and his partner, Josh, have been engaged for five years. His aunts and uncles want him to get married already and are disappointed it is taking so long for him to do it. He uses that personal reference to segue into asking Biden about codifying support for same-sex marriage, and inter-racial marriage (which Penn’s marriage would be). He asked about Biden’s “evolution” on marriage equality and what the federal government might be able to do to protect LGBTQ people and “especially trans kids.”

Biden went into storytelling mode. “I can remember exactly when my epiphany was…” he began. He said he was a senior in high school. His father was dropping him off at school. He said that while sitting in the car, he looked to his right and saw two well-dressed men in suits kiss each other goodbye as they headed in opposite directions to work. He said he looked at his father and his father said, “Joey, it’s simple. They love each other.” Then he said, “I’m not joking” to Penn. That’s the giveaway. That is a Biden tell. When he is off in fantasyland and telling a whopper about a life experience, he always says, “I’m not joking.”

It has to be a whopper. When Biden was a senior in high school, if he was an 18-year-old senior, the year was 1961. Were two gay men openly kissing in Delaware in 1961? I doubt it. The way Biden told the story, it wasn’t a quick peck of a kiss. It was a KISS. The Stonewall Riots weren’t until June 1969 and that time has been called the catalyst for the gay rights movement. Penn, an alum of the Obama administration, just took Biden’s story as the truth, he didn’t ask any questions to challenge him on his epiphany.

If he was so ok with same-sex relationships and marriage, why was he insisting as recently as 2006 that marriage is between a man and a woman and states must respect that? His epiphany seems to have happened by 2012 when he was vice president and supporting gay marriage during the Obama administration.

In the 2006 clip, then-host of “Meet the Press” Tim Russert asked Biden about then-President George W. Bush’s repeated calls for Congress to pass a Federal Marriage Amendment, which would have banned same-sex marriage under the U.S. Constitution. The measure ultimately failed in Congress.

Biden, who voted against the Federal Marriage Amendment in 2004 as a U.S. senator from Delaware and would ultimately vote against it again in 2006, said the measure was not worth Congress’ time.

Although Biden cited other pressing issues — such as the avian flu and an insufficient number of police officers — as reasons why a vote on the amendment was unnecessary, Biden also referenced DOMA, a measure he voted for in 1996 barring federal recognition of same-sex marriage, and asserted is between a man and a woman.

“We already have a law, the Defense of Marriage Act,” Biden said. “We’ve all voted — not, where I’ve voted, and others have said, look, marriage is between a man and a woman and states must respect that. Nobody’s violated that law, there’s been no challenge to that law. Why do we need a constitutional amendment? Marriage is between a man and a woman.”

In 2013 the Supreme Court ruled DOMA is unconstitutional. Then two years later, the Supreme Court ruled in favor of same-sex marriage nationwide. Biden’s past comments on same-sex marriage were made public by the Trump campaign in 2020 as an example of how Joe Biden flip-flops on issues.

Anyway, Biden encouraged Penn to go ahead and get married. Then he shifted to states with laws to protect children from the LGBTQ agenda, specifically Florida. Biden is in campaign mode and he is really nervous that Ron DeSantis will be his opponent in the 2024 presidential election.

Speaking of transgender kids, Biden said, “What’s going on in Florida is, as my mother would say, close to sinful. It is just terrible what they are doing. It’s not like a kid wakes up one morning and says, ‘You know, I decided I want to become a man or I want to become a woman or I want to change. I mean, what are they thinking about here. They are human beings. They love. They have feelings. They have inclinations that are …it just to me, is, I don’t know is, it’s cruel.”

Biden said the response should be passing legislation like Congress did last year, which solidified federal recognition of same-sex marriage rights.

As I said, Biden is in full campaign mode. He will regularly trash anything Governor DeSantis does in Florida. He will continue to call out “MAGA Republicans” every time he speaks. This is how he will campaign because he has little else to say. He doesn’t have big successes to boast about. The country is in a mess and as of the end of January, 71% of Americans think the country is going in the wrong direction. Let’s hope Republicans choose wisely with their presidential candidate. Joe Biden is very vulnerable.