President Joe Biden‘s inability to stop lying about his record may be compulsive, but the lies spun by his hagiographers in the media are a calculated defense for the president’s flailing reelection bid. With no topic is this folie a deux more pervasive than regarding the worst inflationary crisis, and no example of this pathological dishonesty more archetypal than Biden’s interview with Time magazine.

To the credit of the magazine’s interviewers, Time staff correctly called Biden out on the reality that inflation, which compounds over time, means that “prices are up nearly 20% since [Biden] took office and that wage increases have not kept pace.” Naturally, Biden deflects with a lie.