The Biden gaffes keep coming and the Big Three networks (ABC, CBS, NBC) keep ignoring them.
If Donald Trump or any Republican president was committing mistakes at the rate Biden is, you can bet network reporters and anchors would jam their broadcasts with their bloopers, but it’s not so for President Joe Biden.
In just the past week, he’s insulted Jews, middle-class Americans, and caused a minor international incident with his bumbling statements.
The following are seven brand new Biden blunders the networks have refused to cover:
Biden Reads Instructions Off Teleprompter: “Four More Years, Pause”
On April 24, FoxNews.com reported:
President Biden seemed to suffer a verbal slip-up during a speech at a trade union conference in Washington, D.C. on Wednesday.
Biden, reading off a teleprompter, appeared to incorporate script instructions in the middle of his speech, resulting in an awkward applause line. The moment came during a section of his remarks straight out of a campaign stump speech.
“I see an America where we defend democracy, not diminish it. I see an America, where we protect freedoms, not take them away,” Biden said. “I see an economy that grows a lot in the bottom up where the wealthy pay their fair share, so we can have child care, paid leave and so much more, and still reduce the federal deficit and increase economic folks.
“Imagine what we could do next. Four more years, pause,” he said before laughing.
ABC, CBS, NBC evening and morning show coverage: PENDING
Biden Claims Uncle Was Eaten By “Cannibals” in New Guinea, Sparks International Incident
On April 22, the New York Times reported:
Prime Minister James Marape of Papua New Guinea has hit back at President Biden’s suggestion that his uncle, a U.S. serviceman whose plane went down in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of New Guinea during World War II, had been eaten by cannibals there.
“President Biden’s remarks may have been a slip of the tongue; however, my country does not deserve to be labeled as such,” Mr. Marape said in a statement provided to news organizations including The Associated Press and Reuters.
Twice last week, Mr. Biden suggested without evidence that his uncle had been eaten by cannibals.
“He got shot down in New Guinea, and they never found the body because there used to be — there were a lot of cannibals, for real, in that part of New Guinea,” Mr. Biden said of his uncle during an address on steel and aluminum tariffs in Pittsburgh on Wednesday.
Papua New Guinea has become an important strategic partner of the United States in the region. Mr. Marape has twice visited the White House. His office did not immediately respond to a request for comment on Monday.
Mr. Biden’s description of his uncle’s death does not match military records. Ambrose Finnegan, a brother of Mr. Biden’s mother, was a passenger in an aircraft that “for unknown reasons” had to ditch in the Pacific Ocean off the northern coast of New Guinea on May 14, 1944, according to the Pentagon’s Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency. Both of the plane’s engines failed at low altitude. There is no indication the aircraft was shot down.
Mr. Finnegan and two other men “failed to emerge from the sinking wreck and were lost in the crash,” the Pentagon records state. “One crew member survived and was rescued by a passing barge. An aerial search the next day found no trace of the missing aircraft or the lost crew members.”
Mr. Biden made a similar suggestion that his uncle had been cannibalized when he visited a war memorial bearing Mr. Finnegan’s name in his childhood hometown, Scranton, part of a three-day campaign swing through the key battleground state of Pennsylvania.
ABC, CBS, NBC evening and morning show coverage: 0 seconds.
Biden Urges Americans to “Choose Freedom Over Democracy”
On April 19, FoxNews.com reported:
Critics of President Biden slammed him on social media for making a puzzling statement encouraging voters to “choose freedom over democracy” by re-electing him to the presidency.
Conservatives expressed confusion over Biden’s message, and others insisted it was yet another gaffe showing his cognitive decline.
Biden made the claim while accepting the formal presidential endorsement of the Kennedy family in Pennsylvania on Thursday. During the political rally, half a dozen Kennedy family members appeared alongside President Biden to publicly back him over Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who is running as an independent candidate for president in 2024.
Kennedy Jr.’s own sister Kerry Kennedy spoke at the event, stating, “President Biden has been a champion for all the rights and freedoms that my father and uncles stood for.”
After being introduced by the Kennedys, Biden addressed the crowd. Toward the end of his speech, he asked, “Are you ready to choose unity over division? Dignity over demolition? Truth over lies? Are you ready to choose freedom over democracy? Because that's America.”
The last stanza turned heads with its seemingly contradictory message.
Author and Canary CEO Dan K. Eberhart commented, “He’s fine. Everything’s fine. Biden is definitely not in severe mental decline. Pay no attention to the man behind the curtain.”
ABC, CBS, NBC evening and morning show coverage: 0 seconds.
Biden Mixes Up Israeli City With One in Gaza: “Don’t Move on Haifa”
On April 18, the New York Post reported:
President Biden on Tuesday confused the Israeli port city of Haifa with the last refuge for civilians in the Gaza Strip — Rafah — in a stunning blunder.
The 81-year-old president made the gaffe when asked in a one-on-one interview with Nexstar Media’s Reshad Hudson about his plan to win back pro-Palestinian voters in the wake of Israel’s war against Hamas.
“I’ve been meeting with them, number one,” Biden said. “Number two, I made it clear that we have to vastly increase the amount of food, water, healthcare going into Gaza.”
“And I made it clear to Israelis – don’t move on Haifa,” he added, apparently meaning to say Rafah.
…Haifa, Israel’s third-largest city and a popular tourist destination, is more than 100 miles north of Rafah.
Numerous social media users mocked Biden over the gaffe.
“I think Israel should accommodate Biden’s demand not to attack Haifa,” former US Ambassador to Israel David Friedman wrote on X. “Think there’s strong likelihood Israel refrains from hitting Haifa,” former New York state Assemblyman Dov Hikind similarly tweeted, calling the error, “seriously embarrassing.”
ABC, CBS, NBC evening and morning show coverage: 0 seconds.
Biden Falsely Claims He Never Earned $400,000 In His Lifetime
On April 19, CNN.com reported:
In Scranton, Biden repeated his regular promise that nobody making less than $400,000 per year will pay even a cent more in taxes under his proposals. He then added, “I hope you’re all able to make $400,000. I never did.”
Facts First: Biden’s “I never did” claim is false. In fact, his presidential salary is $400,000 per year; the joint tax filings of President Biden and first lady Jill Biden showed $619,976 in income last year, $579,514 in 2022 and $610,702 in 2021. In addition, Biden earned millions in 2017 and 2018, when, during his time as a private citizen following his vice presidency, he and Jill Biden signed a lucrative book deal and he delivered paid speeches. The Bidens’ joint tax filings showed a total of about $11 million in 2017 income and about $4.6 million in 2018 income.
Biden, who was a US senator for 36 years prior to his vice presidency, did regularly earn less than $400,000 per year before 2017. As PolitiFact has previously noted, the Bidens’ joint filings reported less than $400,000 in income in each year from 1998 through 2016 except for 2013, when they were just over $407,000.
ABC, CBS, NBC evening and morning show coverage: 0 seconds.
Biden Gets Basic Demographics Wrong On China
On April 19, CNN.com reported:
In a Wednesday speech in Pittsburgh that was focused on US steel competition with China, Biden said, “I always say to my colleagues — when I meet other world leaders, I say, ‘Would you trade places with China? Would you trade places with their problems?’ They’ve got a population that is more people in retirement than working.”
Facts First: The claim that China has more retired people than working people is false. Fuxian Yi, a University of Wisconsin-Madison senior scientist who is an expert on Chinese demographics, called Biden’s claim “overstated and premature.”
China reported having more than 740 million employed people at the end of 2023, while it also reported having just shy of 297 million people age 60 or above that year. (Sixty is the normal retirement-benefits age for Chinese men; it’s 50 to 55 for women depending on the nature of their jobs.) And some of the 60-plus population is still working.
Yi noted that China’s ratio of working people to seniors is shrinking as the country’s population ages. But Biden’s claim that the number of retirees already exceeds the number of people working is clearly not correct, even if you apply the usual dose of skepticism to official Chinese data.
“It’s certainly the direction they’re heading, but still an exaggeration,” Derek Scissors, a senior fellow at the conservative American Enterprise Institute think tank who is an expert on the Chinese economy, said of Biden’s claim.
Biden made a similar claim in 2021, which CNN fact-checked as false at the time.
ABC, CBS, NBC evening and morning show coverage: 0 seconds.
Biden Has His “Very Fine People On Both Sides” Moment
On April 22, FoxNews.com reported:
President Biden’s latest comment on antisemitic protests on college campuses is being called his “very fine people on both sides” moment by some on social media.
Following the president’s Earth Day comments at Prince William Forest Park in Virginia, reporters caught up with Biden and asked for a comment on anti-Israel protests occurring across multiple universities at the time.
“Do you condemn the antisemitic protests on college campuses?” Biden was asked.
“I condemn the antisemitic protests. That’s why I have set up a program to deal with that. I also condemn those who don't understand what's going on with the Palestinians,” he said.
Equating the antisemitic protests with people who “don’t understand” the Palestinians ignited several comments accusing Biden of echoing Trump’s “very fine people on both sides” Charlottesville comment from 2017.
“This sure sounds like he’s ACTUALLY saying there are very fine people on both sides,” OutKick founder Clay Travis remarked. “Very fine people on both sides,” RedState writer Bonchie agreed. American Spectator writer Nate Hochman noted, “I’m old enough to remember when ‘good people on both sides’ was evil and racist.” The Federalist editor-in-chief Mollie Hemingway wrote, “President Biden says there are good people on both sides of October 7.”
ABC, CBS, NBC evening and morning show coverage: 0 seconds. (It should be noted that CBS and NBC both briefly reported Biden’s comments, but NEVER indicated they represented any kind of miscue. ABC failed to even mention Biden’s remarks.)
The following are the relevant transcripts:
CBS
Evening News
April 22, 2024[13 seconds]
CORRESPONDENT MEG OLIVER: Late this afternoon president Biden denounced anti-semitism.
PRESIDENT JOE BIDEN: I condemn the anti-semitic protests, that’s why I have set up a program to deal with that. I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on and the Palestinians.
…CBS
CBS Mornings
April 23, 2024[12 seconds]
CORRESPONDENT MEG OLIVER: President Biden yesterday condemned the anti-semitic comments directed towards Jewish students but added that he also condemned anyone who doesn’t realize what Palestinians are going through. Gayle?
CO-HOST GAYLE KING: Meg, thank you.
…
NBC
Nightly News
April 22, 2024[17 seconds]
ANCHOR LESTER HOLT: And Erin tonight, the White House is weighing in on all this.
CORRESPONDENT ERIN MCLAUGHLIN: That’s right, Lester. Tonight President Biden saying he condemns both anti-semitic protests and those who, quote, “don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians.” Lester?
HOLT: Erin McLaughlin tonight. Thank you.