Remarkable: Joe Biden’s Handlers Conducted Twitter Fact Checks on Him During CNN Town Hall Event

Remarkable: Joe Biden’s Handlers Conducted Twitter Fact Checks on Him During CNN Town Hall Event

President Joe Biden appeared Thursday night for what was his third CNN town hall appearance in a year’s time.

Held in Baltimore and moderated by noted Democrat apologist and CNN anchor Anderson Cooper, as per the norm it was a disastrous affair with Biden at times weirdly whispering answers, making a preposterous claim about a “border visit” that never happened, and then quite literally mocking the concept of freedom at another point during the invitation-only (read: highly scripted) Q&A.

But in a remarkable series of events that may very well be a first in the history of social media as well as presidential history, Biden’s infamously aggressive handlers were actually issuing corrections and clarifications in real-time to some of the claims he made, sending messages to various reporters who would then repost or paraphrase to Twitter what they’d been told by the handler.

For instance, PBS NewsHour White House correspondent Yamiche Alcindor wrote a tweet recapping Biden’s statement about using the National Guard to help with the supply chain crisis:

President Biden said he would "absolutely" consider deploying the National Guard to help with supply chain issues. He added that the administration is hoping to get enough truckers to help with the gridlock but is open to using the National Guard to get the jobs done.

— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) October 22, 2021

She received an email from a “White House official” not long after that provided a pretty big clarification to Biden’s comments:

A White House official emails me this on President Biden’s statement about using the Nayional Guard: “Requesting the use of the national guard at the state level is under the purview of Governors and we are not actively pursuing the use of the national guard on a federal level.”

— Yamiche Alcindor (@Yamiche) October 22, 2021

In another example, Bloomberg News White House reporter Josh Wingrove noted he had received “some clarity” from a “White House official” on Biden’s statement about raising the corporate and personal tax rates:

Some clarity: President Biden's comment on the tax rate was referring to the challenge of having the votes to raise the corporate rate — not to the ability to raise revenue through a range of other tax fairness proposals that Sen. Sinema backs, per a White House official.

— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) October 22, 2021

Wingrove himself helpfully assisted both Biden and the “official” by noting his “response could be read either way”:

Anderson Cooper asked about corp *and* personal top tax rates. Biden answered on corporate, Cooper interjected, and Biden’s response could be read either way. The official is saying the president is conceding the votes aren’t there (as of now) on the corporate tax only.

— Josh Wingrove (@josh_wingrove) October 22, 2021

And after Voice of America reporter Steve Herman tweeted Biden’s answer to a question from an invited audience member about defending Taiwan if need be from a China attack . . .

“Yes. We have a commitment to do that,” responds @POTUS on whether US would come to the defense of #Taiwan if it’s attacked by #China.

— Steve Herman (@W7VOA) October 22, 2021

…Politico national security reporter Alex Ward shared a very important update from a “WH spox”:

WH Spox: “The President was not announcing any change in our policy and there is no change in our policy.”

Fine, but this isn’t the first time the WH has had to walk back Biden’s comments committing the US to Taiwan’s defense. https://t.co/dUggwT9U1J

— Alex Ward (@alexbward) October 22, 2021

*shown NO outward desire

— Alex Ward (@alexbward) October 22, 2021

Screengrabs have been snagged for posterity’s sake:

White House staff was busy during last night’s town hall fact checking their boss, Biden, in real time…

Staff issued clarifications on a range of Biden’s remarks including on the supply chain crisis, to raising taxes, and even Taiwan ⬇️ pic.twitter.com/u6mJvqDTJZ

— Chad Gilmartin (@ChadGilmartinCA) October 22, 2021

Without getting into whether or not their fact checks were accurate, it was pretty amazing and – again – likely unprecedented to see this happen to a sitting U.S. President by his own team.

What they did not correct/clarify but should have in the interest of not embarrassing the POTUS even more than he was already embarrassing himself was Biden’s answer to Cooper’s question as to if he planned on visiting the southern border to see the crisis first hand. Let’s take a look at Biden’s answer first, and then White House press secretary Jen Psaki’s hilarious attempt on Friday to bolster the lie:

“I’ve been there before and I haven’t – I mean, I know it well. I guess I should go down. But the whole point of it is I haven’t had a whole hell of a lot of time to get down. I’ve been spending time going around looking at the $900 billion worth of damage done by – by hurricanes and floods and weather and traveling around the world.”

As it turns out, that “visit” was a 2008 drive-by where he passed by the border on the way to a campaign stop. When Psaki was asked about it by Fox News reporter Peter Doocy Friday, the most amazing answer was given:

Doocy: “I want to follow up on something else the president said last night. Why did president Biden say he’s been to the border.

Psaki: Well, Peter, as you may have seen, there’s been reporting that he did drive through the border when he was on the campaign trail in 2008.” pic.twitter.com/0pPtu2oneC

— Curtis Houck (@CurtisHouck) October 22, 2021

Needless to say, a 2008 “drive-through” by then-VP nominee Joe Biden does not constitute expertise and knowledge about the border situation even then, let alone the current crisis, the blame for which can be laid squarely at the feet of Joe Biden himself. This was like suggesting a random bicycling tourist riding past the White House made one a respected, sought-after presidential historian. Just crazy stuff, insulting to everyone’s intelligence, really.

Biden’s tendency to, shall we say “stray from the facts” Thursday night had this Twitter user weighing in with the following observation:

To sum it up, Biden either lied on national tv, or has no idea what he’s talking about. https://t.co/1OXu94zITu

— James Mason (@mr67man) October 22, 2021

The answer, of course, is “yes” – to both. On the other hand, the only questions left at this point are:

Just who the heck is running this country? Joe Biden or his handlers? It’s safe to say that either way, we’re screwed.

— Stacey Matthews has also written under the pseudonym “Sister Toldjah” and can be reached via Twitter. —

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