FACT: President Biden walked toward some parachutists to give them a thumbs up, he did not “wander off,” as MAGA and Murdoch media claimed.
June 16, 2024

In their latest attempt to put lipstick on a pig, i.e. convicted felon Donald Trump, the MAGA media have published misleading videos from the G7 summit in Italy that Murdoch outlets and others falsely claim caught President Joe Biden wandering aimlessly away from a gathering at the G7 summit in Italy last week.

PolitiFact corrected the record in a post labeling the “wandering” claim as “false.” Among the liars promoting it were the RNC, now controlled by Trump daughter-in-law Lara Trump; RNC Research, a Xitter account managed by Donald Trump’s campaign; and a Daily Mail TikTok.

The Murdoch media did their part to promote the lies for their favorite felon, too. More from PolitiFact:

The New York Post took it a step further, altering the video’s frame to make it more narrow, cutting out a skydiver seen in the RNC video.

"President Biden appeared to wander off at the G7 summit in Italy, with officials needing to pull him back to focus," the New York post wrote in an X post, linking to an article that credited RNC Research’s video. The claim also made the Post’s print edition front page, with a headline calling Biden the "Meander in Chief."

But a longer video of the event, shared on YouTube by the G7 Italy account, tells a different story. At various points in the G7 video, you can see parachutists off to the right of the frame, to Biden’s left.

NBC also thoroughly debunked the lie:

The NBC News video angle clearly includes what the others did not: the group of kneeling parachutists who were only steps away from Biden. As they’re kneeling, Biden walks toward them, stops and gives them two thumbs up. At least one of them appears to acknowledge Biden by standing at attention.

Meanwhile, Donald Trump was the one actually caught acting senile last week. He waved to an imaginary crowd, he was reportedly “remarkably meandering, could not keep a straight thought” in a meeting with top CEOs, and then there was the shark rant.

In the video above, MSNBC explained how MAGA world, including Murdoch's so-called news outlets, are engaging in Kremlin-like disinformation and distraction tactics. Joe Scarborough pointed out that Murdoch’s Wall Street Journal covered Trump’s visit to Capitol Hill last week without mentioning that he called Milwaukee, the city hosting the Republican Convention this summer, a “horrible city.”

Murdoch et al. wouldn't be doing this if they weren't worried about their own raving, felonious candidate.

Can you help us out?

For nearly 20 years we have been exposing Washington lies and untangling media deceit, but now Facebook is drowning us in an ocean of right wing lies. Please give a one-time or recurring donation, or buy a year's subscription for an ad-free experience. Thank you.

Discussion

We welcome relevant, respectful comments. Any comments that are sexist or in any other way deemed hateful by our staff will be deleted and constitute grounds for a ban from posting on the site. Please refer to our Terms of Service for information on our posting policy.
Mastodon