AP FACT CHECK: Trump falsely asserts Biden was fed questions
Category: News & Politics
Via: john-russell • 4 years ago • 9 commentsBy: ALEXANDRA JAFFE (AP NEWS)
S E E D E D C O N T E N T
By ALEXANDRA JAFFEJuly 2, 2020
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has fabricated a complaint that Democratic rival Joe Biden was fed questions at a news conference and read his answers from a teleprompter. This didn't happen.
TRUMP: "Biden was asked questions at his so-called Press Conference yesterday where he read the answers from a teleprompter. That means he was given the questions, just like Crooked Hillary. Never have seen this before!" — tweet Wednesday.
TRUMP: "He doesn't know where he is, frankly. I watched his press conference yesterday. He's answering, he's answering questions like this from a teleprompter. I said, 'What's that all about?'" — interview Wednesday on Fox Business Network.
TRUMP: "I saw Biden interviewed yesterday. He did his first press conference in, I guess, almost 90 days, and he was reading the answers off a teleprompter. This was for question and answer, and they'd ask him these softball questions. 'How much do you dislike Trump? How much, I mean, really, questions that were terrible and they were, should not have even, I mean, it's embarrassing. He's reading answers off a teleprompter. I say I've never seen that before." — interview Wednesday on "America This Week."
THE FACTS: Biden did not read answers off a teleprompter. Nor did The Associated Press, which asked the first question at the briefing, submit questions in advance.
Biden used a teleprompter to read prepared remarks that took aim at Trump's handling of the coronavirus, before the questions and answers started, at which point the teleprompter appeared to have been turned off.
His campaign gave him a list of news organizations to call on and he answered questions from reporters on that list as well as some he chose spontaneously. That's not an uncommon practice when officials give news conferences.
Video footage shows that during nearly 30 minutes of Q&A, which ranged in topics from alleged Russian bounties to the Taliban on U.S. troops in Afghanistan to African American female candidates for the Supreme Court and vice presidency, Biden often looked directly at the reporter, not at the teleprompter. He was not asked about his personal feelings about Trump.
His answers were at times long-winded, without the practiced pauses typically heard in prepared speeches.
Biden campaign national press secretary TJ Ducklo called Trump's allegation "laughable, ludicrous, and a lie."
Trump's accusation reflected his tactic of trying to stir doubts about Biden's mental acuity.
The president's reference to Hillary Clinton was based on an episode in the 2016 campaign when Donna Brazile was fired as a contributor to CNN for tipping off the Clinton campaign about debate topics earlier in the year during the primary. Brazile was a vice chair of the Democratic National Committee when she passed along topics and then interim DNC chair when those actions came to light in the fall. She is now a Fox News contributor.
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Associated Press writer Hope Yen contributed to this report.
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The president of the United States is a low life.
When we were kids, who among us ever thought the day would come when we would have to acknowledge that the president of our country is a low life?
This is what happens when dishonest "conservative" media is allowed to spread conspiracy theories and lies for 30 years. A habitual liar, crook, bigot , moron and cheat can weasel his way into power by appealing to pure ignorance. Now we will witness the downfall.
If pure ignorance got him elected, I've lost all respect for the American educational system. But in a way, I always suspected it, because when I was a teenager I used to spend some time during summer holidays at Crystal Beach, Ontario, on the north shore of Lake Erie, and many teenagers from Buffalo used to cross the border to spend their summers there. We used to talk about things like school and exams, and the American kids would brag about all their marks being 100s or high nineties, and we Ontario kids had to struggle to achieve an honours mark of 75 or as high as the high 80s. Looking back, I don't think it was because the American kids were so much smarter than we were.
John , I have been alive since 1962 , and if I believe my relatives born long before me , even allowing for partisan political differences , every president that has ever served in the oval office , falls under the list you mentioned of being a liar , crook , bigot, some cases morons all and cheats during my life time.
And I am fairly certain , that even those elected before I was born, and before that elder generation and even before that would all fall and fail to live up to expectations .
Do I have an answer on how to fix the situation? nope I don't , and personally because of the current state of affairs , there will be no going back..
The logic is simple, Biden was able to construct coherent answers to the questions therefore he must have been given the questions.
Trump is given both the questions and the answers and still cannot form a sentence to the level of a 5 year old.
Trump has taken questions from media 34 times since Biden last did.
Anyone who saw the "press conference" knows why. Imagine if the media actually challenged him with the type of questions they do Trump or even Trump's secretary. He struggles with t-ball.
Given how he hides, he's done answering questions until the debates.
When you are not concerned with the truth, you can have press conferences every five minutes for all the good it does. Trump should keep 'em coming though. His own words are burying him.
When has Joe Biden been concerned with the truth? This is a man who lied about his wife being killed by a drunk driver. And that's before his brain broke. Oh yeah, his lies are just "gaffes"
Given all the hysteria from the left about Trump, it's amazing they nominated the Democrat who most closely resembles him. Alleged sexual assaulter, serial liar, corrupt etc..
Biden resembles trump ??? What a joke !
It's hard to believe, but it's obvious that America voted in a POTUS who tells so many lies (maybe believing them himself, or else hoping that at least some ot them will be believed). God help America if they make the same mistake in November. What makes me sad is when I see supposedly intelligent members of this site thinking he's the gravy on their potatoes.