On June 18, Joe Biden was captured riding a bike in Rehoboth Beach on vacation. When he stopped, he caught his foot in a pedal and fell to the ground. It wouldn’t have mattered if it was on tape.
Conservatives quickly raised the issue of Donald Trump’s awkward walk down a ramp at West Point’s 2020 commencement. It was spread far and wide by the liberal media, which was fueled by Trump-loathing social media accounts.
Spencer Brown at Townhall pointed out the Biden campaign even made an ad championing Biden’s vigor, that he runs up ramps while Trump tiptoed down one. CNN’s Chris Cillizza wrote a silly piece headlined “Why the Donald Trump-West Point ramp story actually matters.”
But what stood out on the Biden bike bumble was the “fact-checkers.” An AP Fact Check quickly proclaimed: “Despite a fabricated screenshot circulating online, The Atlantic hasn’t published an article with a headline describing President Joe Biden’s bike fall as ‘heroism.’”
The fake headline was “The Heroism of Biden’s Bike Fall: The President gracefully illustrated an important lesson for all Americans—when we fall, we must get back up.” Radio host Jason Rantz tweeted, “AP is fact checking a satire of the Atlantic because they think people would believe it really came from that publication—which is telling.”
It was also fact-checked and verified by Reuters. The typography is exactly the same as the magazine’s, so it would be easy for Biden critics to share and enjoy it.
Twitter Moments sidebar also highlighted Reuters and Snopes, with a different take of the Biden bicycle fall. Jen Psaki tweets were made up by the fakers. One parody tweet reads: “President Biden might need kneepads for riding his bike, but the last guy needed kneepads for visiting the Kremlin.” The second tweet says: “Yes, president Biden fell on his bike. To Donald Trump: a bike is something you ride when you have physical strength to lift your own knees.”
If you look carefully enough, Reuters pointed out that it was not Psaki’s actual Twitter handle, and in the bottom-right corner it says, “Parody by Back Rub.” So, if you retweeted it, you’re not a careful reader. PolitiFact also filed a “Pants On Fire” article on the parody.
The “fact-checkers” lunge to clear up these satires around Biden. But not for Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis.
RedState’s Sister Toldjah noted that Stephen Colbert abused a DeSantis press conference on Jan. 31, 2022. The CBS late-night host implied DeSantis refused to condemn a gaggle of “about 20” neo-Nazis quacking in Orlando. Colbert cited an Orlando Sentinel story, but just part that said, “Gov. Ron DeSantis remained silent.” The actual sentence said he was silent “until Monday afternoon when he responded to a question about the rallies with a tirade against his political enemies.”
Colbert then showed a 12-second video clip of this presser where the governor said he wouldn’t be smeared by Democrats. He insisted DeSantis didn’t have the courage to condemn the neo-Nazis. Again, the Orlando newspaper quoted DeSantis calling them “some jackasses doing this on the street” and said they’d be held accountable by law enforcement.
DeSantis went on to boast of having signed “the strongest antisemitism bill in the country” and denounced the Democrats for welcoming antisemites like Rep. Ilhan Omar.
There were no fact checks: there was no AP, Reuters or Snopes. Twitter did not have anything to emphasize. Satirists on DeSantis’ left have a free pass for slandering him as a cowardly lion on neo Nazis. It is rigged.
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