The "independent fact-checkers" have a knee-jerk pattern of rushing to the defense of Team Biden. They're not always wrong about the facts. But their selection bias is obvious. Jordan Liles had to decry a satire site that might convince some dullards in an article titled:
Did Karine Jean-Pierre 'Admit' Biden Won't Visit Maui After Fires Because 'It's Not a Swing State'?
That headline should be obvious. Any competent press secretary would never say such a thing out loud if that were the internal calculation. (Now insert the joke that Karine Jean-Pierre isn't one of those.) Liles was taking after a site called "The Dunning-Kruger Times," which posted this Fake News:
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre may have made a career-ending mistake when she let loose the truth of why President Joe Biden isn't planning on visiting Maui after the devastating fires destroyed an entire town and killed nearly a hundred people.
After the typical rhetoric about how much money they've spent on FEMA and how supplies were flowing immediately, KJP took questions from reporters. She probably wishes she didn't.
Telemundo's Joseph Barron asked the secretary why the president hasn't been there yet. Her reply stunned the entire room.
"It's not a swing state," was the soundbite that mattered. As soon as she said it the room went silent. KJP quickly tried to change the subject, then ended the press conference early. Just another day in Biden's America.
The byline on this bogus piece is "Flagg Eagleton, Patriot," which ought to put your tongue in your cheek.Then they turn to their own fake White House correspondent, named "Tara Newhole." There's no video for evidence. As Snopes explained, there is no one at Telemundo named Joseph Barron. The Dunning-Kruger Times describes its content as containing "parody, satire, and tomfoolery."
So the fact check is accurate -- in Biden's defense.
The president is, in fact, scheduled to visit Maui on Aug. 21, according to a genuine statement from Jean-Pierre. https://t.co/73ifc33jbS
— snopes.com (@snopes) August 16, 2023
But conservatives have raised the point that Biden has yet to live up to his pledge to visit East Palestine, Ohio after the toxic train derailment there. Back on February 17, Snopes rushed to Biden's defense on that matter:
Viral Video Catalyzed Right-Wing Politicization of Ohio Derailment
The GOP blames the media and Biden for ignoring East Palestine. They weren't talking about it either until a far-right political group made a video.
Alex Kasprak set out to correct Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene and white nationalist Nick Fuentes, and then added Benny Johnson, George Papadopoulos, Charlie Kirk, Jesse Watters, and Tucker Carlson. Kasprak complained "sowing mistrust of federal agencies during an environmental disaster that occurred under a Democratic administration affecting a large share of White conservative voters offered plenty to pundits suddenly interested in pushing narratives about East Palestine, and was immediately popular with their audiences."
As if Snopes isn't a liberal site pushing narratives that they hope are popular with liberal audiences.
