Biden criticized for not providing evidence on Howard Stern’s show
President Biden faced a wave of criticism on Friday from media outlets and commentators for stretching the truth during a rare live interview with radio host Howard Stern.
During his interview with Stern, Biden spoke about an array of subjects, including a debate with former President Donald Trump ahead of the 2024 election and the time he “got arrested” as a teenager at a Delaware desegregation protest.
Some of the claims made by the president during the hour-long interview, however, faced scrutiny from the national media and certain individuals in the political realm who have become accustomed to Biden’s habit of straying from the truth.
As he has done in the past, Biden recounted during his interview with Stern what his mother had supposedly told him about accepting then-Sen. Barack Obama’s invitation to serve as his running mate in the 2008 presidential election.
Biden recounted: “She said, ‘Remember when they were desegregating Lynnfield, the neighborhood … suburbia — and I told you — and there was a Black family moving in and there was — people were down there protesting; I told you not to go down there, and you went down, remember that? And you got arrested standing on the porch with a Black family? And they brought you back, the police?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, Mom, I remember that.’”
The New York Times, which took aim at President Biden for “actively and effectively” avoiding journalists’ questions during his first term in office, reported that Biden “appeared to once again stretch the truth about being arrested at a Delaware desegregation protest as a teenager.”
CNN also fact-checked Biden’s claim, noting that there is “no evidence Biden ever got arrested during a civil rights protest, as the Washington Post and PolitiFact found when they looked into this claim in 2022.”
Biden also faced criticism for falsely claiming to have driven an 18-wheeler truck, a claim that has been debunked multiple times.
Greg Price, a popular conservative X user and communications director, highlighted several questionable remarks made by Biden during his interview with Stern that he believes are “lies,” including a tale about saving lives as a lifeguard and a claim about his high school football achievements.
Price’s post on social media also referenced a claim made by Biden about receiving “salacious pictures” from women in the 1970s during his time as a senator, which he gave to the Secret Service, a claim that raised eyebrows for its dubiousness.
It’s unclear how the Secret Service would have been involved in this situation, as senators do not receive Secret Service protection.
Conservative commentator Rita Panahi criticized Biden for his remarks on Stern’s show, referring to them as “another Biden lie.”
Earlier this month, Biden faced criticism for appearing to imply that his uncle was eaten by cannibals after his plane was shot down during World War II, a claim that was later clarified by White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre.
