President Biden faced a wave of criticism on Friday \u2014 from media outlets and commentators \u2014 for stretching the truth during a rare live interview with radio host Howard Stern.<\/p>\n
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 \u2018got arrested\u2019 as a teenager at a Delaware desegregation protest.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s habit of straying from the truth.<\/p>\n
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\u2019s invitation to serve as his running mate in the 2008 presidential election.<\/p>\n
Biden recounted: \u2018She said, \u2018Remember when they were desegregating Lynnfield, the neighborhood \u2026 suburbia \u2014 and I told you \u2014 and there was a Black family moving in and there was \u2014 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?\u2019 And I said, \u2018Yeah, Mom, I remember that.\u2019\u2019<\/p>\n
The New York Times, which took aim at President Biden on Thursday for \u2018actively and effectively\u2019 avoiding journalists\u2019 questions during his first term in office, reported Friday that Biden \u2018appeared to once again stretch the truth about being arrested at a Delaware desegregation protest as a teenager.\u2019<\/p>\n
\u2018There is no evidence that he was ever arrested at a civil-rights protest,\u2019 the Times added.<\/p>\n
CNN also piled on Biden\u2019s claim, noting in a fact check that there is \u2018no evidence Biden ever got arrested during a civil rights protest, as\u00a0the Washington Post\u00a0and\u00a0PolitiFact\u00a0found when they looked into this claim in 2022 \u2013 and Biden has at least twice told the story of his supposed presence at this particular Delaware protest without mentioning any arrest, instead claiming that the police merely took him home that day.\u2019<\/p>\n
Biden also faced criticism from CNN earlier this week after he \u2018revived a debunked tale about his past \u2014 his fictional claim that he used to drive an 18-wheeler truck,\u2019 during a campaign event in Florida this week.<\/p>\n
Fact-checking the president\u2019s claim, CNN wrote: \u2018Biden has\u00a0repeatedly embellished or invented\u00a0biographical tidbits. In 2021, he\u00a0claimed\u00a0during a tour of a Mack Trucks facility: \u2018I used\u00a0to drive an 18-wheeler, man,\u2019 then added, \u2018I got to.\u2019 At a separate 2021 event, he\u00a0told\u00a0college students studying truck technology, \u2018I used to drive a tractor-trailer,\u2019 adding,\u00a0\u2018I only did it for part of a summer, but I got my license anyway.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u2018Biden\u2019s claim remains untrue. There is no evidence he ever drove an 18-wheeler,\u2019 the outlet added of his Tuesday remarks.<\/p>\n
Biden also faced backlash for embellishing the truth from individuals on social media, including Greg Price, a popular conservative X user and the communications director for the State Freedom Caucus Network.<\/p>\n
Price noted a number of questionable remarks made by Biden during his interview with Stern that he believes are \u2018lies,\u2019 including a tale he told about saving \u2018half a dozen\u2019 lives during his past tenure as a lifeguard and the arrest he suffered amid civil rights protests when he was a teenager.<\/p>\n
Another suspected \u2018lie\u2019 was Biden\u2019s claim that he was \u2018runner-up in state scoring\u2019 in football during his high school years.<\/p>\n
Price\u2019s post on social media also referenced a claim made by Biden about receiving \u2018salacious pictures\u2019 from women in the 1970s during his time as a senator, which he gave to the Secret Service.<\/p>\n
\u2018I got put in that ten most eligible bachelors list \u2026 and a lot of lovely women\u2026 would send very salacious pictures, and I\u2019d just give them to the Secret Service. I thought somebody would think I was \u2014,\u2019 Biden told Stern before shifting topics.<\/p>\n
It\u2019s unclear how the Secret Service would have been involved. Senators do not receive Secret Service protection, and Biden didn\u2019t receive Secret Service protection until 2008, when he was elected vice president.<\/p>\n
Others also took aim at the president for his remarks on Stern\u2019s show.<\/p>\n
\u2018Another day, another Biden lie \u2026 at least no one got eaten by cannibals in this one,\u2019 conservative commentator Rita Panahi wrote in a post on X.<\/p>\n
Fox News\u2019 Jeanine Pirro, co-host of \u2018The Five,\u2019 also weighed in on Biden\u2019s \u2018lies,\u2019 questioning Friday how Biden can debate if \u2018he can\u2019t even keep his lies straight.\u2019<\/p>\n