Lies About Joe Biden and Kamala Harris

And the lies haven't stopped since the January inauguration, either. With Mr. Biden's policies receiving favorable reviews by the American public, it isn't surprising that the Trump apologists in the right wing media (TV, radio, and social) are continuing to spread lies about the Biden-Harris administration.

So let's get right into the facts and de-bunk some of these lies. Here's the list of lies that we've had time to address so far:

• Lie #1: Biden Wants to Defund the Police
• Lie #2: Harris is Ineligible to Serve as Vice President
• Lie #3: Biden Had a Birthday Party in 2020 Without Masks
• Lie #4: Harris Said She Would Sign an Executive Order to Confiscate Guns
• Lie #5: Biden Will Limit Americans' Beef Consumption
• Lie #6: Harris' Book for Kids' Was Being Given to Immigrant Children at the Border

Lie #1: Joe Biden Wants to Defund the Police

One of the stories that Donald Trump and his re-election team continued to peddle during the 2020 Presidential campaign was that Joe Biden wants to de-fund police departments within our country. We first heard Mr. Trump make this claim during a July interview on Fox News, where even Fox's Chris Wallace challenged him on it:

• Mr. Trump: "It's gotten totally out of control and it's really because they want to defund the police, and Biden wants to defund the police."
• Mr. Wallace: "Sir, he does not."
• Mr. Trump: "Look, he signed a charter with Bernie Sanders."
• Wallace pointed out that the charter Mr. Biden signed with Senator Sanders is a set of ideas that "says nothing about defunding the police."
• Elaborating further on Fox News' "Bill Hemmer Reports", Mr. Wallace stated that "…. he {Mr. Trump} couldn't find any indication - because there isn't any - that Joe Biden has sought to defund and abolish the police."

(Biden image from politico.com)

• 20/20's Robin Roberts: "President Trump says that you want to defund the police. Do you?"
• "No I don't," Mr. Biden said, laughing. "I don't want to defund police departments. I think they need more help, they need more assistance,… By the way, he {Mr. Trump} proposes cutting a half a billion dollars of local police support."

Mr. Biden concluded, "So the only guy that actually put in a bill to actually defund the police is Donald Trump."

Lie #2: Kamala Harris is Ineligible to Serve as President

An op-ed piece in Newsweek magazine may have been the source of the far right's claim that Kamala Harris is ineligible to serve as President because she is not a native born American. In that Newsweek piece, a conservative lawyer named John C. Eastman tried to argue that the U.S. Constitution does not offer "birthright citizenship" to someone born on U.S. soil if their parents are not American Citizens.

Although both of Senator Harris' parents were working in the U.S. as academics when Ms. Harris was born in Oakland, California, neither of her parents were American Citizens at the time. Consequently, Mr. Eastman's position has been taken by the far right crowd as meaning Senator Harris is not a native born Citizen of the United States and, therefore, is ineligible to serve as President.

(Harris image from nydailynews.com)

To no one's surprise, though, Donald Trump tried to muddy the waters for the low information voter by promoting the false Eastman interpretation: "I heard it today that she doesn't meet the requirements….I have no idea if that's right."

It wouldn't take more than a few minutes to confirm that Senator Harris is a native-born American. Either Mr. Trump was being deliberately misleading or he and his staff are even more incompetent than most people think.

Mr. Trump was wrong for years on his claim that Barack Obama was not a native born American, a claim Mr. Trump finally admitted was incorrect eight years after the rest of the country knew the truth. He may be thinking that he got enough mileage out of his misleading Obama position to try the same tactic again this year with Ms. Harris.

Lie #3: Biden Had a Birthday Party in 2020 Without Masks

When Atlanta Mayor Keisha Bottoms wished President-Elect Biden a happy birthday in November of 2020, she tweeted a video of herself standing next to Mr. Biden singing Happy Birthday to him. Cambodian National Broadcasting was one of the first sources to claim the video was taken "yesterday" and after noting that no one in the video was wearing masks, the video soon went viral in the right-wing blogosphere.

It may have been natural for some people to assume that the video was taken in 2020 but, in fact, the video was from Mr. Biden's 2019 birthday celebration, which followed the November Democratic Presidential Debate. Mayor Bottoms quickly realized her mistake in not identifying when the party video was taken and issued a statement clarifying the date.

(How Joe spent his 2020 birthday; image from nyt.com)

Unfortunately, this evidence didn't stop the spread of many right-wingers' untrue interpretation of the 2019 video. According to USA Today, this video was at least the fourth time in the previous six months that USA Today had to address a pre-covid photo/video of a maskless Biden (and other leading Democrats) that was being falsely promoted by right-wingers as evidence that the Dems were flouting covid health guidelines.

Lie #4: Harris Said She Would Sign an Executive Order to Confiscate Guns

A viral Facebook post attributed the following quote to Ms. Harris: "If elected and you don't surrender your guns, I will sign an executive order and the police will show up at your door." A basic knowledge of our Constitution would eliminate any worry of this happening. Neither the President nor the Vice-President has the authority to issue such an order.

This story is another example of the far right taking pieces of multiple stories and merging them together to present an ever-expanding lie(s).

What Ms. Harris actually said regarding executive orders and guns was part of a response at the April 22, 2019 Democratic Presidential debate: "Upon being elected (president), I will give the United States Congress 100 days to get their act together and have the courage to pass reasonable gun safety laws. And if they fail to do it, then I will take executive action." When asked what those executive actions would be, then-Senator Harris said they would include a background check requirement for "anyone who sells more than five guns a year" and that she would direct the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) to focus more on the firearms aspect of its regulatory and law enforcement mandate. She added that for any gun dealer that breaks the law, the ATF will take their license.

The other aspect of this gun lie alleges that Ms. Harris confiscated legally-owned guns when she was California Attorney General. In fact, as she explained at a Las Vegas gathering later in 2019, law enforcement in California was allowed to take guns from anyone who either a) had been found by a court to be a danger to themselves or to others or b) were not allowed to own a gun because of a conviction that prohibited subsequent gun ownership.

Consequently, there is no truth to the claim that Ms. Harris said she would confiscate legally-owned guns through executive orders.

Lie #5: Biden Will Limit Americans' Beef Consumption

Fox News, Donald Trump Jr, Larry Kudlow, and conspiracy-peddling Congresswomen Lauren Boebert (R-CO), the usual suspects, all participated in promoting this falsehood. Fox started it when host John Roberts offered a story on a University of Michigan study which showed that a 90 percent cut in Americans' red meat consumption could result in a 51 percent reduction in diet-related U.S. greenhouse gases.

For some reason, though, Mr. Roberts and Fox decided to add that President Biden was aware of the study and had incorporated a red meat reduction as part of his climate policy. This story was picked up quickly by other right-wing advocates who, unfortunately, will repeat stories they like without first doing any fact-checking themselves.

(Limiting red meat consumption is just another right-wing lie)

No word on whether Trump Jr, Kudlow, or Boebert issued corrections, though.

Lie #6: Harris' Book for Kids Was Being Given to Immigrant Children at the Border

The New York Post, which is owned by Fox News' Rupert Murdoch, claimed in an April 2021 article that a children's book authored by Kamala Harris in 2019 was being given to migrant children being detained in Long Beach, California, after illegally crossing the US-Mexican border. The only evidence the Post offered was that a copy of the book was photographed leaning against a child's backpack at the Long Beach shelter.

After the story was widely spread by Republicans and other right wing media, responsible journalists talked with federal and Long Beach government officials. It turns out that the city had sponsored a book and toy drive for the migrant children and that a single copy of Ms. Harris' book had been donated by someone in the Long Beach area. The book had not been purchased by the city or the federal government.

(Ms. Harris shown holding a copy of the book in question)

{Note: A co-author of the untrue New York Post article, Laura Italiano, resigned from the newspaper a week later, saying she had been pressured into writing the story even though most people at the paper knew the facts were not there to support it.}

See more lies exposed in our article 'Right Wing Myth-Busting'