President Biden’s Remarks

President Joe Biden took some solo questions during a news conference on Thursday after a NATO summit in Washington. He hoped to calm the nerves of his fellow Democrats in the face of their concerns about his ability to continue to assume office in 2024, capable of taking on former President Donald Trump. Yet some of it was full of misinformation and false claims. Let’s get into a fact-check breakdown of the headlines.

Biden’s Putin-Zelensky Gaffe

Biden had tried to brush off an earlier in the day gaffe that saw him introduce Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky as “President Putin” and then hastily correct himself. “I said, ‘No, I’m sorry, Zelensky.’ And then I added five other names,” he said at the press conference

Facts: There is a mistake in Biden’s claim that he ‘had said five other names’ in a very ambiguous manner. At a time, after the confusion was clarified, Zelensky stated that he felt “better” around Putin, and Biden agreed. Then Zelensky continued his speech with Biden standing beside him saying not one word.

Biden’s Travel Misstatement

He also commented on how he should manage his time better: “The next debate, I’m not going to be traveling 15 time zones a week before. Anyway. That’s what it was about.

Fact: The claim is misleading. The claim is misleading. Joe Biden did not travel overseas a week before the June 27 CNN presidential debate. He returned to the U.S. from Europe 12 days before, on June 15. The following activities he went to after that were a fundraiser in Los Angeles, returning to the White House, and then he spent time preparing for the debate at Camp David,

Trump’s NATO Comments

Biden criticized Trump’s position on NATO: “I think he said at one of his rallies—don’t hold me to this—recently, where, ‘NATO—I just learned about NATO,’ or words to that effect. Foreign policy’s never been his strong point.

Facts: Biden’s description of Trump’s comment is false. Trump did not say recently, “I just learned about NATO.” Rather, he said at a rally that “I don’t know that much about NATO,” before his first summit as president, in 2017 — he quickly added, “but it was OK, I knew a lot about it, so it didn’t matter.” What Biden said made it sound as though Trump acknowledged having learned about NATO recently, which is far from the truth.

Hamas and the West Bank

In these regards, Biden commented on the Israeli – Hamas conflict: “There is a growing dissatisfaction in, on the West Bank, from the Palestinians, about Hamas. Hamas is not popular now.

Fact : Public opinion polling data so far available show this assertion to be not true. In standard polls conducted by the Palestinian Center for Policy and Survey Research, Hamas has seen an uptick in popularity across the West Bank in the aftermath of their October attack on Israel. Majorities of West Bank respondents supported Hamas actions, as well as its governance behavior, as preferable to more moderate rival Fatah.

Biden From His Best Friend, the United Auto Workers

Asked if the United Auto Workers was worried about his electability, Biden replied, “UAW just endorsed me, but go ahead.”

Facts: That is misleading. UAW’s endorsement of Biden was January 24, a saving grace of more than five months ago. Biden’s attempt to suggest a recent endorsement was an effort to downplay reported post-debate concerns from UAW leadership.

In short, while Biden was attempting to appear confident at the press briefing, a number of his statements happened to contain inaccuracies, or some would be more likely to call them misleading information. The following fact check tries to put his statements into perspective.