The one reporter who has been central to the Biden White House’s attempted clean-up of Joe Biden calling Donald Trump’s supporters “garbage” Tuesday night has been Politico’s White House bureau chief Jon Lemire.
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As RedState readers will recall, Lemire was among the first to report on Biden’s remarks, but instead of providing the full quote in his original write-up, he pieced some of Biden’s words together to suggest Biden wasn’t talking about Trump’s supporters in general being “garbage” but any supporters who agreed with comedian Tony Hinchcliffe about Puerto Rico being a “floating island of garbage.”
My colleague Teri Christoph caught this and documented it:
Just for posterity, here’s Politico’s original “reporting” on Biden’s “garbage remark.” pic.twitter.com/UbYVy1ttdF
— Teri (@TeriChristoph) October 30, 2024
Except that’s not what Biden said, as the video made clear. And no amount of transcript clean-up by Lemire, other media apologists, and the Biden White House – which predictably shot itself in the foot with its initial transcript – can change that.
And yet Lemire is still trying to do just that. As evidence, let’s take a look at this MSNBC segment from Wednesday where instead of playing the video clip in question, he again summarized what Joe Biden said and put words in his mouth that he did not say. Watch this, then check out my initial reaction, and then I’ll post the clip of Biden speaking below it just so you can see how wildly different the two are:
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On Morning Joe, Jonathan Lemire refuses to show viewers the video of Biden calling Trump supporters “garbage.” He instead reads versions of the transcript.
Joe Scarborough then defends it with whataboutism, the day after going apoplectic over a comedian’s bad joke. pic.twitter.com/BDmD4JJJnn
— Matt Wolking (@MattWolking) October 30, 2024
And he didn’t really just read directly from the transcript – he summarized parts of what Biden said by putting words in his mouth to make him sound better. This is not journalism, @JonLemire. https://t.co/Bu2riHLek4
— Sister Toldjah 💙 (@sistertoldjah) October 31, 2024
As you can see from the clip below, Biden rambled and bumbled through, something that was reflected in their transcript. But Lemire left all the bumbling out and provided his own translation instead to try and make Biden look better:
WATCH: President Joe Biden: “The only garbage I see floating out there is [Trump] supporters.” pic.twitter.com/9teSUOytqC
— Steve Guest (@SteveGuest) October 30, 2024
Again, putting words in someone’s mouth that they did not say (and omitting ones they did say) is not journalism. And in seeing Lemire do this, you have to wonder how often the mainstream media has done it over the course of Biden’s presidency.
I remember catching them during the Trump years altering quotes from the then-president to completely change the meaning of what he said. Examples:
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— #Journalism: NY Times Reporters Maggie Haberman and Peter Baker Get Caught Altering Trump Quote
— How Fake News Spreads: Multiple NYT Journos Share Altered Trump Quote From Conference Call With Governors
When Haberman was confronted about what she did, her response was “Because in journalism, sometimes we paraphrase the rest.”
Which, when you think of it, pretty much says it all.
Look, this isn’t rocket science. When you have issues like this crop up, the best way to report on them is to share the actual video and then let viewers/readers draw their own conclusions. Instead, Lemire chose not to air the video and instead read from an altered White House transcript – which he then altered himself by summarizing it and putting words in Biden’s mouth.
In my opinion, this is a form of journalistic election interference, and it deserves to be called out. But because the media’s gonna media no matter what, Lemire has been rewarded for his deceptions with… a promotion.
Nope, you don’t hate the media enough. You truly don’t.
RELATED: Hilarity Ensues After Washington Post Journo Basically Zapruders the Joe Biden ‘Garbage’ Video
