White House told a lie about vaccines that was so outrageous that even CNN and WaPo called them out: 'Delete this'



The White House was slammed for a statement about vaccines that spread disinformation. The statement was so blatantly false that even fact-checkers from CNN and the Washington Post called on the Biden administration to delete the misinformation.

The official White House Twitter account claimed that there was no COVID-19 vaccine available when President Joe Biden took office in January 2021.

"When President Biden took office, millions were unemployed and there was no vaccine available," the White House stated on Twitter. "In the last 15 months, the economy has created 8.3M jobs and the unemployment rate stands at 3.6% — the fastest decline in unemployment to start a President's term ever recorded."

When President Biden took office, millions were unemployed and there was no vaccine available.\n \nIn the last 15 months, the economy has created 8.3M jobs and the unemployment rate stands at 3.6% \u2014 the fastest decline in unemployment to start a President's term ever recorded.
— The White House (@The White House) 1652391900

However, President Joe Biden received his first COVID-19 vaccine dose on Dec. 21, 2020.

"Today, I received the COVID-19 vaccine," Biden tweeted. "To the scientists and researchers who worked tirelessly to make this possible — thank you. We owe you an awful lot. And to the American people — know there is nothing to worry about. When the vaccine is available, I urge you to take it."

Today, I received the COVID-19 vaccine.\n\nTo the scientists and researchers who worked tirelessly to make this possible \u2014 thank you. We owe you an awful lot.\n\nAnd to the American people \u2014 know there is nothing to worry about. When the vaccine is available, I urge you to take it.pic.twitter.com/QBtB620i2V
— Joe Biden (@Joe Biden) 1608598500

Biden received his second dose of the COVID-19 vaccination on Jan. 13, 2022. The official White House Twitter account shared a video of Biden being vaccinated against COVID-19.

President-elect Biden received his second dose of the COVID-19 vaccine because he trusts scientists.\n\nOur administration is committed to doing everything possible to ensure every American has all the information they need to get vaccinated.pic.twitter.com/9FzLEeqwOi
— The White House (@The White House) 1610560869

According to the Our World in Data website, there were nearly 19 million Americans who had received at least one dose of the COVID-19 vaccine by President Biden's Inauguration Day on Jan. 20, 2021. There were 3.5 million Americans who were fully vaccinated by the time Biden became president.

The White House's tweet was fact-checked by CNN and the Washington Post – both of which are generally friendly outlets to the Biden administration.

The Washington Post's resident fact-checker Glenn Kessler stated, "Who’s manning the @WhiteHouse Twitter account? Delete this false tweet. Biden himself has said 8% of seniors had gotten the vaccine on the day he took office. Biden was one of them."

CNN fact-checker Daniel Dale wrote, "'There was no vaccine available' is very clearly false. More than 3 million Americans were fully vaccinated and more than 18 million had at least one dose by Biden’s Inauguration Day. Biden himself was fully vaccinated. Obviously became more widely available with time, but no doubt, and they’re free to tweet 'the vaccine wasn’t available to much of the public' or whatever. 'There was no vaccine available,' the end, goes way too far given that there were nearly 19 million people with shots, wrongly suggesting the whole rollout began under Biden."

Twitter reactions to the false statement came in fast and furious. Many commentators called for Biden's recently-created Disinformation Governance Board and the Department of Homeland Security-appointed misinformation czar Nina Jankowicz to correct the misleading statement from the White House.

CNN contributor Scott Jennings: "Joe Biden himself was vaccinated during the Trump administration, and we were doing one million shots a day when Biden was sworn in. These guys aren’t even trying anymore."

Rep. Dan Crenshaw (R-Texas): "Will the new Ministry of Truth be fact checking this absurd propaganda from the White House? No vaccines? None? Seriously? Delete this tweet and stop disgracing the office."

Libertarian politician Spike Cohen: "Hey @DHSgov, how do I report a tweet to your new Disinformation Governance Board? The vaccine was available before Biden took office."

Fox News anchor John Roberts: "And.... @twitter appears content to let this go unchallenged."

Cultural commentator Michael Malice: "Their lies are becoming more explicit and more brazen They are using Twitter etc to literally script an imaginary universe."

Singer Phil Labonte: "The vaccine was available when Biden took office. There was not job 'creation.' The jobs existed before the shutdown. If Trump said this the whole of the establishment media would be fact jacking and there would be wringing of hands and gnashing of teeth over 'TRUMPS LIES.'"

Radio host Buck Sexton: "Biden regime propaganda isn’t just untrue, it’s pathetic."

Sports commentator Clay Travis: "The first sentence is a lie. Joe Biden, and millions of others, received covid shots before January 20th. The second paragraph is classic disinformation. These are not 'new' jobs, they are the jobs we shut down in March 2020. We still aren’t back to the March 2020 job numbers."

Rep. Elise Stefanik (R-N.Y.): "The Communist Ministry of Truth is in full force."

Fox News contributor Dr. Janette Nesheiwat: "This is inaccurate false information. I received my vax Dec 2020 when Trump was President thanks to Operation Warp Speed which was available to me & millions of others."

Former assistant secretary for public affairs at the Department of Health and Human Services Michael Caputo: "As a senior HHS leader on Operation Warp Speed I confirm this statement is false and misleading pandemic disinformation, a very clear violation of @TwitterSafety rules. The FDA authorized the first COVID19 vaccine for public use 12-11-2020."

ESPN tweets that 'noose was found in Bubba Wallace's stall' last year, leaves out that 'garage door pull rope fashioned like a noose' wasn't hate crime or directed at him



ESPN has been called out as a misinformation merchant after posting a tweet Tuesday about last year's "noose" controversy involving black NASCAR driver Bubba Wallace.

Here's the tweet:

Last year, a noose was found in Bubba Wallace's stall at Talladega Superspeedway. The next day, the NASCAR community stood with him in unity.\n\n"I was like, 'Holy s---, it's the whole garage.' ... That's when I lost it."pic.twitter.com/Zh5HWumagX
— ESPN (@ESPN) 1639517236

"Last year, a noose was found in Bubba Wallace's stall at Talladega Superspeedway," the tweet reads. "The next day, the NASCAR community stood with him in unity."

The tweet — which promotes an E60 "Fistful of Steel" documentary on Wallace — adds a quote from the driver featured in a documentary trailer also seen in the tweet: "I was like, 'Holy s***, it's the whole garage' ... That's when I lost it."

The trailer shows many NASCAR drivers pushing his car down the track in solidarity with him as well as Wallace's emotional reaction to the gesture by fellow drivers at the time.

What's the problem?

The language employed in the EPSN tweet isn't necessarily inaccurate. The FBI's statement about the incident refers to the object discovered in Wallace's stall a "noose" — and does so three times.

But that's not all the agency said, either.

"The FBI learned that garage number 4, where the noose was found, was assigned to Bubba Wallace last week," the agency said in a June 23, 2020 statement. "The investigation also revealed evidence, including authentic video confirmed by NASCAR, that the noose found in garage number 4 was in that garage as early as October 2019. Although the noose is now known to have been in garage number 4 in 2019, nobody could have known Mr. Wallace would be assigned to garage number 4 last week."

In other words, the "noose" was in the garage well before Wallace raced at Talladega last year and wasn't meant for him. The FBI also "concluded that no federal crime was committed."

NASCAR said in a statement — found in ESPN's piece on last year's incident titled, "FBI says rope had been in Talladega garage since October; Bubba Wallace not victim of hate crime" — that "the garage door pull rope fashioned like a noose had been positioned there since as early as last fall."

.@NASCAR has released a photo of the garage door pull fashioned as a noose that was found in the No. 43 garage stall at Talladega on Sunday. https://abcn.ws/2YvCkco\u00a0pic.twitter.com/YxBaXfG8Jp
— Dan Linden (@Dan Linden) 1593102701

That's right: no hate crime against Wallace. But he still was angry about what he saw, even if it wasn't meant for him.

"It was a noose that, whether tied in 2019 or whatever, it was a noose," Wallace told CNN's Don Lemon at the time. "So, it wasn't directed at me, but somebody tied a noose, that's what I am saying."

What the ESPN tweet leaves out

Thing is, ESPN's tweet in question makes no mention of Wallace not being targeted in the incident, neither does it note that the "noose" didn't equate to a hate crime.

And ESPN has been dragged through the mire since the post went up. In fact, the responses to the tweet from the sports network have skyrocketed: Over 13,000 comments compared to just 2,400 likes as of Wednesday afternoon.

What have observers been saying?

Some Twitter users also caught the fact that ESPN's tweet left out important information, among them Donald Trump Jr., who told the sports network in part, "... you’re still pretending it was a hate crime to sow division? What’s next the ESPN True Hollywood story of the MAGA attack on Jussie Smollett?"

Others agreed:

  • "They literally still think it’s a hate crime," another commenter said.
  • Another user called the Wallace story "fake outrage" and asked "... why is this 'hate crime' story still being peddled?"
  • "According to @espn, @BubbaWallace was not the victim of a hate crime," another commenter noted.
  • "Hi @Twitter@TwitterSafety, can we please get @espn suspended for spreading misinformation?" another user asked. "That seems like a service y'all provide regularly. Thanks."

Fox News said ESPN did not immediately respond to its request for comment on its controversial tweet.

Leftists compare Trump's Twitter ban to Saddam Hussein's capture, call it 'most important moment in the history of social media'



Twitter permanently banned President Donald Trump from its social media platform on Friday. Giddy leftists and Democrats celebrated the censorship of the president of the United States on social media with outlandish comparisons and eccentric statements.

Leftist Hollywood actors and celebrities, who have made it their second job to endlessly attack Trump during his tenure, reveled in the Twitter banning.

"Borat" actor Sacha Baron Cohen bloviated, "This is the most important moment in the history of social media. The world's largest platforms have banned the world's biggest purveyor of lies, conspiracies and hate. To every Facebook and Twitter employee, user and advocate who fought for this--the entire world thanks you!"

Actor John Cusack bellowed, "This move by Twitter and Facebook are the biggest blows To his fascism."

"Westworld" actor Jeffrey Wright posted, "Boom," and included a screenshot of Trump's now-suspended account.

Boom. https://t.co/Q4EotdJONT
— Jeffrey Arrest Trump Wright (@Jeffrey Arrest Trump Wright)1610148197.0

"Veep" actress Julia Louis-Dreyfus asked Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, "What the f*** took you so long @jack?"

"Star Trek" actor George Takei stated, "I'm feeling Jacked today."

"Avengers" actor Mark Ruffalo tweeted, "Thank you @Twitter & the board."

Bette Midler was elated, "THANK YOU #TWITTER! CHURCH BELLS! RING THROUGHOUT THE LAND, SO EVERYONE KNOWS! IT'S OVER! TRUMP SUSPENDED FROM INCITING TO VIOLENCE ON TWITTER!"

Chrissy Teigen could only muster a laugh.

Comedian Jim Gaffigan was grateful, "Thank you @Twitter, @jack and @TwitterSafety for putting the safety of the people over profit! Now to find some Republicans with that courage."

"Frozen" voice actor Josh Gad wrote, "All we got to do now is get the Nuclear codes out of his hands and we should be good!"

Democratic politicians also rejoiced over the news of Trump losing his ability to communicate to Americans on Twitter.

Rep. Max Rose (D-N.Y.) rollicked by comparing the Twitter banning of Trump to the capture of dictator Saddam Hussein, who is reported to be responsible for the killing of an estimated 250,000 people and figures as high as 500,000.

https://t.co/v4j0rbTmPl https://t.co/6ESQxSn5QY
— Jamaal Bowman (@Jamaal Bowman)1610148950.0

Hillary Clinton, who lost to Trump in the 2016 election, reacted by retweeting one of her own tweets from 2016 that read, "Delete your account," and added a checkmark.

✔️ https://t.co/lQmZvooFYW
— Hillary Clinton (@Hillary Clinton)1610157408.0

Rep. Barbara Lee (D-Calif.) tweeted, "Great. Now let's permanently suspend him from the White House."

Rep. Robin Kelly (D-Ill.) ranted, "While long overdue, I commend twitter for moving to ban Donald Trump from the platform permanently. Tech companies must take responsibility for hate speech and misinformation flourishing on their watch. This is an important step toward accountability."

Far-left Sen. Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii) made a reference to "The Lord of the Rings" by saying, "Gollum has lost his precious."