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‘NO EVIDENCE’: Biden mocked for stretching the truth on shock jock Howard Stern’s show

‘NO EVIDENCE’: Biden mocked for stretching the truth on shock jock Howard Stern’s show

President Biden faced a wave of criticism on Friday — from media outlets and commentators — for stretching the truth during a rare live interview with radio host Howard Stern. 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 “got arrested” as a teenager at a Delaware desegregation protest. 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’s habit of straying from the truth. 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’s invitation to serve as his running mate in the 2008 presidential election. BIDEN SKEWERED FOR FALSELY CLAIMING TO BE THE FIRST IN HIS FAMILY TO GO TO COLLEGE: ‘PATHOLOGICAL LIAR’ Biden recounted: “She said, ‘Remember when they were desegregating Lynnfield, the neighborhood … suburbia — and I told you — and there was a Black family moving in and there was — 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?’ And I said, ‘Yeah, Mom, I remember that.’” The New York Times, which took aim at President Biden on Thursday for “actively and effectively” avoiding journalists’ questions during his first term in office, reported Friday that Biden “appeared to once again stretch the truth about being arrested at a Delaware desegregation protest as a teenager.” “There is no evidence that he was ever arrested at a civil-rights protest,” the Times added. CNN also piled on Biden’s claim, noting in a fact check that there is “no evidence Biden ever got arrested during a civil rights protest, as the Washington Post and PolitiFact found when they looked into this claim in 2022 – 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.” Biden also faced criticism from CNN earlier this week after he “revived a debunked tale about his past — his fictional claim that he used to drive an 18-wheeler truck,” during a campaign event in Florida this week. Fact-checking the president’s claim, CNN wrote: “Biden has repeatedly embellished or invented biographical tidbits. In 2021, he claimed during a tour of a Mack Trucks facility: ‘I used to drive an 18-wheeler, man,’ then added, ‘I got to.’ At a separate 2021 event, he told college students studying truck technology, ‘I used to drive a tractor-trailer,’ adding, ‘I only did it for part of a summer, but I got my license anyway.’” “Biden’s claim remains untrue. There is no evidence he ever drove an 18-wheeler,” the outlet added of his Tuesday remarks. 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. BIDEN’S FALSE CANNIBAL STORY DESCRIBED AS A SIMPLE ‘MISSTATEMENT,’ ‘OFF ON THE DETAILS’ BY THE MEDIA Price noted a number of questionable remarks made by Biden during his interview with Stern that he believes are “lies,” including a tale he told about saving “half a dozen” lives during his past tenure as a lifeguard and the arrest he suffered amid civil rights protests when he was a teenager. Another suspected “lie” was Biden’s claim that he was “runner-up in state scoring” in football during his high school years. Price’s post on social media also referenced a claim made by Biden about receiving “salacious pictures” from women in the 1970s during his time as a senator, which he gave to the Secret Service. “I got put in that ten most eligible bachelors list … and a lot of lovely women… would send very salacious pictures, and I’d just give them to the Secret Service. I thought somebody would think I was —,” Biden told Stern before shifting topics. It’s unclear how the Secret Service would have been involved. Senators do not receive Secret Service protection, and Biden didn’t receive Secret Service protection until 2008, when he was elected vice president. Others also took aim at the president for his remarks on Stern’s show. “Another day, another Biden lie … at least no one got eaten by cannibals in this one,” conservative commentator Rita Panahi wrote in a post on X. Fox News’ Jeanine Pirro, co-host of “The Five,” also weighed in on Biden’s “lies,” questioning Friday how Biden can debate if “he can’t even keep his lies straight.” Earlier this month, during a visit to a war memorial near his hometown in Pennsylvania, Biden faced criticism for appearing to imply that his uncle was eaten by cannibals after his plane was shot down during World War II. “He flew single-engine planes, reconnaissance flights over New Guinea. He had volunteered because someone couldn’t make it. He got shot down in an area where there were a lot of cannibals in New Guinea at the time,” Biden said at the time. “They never recovered his body.” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre later acknowledged that Biden’s maternal uncle, Ambrose Finnegan, whom he refers to as “Uncle Bosie,” did die in WWII when his plane crashed into the Pacific Ocean, but confirmed he was not eaten by cannibals, as Biden seemed to suggest on two separate occasions during his visit to the state.

Ramaphosa hails ANC record as South Africa marks 30 years of democracy

Ramaphosa hails ANC record as South Africa marks 30 years of democracy

President Cyril Ramaphosa has hailed South Africa’s achievements under his party’s leadership as the country celebrated 30 years of democracy since the end of apartheid. April 27 is the day “when we cast off our shackles. Freedom’s bells rang across our great country,” Ramaphosa, 71, said on Saturday, reminding South Africans about the first democratic election in 1994 that ended white-minority rule. “South Africa’s democracy is young. What we’ve achieved in these short 30 years is something of which all of us should be proud. This is an infinitely better place than it was 30 years ago,” he said in a speech marking “Freedom Day” at the Union Buildings, the seat of government, in Pretoria. South African President Cyril Ramphosa delivers a speech as he attends Freedom Day celebrations in Pretoria, South Africa [Themba Hadebe/AP] The first inclusive election saw the previously banned African National Congress (ANC) party win overwhelmingly and made its leader, Nelson Mandela, the country’s first Black president, four years after being released from prison. With the ANC winning a landslide victory, a new constitution was drawn up, and it became South Africa’s highest law, guaranteeing equality for everyone, regardless of race, religion, or sexuality. The ANC has been in government since 1994 and is still recognised for its role in freeing South Africans, but for some, it is no longer celebrated in the same way as poverty and economic inequality remain rife. ANC struggling in the polls Ramaphosa used the occasion to list improvements shepherded by the ANC, which is struggling in the polls due on May 29 and risks losing its outright parliamentary majority for the first time. “We have pursued land reform, distributing millions of hectares of land to those who had been forcibly dispossessed,” he said. “We have built houses, clinics, hospitals, roads and constructed bridges, dams, and many other facilities. We have brought electricity, water and sanitation to millions of South African homes.” Al Jazeera’s Jonah Hull, reporting from the capital Pretoria, said that while there is freedom of speech, many South Africans will say there is no economic freedom. “The country has a 32 percent unemployment rate. The World Bank describes this society as the most unequal on earth,” Hull said. “Corruption is rife. Infrastructure is in a dire state, and in an election due just next month, polls predict that for the first time, the ANC could fall beneath 50 percent of the vote. That, if it happens, would in itself be a pretty significant milestone in this country.” People listen to South African President Cyril President, right, through a screen, during Freedom Day celebrations in Pretoria, South Africa [Themba Hadebe/AP] An Ipsos poll released on Friday showed support for the governing party, which won more than 57 percent of the vote at the last national elections in 2019, has fallen to just more than 40 percent. Were it to win less than 50 percent, the ANC would be forced to find coalition partners to remain in power. The party’s image has been badly hurt by accusations of graft and its inability to effectively tackle poverty, crime, inequality, and unemployment, which remain staggeringly high. The governing party is being largely blamed for the lack of progress in improving the lives of so many South Africans. Thandeka Mvakali, 28, from the Alexandra Township in Johannesburg, said life is no different from the time of her parents during apartheid. “It’s almost the same. You can see, we are living in a one bedroom, maybe we are 10 inside the house, for my family, we are 10 and then maybe two is employed, like my mother [and] my brother,” Mvakali told Al Jazeera. “All of us we are not employed, we did go to school but there’s no job in South Africa.” Mvakali added that she will vote for the first time in the May 29 elections because she is “hoping” her vote will count this time. Ramaphosa acknowledged the problems, but denounced critics as people who wilfully “shut their eyes”. “We have made much progress and we are determined to do much more,” he said. Adblock test (Why?)

From LA to NY, pro-Palestine college campus protests grow strong in US

From LA to NY, pro-Palestine college campus protests grow strong in US

Students at US universities protesting against Israel’s war on Gaza have pledged to continue occupying school grounds despite growing efforts by university leaders and police to clear the demonstrations. As the protests that began at Columbia University in New York spread outside the United States, demonstrators nationwide are demanding that schools slash financial ties to Israel and divest from companies they say are enabling Israel’s nearly seven-month war on Gaza that has killed at least 34,388 people and 77,437 others. Decisions to call in law enforcement to remove protesters have led to hundreds of arrests in various universities. They have also prompted faculty members at California, Georgia and Texas universities to initiate or pass largely symbolic votes of no confidence in their leadership. But the tensions pile pressure on school officials, who are already scrambling to resolve the protests with graduation ceremonies set for next month. Adblock test (Why?)

Pro-Palestine student protests spread in second week of demonstrations

Pro-Palestine student protests spread in second week of demonstrations

Pro-Palestinian demonstrations continue in universities across the United States, as they also spread to schools in Europe and Australia. In the second week of protests calling for a ceasefire in Israel’s war on Gaza, which has killed more than 34,000 Palestinians, thousands of students are calling on dozens of universities to divest from Israel. Some universities have been forced to cancel their graduation ceremonies, while others have seen entire buildings occupied by protesting students. One of the latest to join the movement is The City University of New York (CUNY), where hundreds of students have set up an encampment on campus with banners with slogans like “No More Investment in Apartheid”. Gabby Aossey, a student organiser at the CUNY protest told Al Jazeera the mobilisation of young pro-Palestinian people in the US is “beautiful to see”. “Young people are really starting to show up and demand that schools are held accountable for their relationship with the Israeli colonisation,” Aossey said. Across the US, university leaders have tried, and largely failed, to quell the demonstrations. The police have intervened violently, with videos emerging from different states showing hundreds of students – and even faculty members – being forcefully arrested. Early on Saturday, police in riot gear cleared an encampment on the campus of Northeastern University in Boston. Several dozen students shouted and booed at them from a distance, but the scene was otherwise not confrontational. The school said in a statement that the demonstration, which began two days ago, had become “infiltrated by professional organisers” with no affiliation to the school and protesters had used anti-Semitic slurs. “We cannot tolerate this kind of hate on our campus,” the statement posted on the social media platform X said. At Columbia University, where more than 100 pro-Palestinian activists were arrested by armed police officers on campus about a week ago, university leaders said in a statement on Friday that if the university calls the New York Police Department again, it would “further inflame what is happening on campus”. Some university leaders and state officials have strongly condemned the protests, calling them “anti-Semitic”. Demonstrators reject the accusation, with many Jewish activists and some Orthodox Jews joining the ranks. “As a child of Holocaust survivors, it disturbs me to my core to see my own people perpetrating something that we’ve been through,” Jewish antiwar protester Sam Koprak told Al Jazeera at a campus gathering. ‘End complicity with genocide’ The protests, which have sprouted all around the globe in the near seven-month period since the start of the war on Gaza, continue to spread this week outside the US as well. In Berlin, activists set up a camp in front of parliament to demand the German government stop exporting arms to Israel. At the renowned Sciences Po university in the French capital Paris, protesters on Friday blockaded a central campus building, forcing classes to be held online. The latest pro-Palestine rally in Sweden on Saturday saw people marching in the streets to chants of “Free Palestine” and “Boycott Israel”. Hundreds gathered on Saturday afternoon in central London in solidarity with Palestinians, with a smaller group organising a pro-Israel event. “People are gathering here on Parliament Square just outside the houses of parliament for the latest in a series of very major protests in the heart of London,” said Al Jazeera’s Harry Fawcett, reporting from London. Ben Jamal, director of the Palestine Solidarity Campaign, an organiser of the march, said he expected hundreds of thousands to attend from across the United Kingdom. “Once again, we are delivering a double message. One is to the Palestinian people, a message of solidarity. We see you, we hear you, we stand with you,” he said. The second message, Jamal said, is addressed to the British political establishment “to end their complicity with Israel’s genocide against Palestinian people”. Jamal dismissed critics saying that protests have been anti-Semitic. “This tactic of conflating anti-Semitism with legitimate criticism of the State of Israel is a very familiar one, and is used globally by Israel to silence those who are advocating for Palestinian rights,” he said. Meanwhile, Rina Shah, a Washington-based political strategist and former senior congressional aide, said protests in US universities are a display of democracy in action, a welcome sight in an election year marked by concerns of voter apathy chiefly due to Israel’s war on Gaza. “So when I see a movement like this of students taking peaceful, non-violent action and expressing their concern about the US government backing of Israel, of where our tax money is going, I think that’s extremely healthy,” she told Al Jazeera. “These students are out there concerned about America’s role in backing [Israeli Prime Minister] Benjamin Netanyahu. On the one hand, we are supplying weapons and funds to do what he wants to do in Gaza, while on the other we are sending humanitarian aid to Gaza. This is the hypocrisy these students are concerned about.” Adblock test (Why?)

Ex-House Republican who voted to impeach Trump drops Michigan Senate bid

Ex-House Republican who voted to impeach Trump drops Michigan Senate bid

Former Rep. Peter Meijer, R-Mich., announced Friday evening that he had dropped out of the race to represent Michigan in the U.S. Senate. “I got into this race because I believed I had the strongest chance of winning in November to work to right this ship and reverse trendlines that have only gotten worse over these past months,” Meijer, whose family founded the Meijer supermarket chain, said in a statement posted on X. “The hard reality is the fundamentals of the race have changed significantly since we launched this campaign,” he continued. “After prayerful consideration, today I withdrew my name from the primary ballot. Without a strong pathway to victory, continuing this campaign only increases the likelihood of a divisive primary that would distract from the essential goal — conservative victories in November.” Meijer, who represented Michigan’s 3rd Congressional District from 2021 to 2023 and lost his re-election bid to a GOP challenger in the state’s 2022 Republican primary election, was one of ten House Republicans who voted to impeach former President Donald Trump for his role in the Jan. 6, 2021, protests at the U.S. Capitol. TRUMP-BACKED GOP SENATE CANDIDATE AIMS TO FLIP DEM-HELD SEAT IN CRUCIAL BATTLEGROUND STATE Shortly after Meijer released the statement, Trump took to Truth Social and congratulated “all Good Republicans” and insisted “the 10 Impeachers are just about gone.” “Peter Meijer, one of the 10 Impeachers of your Favorite President, ME, and someone thought of to have a very good political future, has just withdrawn from the Senate Race in the Great State of Michigan,” the former president wrote. “Once he raised his very little and delicate hand to Impeach President Trump, his Political Career was OVER!” “Last time he lost in the Primary to a nice, but unknown, person, and now he lost to a GREAT Candidate, Mike Rogers, who will easily WIN the Nomination, and go on to WIN the Senate, BIG, in Michigan,” Trump added. “Happily, the 10 Impeachers are just about gone.” The two remaining Republicans who voted to impeach Trump that remain in office are Reps. Dan Newhouse of Washington and David Valadao of California. DEM SENATE CANDIDATE ELISSA SLOTKIN’S ‘SMALL CONSULTING BUSINESS’ MAY HAVE NEVER BEEN ACTIVE The other eight — Reps. Liz Cheney of Wyoming, Anthony Gonzalez of Ohio, Jaime Herrera Beutler of Washington, John Katko of New York, Adam Kinzinger of Illinois, Tom Rice of South Carolina and Fred Upton of Michigan — either retired from Congress or were defeated in their respective primary elections. Trump noted in his post on Truth Social that he believes Newhouse “will be next” to lose re-election. “Newhouse, in Washington State, will be next – VOTE FOR JERROD SESSLER,” Trump wrote. There are now ten Republicans, including former Michigan Reps. Mike Rogers and Justin Amash, who are seeking their party’s nomination for the position in the upper chamber to replace retiring Sen. Debbie Stabenow, D-Mich. Rogers, who is currently the favored Republican candidate in the race and has received support from the National Republican Senatorial Committee, will likely face off against another popular Michigan politician if he wins the state’s primary election and moves on to the general election. CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP Rep. Elissa Slotkin, D-Mich., is currently the highest polling Democrat seeking the position, outpacing her top challenger in the race, actor Hill Harper.

White House condemns Columbia student remarks about ‘murdering Zionists’: ‘A wakeup call’

White House condemns Columbia student remarks about ‘murdering Zionists’: ‘A wakeup call’

The White House criticized a Columbia University student’s remarks about “murdering Zionists,” with the student later being banned from the university campus. Columbia junior Khymani James expressed “regret” early Friday after a video of him previously suggesting people should be “grateful” he wasn’t “murdering Zionists” went viral online.  Without explicitly mentioning what they were, James made the inflammatory comments that were first reported by The Daily Wire, during a livestream of an official Columbia inquiry in January. COLUMBIA STUDENT BANNED FROM CAMPUS AFTER REMARKS ABOUT ‘MURDERING ZIONISTS’ “These dangerous, appalling statements turn the stomach and should serve as a wakeup call,” White House deputy press secretary Andrew Bates said in a statement to Fox News Digital. “It is hideous to advocate for the murder of Jews. President Biden has been clear that violent rhetoric, hate speech, and Antisemitic remarks have no place in America whatsoever, and he will always stand against them.”  When asked by Axios if a White House employee would be fired if they made such statements, Bates said, “they would be fired immediately.” A Columbia University spokesperson said on Friday James had been banned from the campus, with university sources telling Fox News Digital disciplinary proceedings are now underway. The University had previously put out a campus update calling the video “extremely alarming and upsetting.” COLUMBIA PROTEST LEADER EXPRESSES ‘REGRET’ FOR DISCUSSING ‘MURDERING ZIONISTS,’ SAYING THEY SHOULDN’T EXIST “Calls of violence and statements targeted at individuals based on their religious, ethnic, or national identity are unacceptable and violate university policy,” the statement said. “When there are violations of student conduct policies, they are reviewed and disciplinary measures are applied.” “We know that many of you feel threatened by the atmosphere and the language being used and have had to leave campus,” Columbia said in a statement released by the President’s Office on Friday. “That is unacceptable. Many of you also are concerned about being able to speak out for a cause you feel passionately about. That also is unacceptable. Fundamental to the research and teaching mission of our university is academic freedom and an environment free from discrimination and harassment for every member of our community.” “What is a Zionist? A White supremacist,” James said in the resurfaced video. “Be grateful that I’m not just going out and murdering Zionists,” he said at another point. “I’ve never hurt anyone in my life, and I hope to keep it that way.”  PRESSURE BUILDS FOR COLLEGES TO CLOSE OR SHUT DOWN ANTI-ISRAEL ENCAMPMENTS AMID DEATH THREATS TOWARD JEWS James was recently quoted by outlets such as CBS News and The New York Times as a spokesman for the anti-Israel protests at Columbia. In 2021, he was profiled in the Boston Globe at age 17 about his “confrontational” approach to fighting “injustice.” President Joe Biden has not yet traveled to Columbia University but recently came under fire for his statement in response to whether he condemns anti-Israel protests on college campuses.  Following the president’s Earth Day comments at Prince William Forest Park in Virginia, reporters caught up with Biden and asked, “Do you condemn the antisemitic protests on college campuses?” CLICK HERE TO GET THE FOX NEWS APP “I condemn the antisemitic protests. That’s why I have set up a program to deal with that. I also condemn those who don’t understand what’s going on with the Palestinians,” he responded.  Fox News’ Alexa Moutevelis and Lindsay Kornick contributed to this report.