The Trump campaign is insisting on an apology from the White House and President Biden’s campaign for disregarding videos of Biden’s public gaffes and miscues as “cheap fakes” and “misinformation” promoted by conservatives. After several occasions where Biden seemed to stand still during public events, needed help to leave the stage by family or allies, or appeared confused, the White House dismissed these videos as “cheap fakes” spread by the Trump campaign and its supporters. According to the White House, “cheap fakes” are real videos that have been cropped or edited deceptively.
Fox News reported that the Trump campaign fired back on Friday that following Biden’s debate performance, “everyone sees there’s NOTHING fake about Biden’s decline.” Trump campaign national press secretary Karoline Leavitt posted on X Friday: “It’s only been a week since our fantastic team @TrumpWarRoom & @RNCResearch were wrongly accused of editing ‘cheap fakes’ to make Biden look bad. The Democrats, and of course their mouthpieces in the Fake News, peddled this ridiculous lie.”
“We actually had to spend time fighting ‘journalists’ on this ridiculous narrative and telling them Americans can believe their own eyes!” she continued. “Now everyone sees there’s NOTHING fake about Biden’s decline. We were right and simply sharing the TRUTH! We will take an apology now,” Leavitt added, tagging the Biden campaign and a handful of media outlets.
Fox noted further:
The call for an apology comes after former President Trump and Biden faced off in the 2024 election cycle’s first debate on Thursday evening, with Biden subsequently coming under fire from conservatives and his traditional allies for his disastrous performance. The New York Times even called on Biden to drop out of the race over his performance, which underscored already mounting concerns over the president’s age and mental acuity.
Biden’s debate performance included him having a raspy voice, losing his train of thought at times, and stumbling over some responses. Vice President Kamala Harris acknowledged this week that Biden had a “slow start” to the debate, but defended his performance overall and his record in office since 2021.
Leavitt told Fox News Digital that, besides simply apologizing to Trump and conservatives, Biden’s administration and campaign should “more importantly” apologize to Americans. “The Biden White House and entire Democrat Party are both directly implicated in the greatest coverup in U.S. political history — and the mainstream media is complicit in their lies to the American public about Joe Biden’s mental state. They owe an apology to not just our campaign, but more importantly to the American people, for this major scandal that has led to the demise of our country over the past four years,” she said.
Ahead of the debate, Biden faced criticism for a series of gaffes and missed cues during public appearances, including events with world leaders. Incidents include: former President Obama taking Biden’s wrist to seemingly lead him offstage at a fundraiser in Los Angeles; Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni directing Biden back to a group of world leaders in Italy after he stepped away to give a thumbs up to a parachutist; and a viral video showing the president standing relatively motionless during a Juneteenth concert event at the White House.