“Rupert Murdoch’s Sad Little Super PAC”: White House Pushes Back Again At New York Post, This Time Over Biden-Obama L.A. Fundraiser Video

Ted Johnson
·3-min read

UPDATED: The White House again is pushing back at the New York Post over a video that the Murdoch-owned publication claimed showed President Joe Biden freezing up at the end of his blockbuster fundraiser in Los Angeles with former President Barack Obama.

“Biden appears to freeze up, has to be led off stage by Obama at mega-bucks LA fundraiser,” the Post wrote on X/Twitter on Sunday, in a post the quickly traveled across social media and was picked up by other outlets on the right.

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In the video, taken after they wrapped up their conversation, Obama and Biden and moderator Jimmy Kimmel are waving to the crowd. The president turned to face another section of the audience and, about six seconds later, Obama took his arm, then put it around Biden’s shoulder and they walked offstage.

Andrew Bates, White House senior deputy press secretary, wrote, “Fresh off being fact checked by at least 6 mainstream outlets for lying about @POTUS with cheap fakes, Rupert Murdoch’s sad little super pac, the New York Post, is back to disrespecting it’s readers & itself once again. Their ethical standards could deal with a little unfreezing.”

“By pretending the President taking in an applauding crowd for a few seconds is somehow wrong, all they’re really admitting is – once again – is they can’t take on the leadership that’s fueling the strongest economic growth in the world & bringing violent crime to a 50 year low,” Bates wrote.

Bates also accused the Post and other outlets, including Breitbart and the Daily Mail, of parroting Republican National Committee talking points. “While we’re on the subject of mental sharpness, it’s ironic that these same 3 partisan outlets don’t realize it’s obvious from public time stamps that they treat the RNC’s cheap fakes account as an editor,” he wrote.

Eric Schultz, senior adviser to Obama, wrote, “This did not happen.”

White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre told reporters “they are cheap fakes videos; they are done in bad faith.” She noted that Obama and Biden “are friends. They’re like family to each other. And I think that’s what you saw.”

Last week, the White House hammered the Post for cropping a video of Biden at the G7 summit, making it look as if he had wandered off from other world leaders watching a skydiving demonstration. A wider shot of the moment, however, showed that the president was in fact congratulating another diver who had just landed.

Even after the White House objected to the Post’s social media characterization of the G7 video, the publication featured it on their front cover on Friday, with the headline, “Meander in Chief.”

Piers Morgan, the British talk host, on Sunday tweeted out the fundraiser video, taken by The Hollywood Reporter’s Chris Gardner. Morgan called the moment “so embarrassing.”

But others at the event shared a different angle of the moment, taken from the streaming feed of the event, disputing characterizations of Biden “freezing.”

The event at the Peacock Theater, raised $30 million, according to a campaign official.

Deadline’s Dominic Patten also captured the moment.

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