Snopes on Tuesday assigned a “Mixed” true-and-false rating to the claim that President Joe Biden forgot the name of Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin at one point during a speech he gave on International Women’s Day.
Snopes concedes that Biden, in the video, is “fumbling his words and apparently blanking on Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s name at one point in the speech.”
However, the left-wing fact-checking site bizarrely adds that the claim is not fully true since it’s possible that Biden didn’t really blank on the name, but, instead, “got stuck doing an extended ‘folksy’ ad-lib after initially tripping over his words.”
Here’s the “Mixture” conclusion from Snopes:
What’s True
A video shows Biden fumbling his words and apparently blanking on Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin’s name at one point in the speech, although he had mentioned Austin’s name a few minutes earlier without issue.
What’s Undetermined
It’s unclear whether Biden literally “forgot” his defense secretary’s name at that moment, or whether, for example, he got stuck doing an extended “folksy” ad lib after initially tripping over his words.
“I want to thank Sec- — the former general — I keep calling him ‘General.’ My — the guy who runs that outfit over there,” Biden says in the video clip, per White House transcript. “I want to make sure we thank the Secretary for all he’s done to try to implement what we’ve just talked about, and for recommending these two women for promotion.”
WATCH:
Whoops: Biden forgets the name of the Pentagon, as well as the name of his secretary of Defense, Lloyd Austin pic.twitter.com/ZtcgHLBIAO
— Tom Elliott (@tomselliott) March 8, 2021
Data from a Rasmussen poll released Tuesday shows that Americans are concerned about Biden’s lack of transparency, avoiding a solo press conference since taking office.
“More than six weeks since his inauguration, President Biden still hasn’t held his first White House press conference, and half of voters are worried about his ability to do the job,” Rasmussen Reports found.
The survey found that 52% of Americans were concerned about Biden’s lack of access to the press, with 37% percent identifying as “very concerned”:
A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone and online survey finds that 52% of Likely U.S. Voters say they are concerned that Biden has not held a press conference, including 37% who are Very Concerned. Twenty-four percent (24%) say they’re Not Very Concerned and 22% are Not At All Concerned.
Notably, Biden’s lack of transparency has even been highlighted by left-wing politicos, like CNN’s media critic Brian Stelter.
“There are many ways to measure an American president’s accessibility. One way is by counting press conferences. Right now, by that count, President Biden looks invisible,” he wrote in his newsletter.
“In my view, reporters are right to be pushing for more Q&A access, and they shouldn’t let up the pressure,” added Stelter. “Biden should use the press conference setting to tell the public about what he’s doing…”
Related: POLL: Americans ‘Worried’ About Biden’s ‘Ability To Do The Job’
Related: White House Stream Cuts After Biden Asks To Take Questions, Video Goes Viral