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© Reuters. U.S. President Joe Biden addresses the annual White Home Correspondents Affiliation Dinner in Washington, U.S., April 29, 2023. REUTERS/Al Drago
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By David Shepardson
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – U.S. President Joe Biden on Saturday, in a potential preview of a 2024 presidential marketing campaign theme, attacked information shops he mentioned used “lies instructed for revenue and energy” to fire up hatred, as he coupled his remarks with pointed jokes about Fox Information.
Talking on the annual White Home Correspondents’ Affiliation dinner, Biden referred to “reality buried by lies,” in an obvious reference to false conspiracy theories that his 2020 election win was the results of a large voter fraud.
“Lies instructed for revenue and energy. Lies of conspiracy and malice repeated time and again designed to generate a cycle of anger and hate and even violence,” Biden mentioned.
That cycle, Biden added, has emboldened native jurisdictions to ban books, and “the rule of regulation and our rights and freedoms to be stripped away.”
Zeroing in on what he characterised as “an excessive press,” Biden on the identical time joked that if he referred to as Fox Information “trustworthy, honest and truthful then I might be sued for defamation.”
Earlier this month, Fox Corp settled a defamation lawsuit by Dominion Voting Methods for $787.5 million in a case that centered round Fox’s false claims that the 2020 presidential election had been manipulated in favor of Biden.
And in a jab at former President Donald Trump, Biden quipped that comic Roy Wooden Jr, who additionally was a featured speaker on the dinner, had supplied him $10 to maintain his speech quick.
“That is a swap – a president being supplied hush cash,” Biden mentioned to laughter.
On April 4, Trump was charged with 34 felony counts in a case involving an alleged $130,000 hush fee to an grownup movie star throughout his 2016 presidential marketing campaign. Trump pleaded not responsible to the entire prices.
PRESS FREEDOM
This annual dinner is attended by scores of reporters who cowl the White Home, together with many authorities officers. It additionally has turn into a showcase for leisure business stars to hobnob with Washington’s energy elite.
Presidents – though not Trump – usually attend the dinner and use their speeches as nods to the U.S. Structure’s First Modification guaranteeing freedom of speech and the press.
However the deep partisanship that has washed throughout American politics in recent times has at occasions turned the light-hearted dinner, identified in Washington as “the nerd promenade,” right into a tense affair.
In 2011, then-President Barack Obama used a part of his speech to skewer Trump, who was sitting within the viewers. On the time Trump had been spreading the falsehood that Obama was not born in the USA.
Greater than a decade later, Trump was nonetheless hovering over this spring ceremony.
Biden mentioned he and his administration have been “right here to ship a message to the nation and fairly frankly to the world. A free press is a pillar….of a free society, not the enemy.”
Trump used the time period “enemy of the individuals” to consult with some journalists as a manner of criticizing unflattering information protection of his 2016 presidential marketing campaign and his time period within the White Home.
Earlier than the dinner started, Biden held a personal assembly with the household of Evan Gershkovich, the Wall Avenue Journal reporter who was arrested on March 30 in Russia and subsequently charged with espionage. The U.S. authorities has mentioned he’s being wrongfully detained.
“Journalism isn’t against the law,” Biden mentioned as he spoke of efforts underway to free reporters all around the world who’re being held in detention.
The president and First Girl Jill Biden additionally met with Brittney Griner, knowledgeable basketball participant launched final December by Moscow after being imprisoned on prices of drug smuggling.
After discussing the arduous efforts required to free Individuals being held in international jails, Biden pivoted to a lighter portion of his speech, even turning his humor on himself.
“I consider within the First Modification,” the 80-year-old president quipped, including: “Not simply because my good buddy Jimmy Madison wrote it.”
James Madison was the fourth U.S. president, serving from 1809-1817.
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