White House Denies Joe Biden Pulled A 'Ron Burgundy' Teleprompter Gaffe in Oval Office Address, Slams Fox News' 'Credibility'
Oct. 20 2023, Published 6:30 p.m. ET
The White House slammed Fox News' "credibility" after the outlet falsely reported that Joe Biden made a teleprompter gaffe during his Wednesday night Oval Office address to the nation, RadarOnline.com has learned.
Fox News claimed without evidence that Biden read a teleprompter instruction out loud, a la Will Ferrell's character Ron Burgundy in Anchorman.
The White House refuted Fox News' baseless claim following Biden's televised address from the Oval Office, which focused on "the Unites States’ Response to Hamas’s Terrorist Attacks Against Israel and Russia’s Ongoing Brutal War Against Ukraine."
While speaking on the war in Ukraine, the president told the country, "For 75 years, NATO has kept peace in Europe and has been the cornerstone of American security. And if Putin attacks a NATO Ally, we will defend every inch of NATO which the treaty requires and calls for."
He then insisted, "We will have something that we do not seek — make it clear: we do not seek — we do not seek to have American troops fighting in Russia or fighting against Russia."
Fox News anchor John Roberts took Biden's final message to "make it clear" that US troops would not be deployed to Russia as an embarrassing slip-up.
"And more concerns that the president appeared to read instructions rather than just the speech from his teleprompter last night. Watch this," the anchor said as he rolled a clip of Biden's speech.
"Well, you know, everybody has teleprompter problems from time to time," Roberts mocked the president.
In reality, Biden did not misread the teleprompter and confused a direction for his next line. According to the prepared speech, which was reviewed by Mediaite, the Democrat president simply reworded the intended line.
"And let me be clear about something: we send Ukraine equipment sitting in our stockpile," the prepared speech stated.
It was additionally noted that "make it clear" is not a typical instruction used on teleprompters, though the Fox News house apparently wished it were.
Visit the all-new RADAR SPORTS for all the on and off-field activities of the biggest names in the games.
White House senior communications director Andrew Bates slammed Fox News in a statement on the inaccurate reporting.
Bates appeared to take a dig at the conservative network's massive $787 million settlement in Dominion Voting Systems defamation lawsuit when he wrote to Mediaite, "Unsurprising that the jury’s no longer out – literally – on Fox’s credibility."
Dominion Voting Systems accused Fox News of promoting conspiracy theories about their technology and baseless lies regarding the 2020 presidential election.
In a last-ditch effort to avoid trial, Fox News' lawyers settled with Dominion Voting Systems in April 2023.