Trump campaign lie about Biden gets a rare Fox News fact check

Trump campaign press secretary Hogan Gidley falsely claimed that Vice President Joe Biden wants to “defund the police” during an interview on Fox News on Thursday.

The falsehood drew a rare real-time fact check from the conservative network.

“He’s not calling to defund the police,” anchor Sandra Smith told Gidley.

Donald Trump and his campaign have been pushing the false claim for weeks. In a fact check of a Trump campaign ad promoting the same message, the Washington Post stated the claim was “simply false.”

Biden has called for $300 million in additional funding for police departments to aid efforts in “community policing.”

“I don’t support defunding police,” Biden wrote in an op-ed discussing the proposal. “Every single police department should have the money they need to institute real reforms like adopting a national use of force standard, buying body cameras, and recruiting more diverse police officers.”

From the July 16 edition of Fox News’ “America’s Newsroom”:

HOGAN GIDLEY: As I’ve mentioned on your show before, the compare and contrast with Donald Trump and Joe Biden is stark. You don’t have to guess what America would look like under Joe Biden, you’ve seen it. The economy was horrible. The city streets are devolving into lawlessness, and all he says is, “Should we defund the police? Yes, comma, absolutely.”

 

That’s what his stance is —

 

SANDRA SMITH, Fox News: He’s not saying to defund the police. He’s not calling to defund the police.

 

GIDLEY: He was asked about defunding, he said, “yes, absolutely,” and he said that the police are actually becoming the enemy. So, you don’t have to guess. Your job isn’t safe, your life isn’t safe, and your American way of life is not safe with Joe Biden, because his policies just wage war on all three.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.