Sen. Mike Lee cried “wolf!” about Joe Biden’s health on July 5, 2024
It’s embarrassing. Sen. Mike Lee (R-UT), a rightwing firebrand, got careless and fell for a false internet rumor.
On Friday evening, July 5, 2024, at 7:41 PM, rightwing nutcase Laura Loomer (profiled here) tweeted that “Joe Biden is reportedly having a medical emergency on Air Force One right now.”
In fact Biden, returning from a campaign rally in Wisconsin, had walked off the plane in Delaware at 7:22 PM, and X’s Community Notes said so (see story here).
A reporter traveling with Biden said nothing happened on the plane (see story here). It’s unclear what prompted the rumor. Maybe someone just made it up.
But Biden’s health is a big story right now; and Lee retweeted the rumor at 8:09 PM, adding his own disparaging remark, just 28 minutes after Loomer’s original tweet.
You’d expect a sitting U.S. senator who heard a rumor like this to immediately call the White House. Or at least contact someone more reliable. But he made no effort to verify what he’d heard. Instead, he jumped on that horse and rode it.
Anyone can post anything on the internet. Lee knows that. Now he looks like a gullible fool.