President Joe Biden spoke before the media on June 13 from Cornwall, England, where he met with world leaders as part of the annual G-7 Summit. During the conference, he was seen holding note cards with ‘DOJ talking points’ for his press address on the final day of the summit.
A viral Reddit post criticized the president for holding the note cards, fueling claims he needs the cards due to memory issues.
THE QUESTION
Was President Joe Biden holding note cards while talking during his June 13 press conference?
THE SOURCES
THE ANSWER
Yes, President Biden was holding note cards during the June 13 press conference. However, Biden is not the first sitting president to use notes during a press conference or national address.
WHAT WE FOUND
At the June 13 press conference following the final day of the G-7 Summit in Cornwall, England, President Joe Biden was holding a stack of note cards behind the podium.
On Reddit and Twitter, a screenshot from One America News Network, a conservative-leaning news outlet, went viral with the caption: “Biden fiddles with flashcards featuring anti-Trump talking points during press conference in England.”
VERIFY confirmed a close-up of the note cards with “DOJ Talking Points” for the June 13 conference was filmed and provided via the White House press pool through the CBS Newspath service. VERIFY also obtained the video file from CBS Newspath.
Biden was in fact holding note cards during the summit, the official White House video posted to YouTube showed. The cards can be seen several times in the video. According to the transcript from the press briefing, Biden did not mention Trump.
The cards seen in the White House footage closely resemble the screenshot from the Reddit post. The words on the cards were not fully legible in the YouTube video posted to the official White House account.
The Associated Press, Getty, and Reuters image galleries all show photos of Biden at the press conference holding the cards. In this photo from Reuters, “Joseph R. Biden, Jr.” can be seen written atop one of the cards.
Biden is not the first president to use notes while speaking to the media, before a guest group or during a national address. Some examples from the last 20 years:
- In a joint press conference with the president of Turkey, former President Donald Trump can be seen opening a folder and flipping through pages. Washington Post staff photographer Jabin Botsford has photographed Trump’s notes several times through 2019 (see here and here, as examples).
- In 2015, former President Barack Obama was photographed packing up his notes after a press briefing.
- From the Roosevelt Room in the White House, former President George W. Bush read from his notes during a video teleconference in 2007.
- In 1994, former President Bill Clinton was photographed going over his notes during a white meeting with small business owners.
- From the Oval Office, former President George H. Bush held up his notes after giving a nationally televised address in 1992.
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VERIFY
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