‘Today’ Adds Editor’s Note To Clarify Report That Joe Biden Blanked On Donald Trump’s Name

When Joe Biden was interviewed by George Lopez and Ana Navarro during a campaign concert on Sunday, he at one point referred to “four more years of George,” before making clear that he was referring to Donald Trump.

Trump’s campaign, however, ran with it, the latest of their attempts to cast his opponent as senile.

“The character of the country in my view is literally on the ballot, what kind of country are we going to be,” Biden says in the video. “Four more years of George uh…George, going to find ourselves in a position if Trump gets elected, we are going to be in a different world.”

While the Trump campaign and media outlets like Fox News, the New York Post and NBC’s Today took this as meaning that Biden mistakenly referred to the current president as George W. Bush, Biden actually was talking to Lopez, and easily may have been mentioning his name, even as he stumbled a bit in his words.

Navarro and Lopez pushed back against the George W. Bush claim, as the video was shared and spread by the Trump campaign. The president himself wrote on Twitter, “Joe Biden called me George yesterday. Couldn’t remember my name. Got some help from the anchor to get him through the interview. The Fake News Cartel is working overtime to cover it up!”

Navarro wrote on Twitter, “This is a damn lie. But that won’t stop them This is the kind of unethical crap they do to spread false narratives. @JoeBiden was responding to a direct question from @georgelopez . I know because I was there.”

Lopez seconded that. He wrote on Twitter, “Thanks Ana ! Ditto : no one is mentioning my name because if they do it’s a non issue #facts.”

Today added an editor’s note to the online posting of its report.

“The video of Joe Biden talking about the 2020 election and ‘four more years of George…’ came from an interview that Biden did Sunday with George Lopez,” the show said. “The fact that Biden was talking with George Lopez was relevant and helpful context that should have been included in the original report.”

The Trump campaign also had blasted out video of the Today segment.

Biden’s remark came during a campaign IWillVote concert. The campaign posted video of the concert in its entirety.

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