CBS News has some competition in the race to produce the most ridiculous fact check this week.
On Thursday, during the final 2020 presidential debate, the New York Times went to bat for the Biden campaign, alleging the Democratic nominee has “never called for a ban on” fracking.
Biden has proposed exactly this on at least three separate occasions during the 2020 campaign.
President Trump said during the debate that Biden “went on with fracking, ‘We are not going to have fracking.’ Then he goes to Pennsylvania once he got the nomination, and he just, ‘Oh, we’re going to have fracking.’”
The New York Times pounced, wasting no time rating Trump’s claim as “misleading.”
“Mr. Biden has never called for a ban on the process for extracting oil and gas known as hydraulic fracturing, or fracking,” writes the New York Times’s Lisa Friedman. “He has pledged to end new permits for hydraulic fracturing on federal lands and waters, but said fracking ‘has to continue because we need a transition’ to renewable energy.”
Friedman added that Biden “has also assured union leaders in critical swing states like Pennsylvania that he will protect existing fracking jobs while pursuing a clean energy transition.”
This is almost verbatim what Biden claimed Thursday during the debate. The problem here is that the Democratic nominee has said in the past that he opposes fracking, as I noted earlier here.
In July 2019, during the second Democratic primary debate, CNN’s Dana Bash asked Biden, “Would there be any place for fossil fuels, including coal and fracking, in a Biden administration?”
“No,” the former vice president said, “we would, we would work it out. We would make sure it’s eliminated and no more subsidies for either one of those, either — any fossil fuel.”
Then, during a campaign event on January 25, 2020, a voter asked Biden directly, “What about, say, stopping fracking?”
“Yes,” Biden said in a simple one-word response.
Later, during the final Democratic debate on March 15, Sen. Bernie Sanders of Vermont said, “I’m talking about stopping fracking, as soon as we possibly can. I’m talking about telling the fossil fuel industry that they are going to stop destroying this planet. No ifs, buts, and maybes about it — “
Biden interrupted: “So am I.”
“Well, I’m not sure your proposal does that,” said the Vermont lawmaker.
Biden replied, “My plan takes on the fossil fuel industry, and it unites the world,” adding moments later, “No more. No new fracking.”
Every time Biden has said something along these lines, his campaign rushes to the rescue, insisting his real position is that he opposes only new permits for oil and gas on federal land and water. And, sure, if his campaign wants to keep going through this routine of alleging simple rhetorical gaffes, that is fine. But they should not also lie about it, claiming falsely that Biden has never said he opposes fracking. Because he has absolutely said exactly that.
It makes sense for the Biden campaign to lie about its candidate’s constantly shifting remarks on fracking. It is their professional obligation to protect him from the consequences of his public statements.
But what is the New York Times’s excuse?
