AP FACT CHECK: Trump falsely asserts Biden was fed questions
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Donald Trump has fabricated a complaint that Democratic rival Joe Biden was fed questions at a news conference and read his answers from a teleprompter. This didn't happen.
TRUMP: “Biden was asked questions at his so-called Press Conference yesterday where he read the answers from a teleprompter. That means he was given the questions, just like Crooked Hillary. Never have seen this before!” — tweet Wednesday.
TRUMP: “He doesn’t know where he is, frankly. I watched his press conference yesterday. He’s answering, he’s answering questions like this from a teleprompter. I said, ‘What’s that all about?’” — interview Wednesday on Fox Business Network.
TRUMP: “I saw Biden interviewed yesterday. He did his first press conference in, I guess, almost 90 days, and he was reading the answers off a teleprompter. This was for question and answer, and they’d ask him these softball questions. 'How much do you dislike Trump? How much, I mean, really, questions that were terrible and they were, should not have even, I mean, it’s embarrassing. He’s reading answers off a teleprompter. I say I’ve never seen that before.” — interview Wednesday on “America This Week.”
THE FACTS: Biden did not read answers off a teleprompter. Nor did The Associated Press, which asked the first question at the briefing, submit questions in advance.
Biden used a teleprompter to read prepared remarks that took aim at Trump’s handling of the coronavirus, before the questions and answers started, at which point the teleprompter appeared to have been turned off.
His campaign gave him a list of news organizations to call on and he answered questions from reporters on that list as well as some he chose spontaneously. That's not an uncommon...