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Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden switched his position on the use of fossil fuels and fracking on Monday. During his visit to Pittsburg, Pennsylvania, Biden claimed, "I am not banning fracking."
"Let me say that again: I am not banning fracking. No matter how many times Donald Trump lies about me," he said.
Biden was referencing Trump's speech at the Republican National Convention last week.
"Biden has promised to abolish the production of American oil, coal, shale, and natural gas, laying waste to the economies of Pennsylvania, Ohio, Texas, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Colorado, and New Mexico, destroying those states," Trump said.
The problem? Trump isn't the one who is lying about Biden's position on fracking.
Biden has promised to ban fracking multiple times, citing fossil fuels as dangerous for the environment."We would work it out.
We would make sure it's eliminated," Biden said about coal and fracking from the Democratic presidential debate stage just a few months ago.
Comment: It's not as simple as Davidson claims. Biden's official policy has never been to "ban fracking". But that didn't stop him from seeming to claim otherwise, e.g., in the debate with Sanders. He's a politician. He says what he thinks will get him votes and the support of whoever happens to be listening to him speak, even if what he is saying has nothing to do with his campaign's actual policies. In other words, he's shameless. And it leads propaganda outlets like
WaPo to need to write headlines like this:
Joe Biden's 'not banning fracking' defense, explained
What happened when Biden says he misspoke about his fracking position
Biden was in a heated debate in March with Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) about this. Sanders and other liberal powerhouses want to ban all fracking, which is in line with what many climate change activists want.
Sanders: "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: "So am I."
Sanders: "Well, I'm not sure your proposal does that."
Biden: "No more — no new fracking."
Biden was wrong about his own proposal then. As The Washington Post's Salvador Rizzo fact-checked at the time: "The Biden campaign said that he misspoke and that his position was the same as ever: He would issue no new fracking permits for federal lands or waters, while allowing existing fracking operations to continue."
The campaign points to half a dozen other times in the past year when Biden has explicitly said he won't ban fracking. As far back as a town hall in September 2019, he declined to endorse a ban. "His position has never changed and certainly didn't change today," Biden spokesman Andrew Bates told The Fix on Monday.
Yes, he "misspoke". He surely wasn't just cynically saying what he thought voters wanted to hear.
Comment: See also: