Last week, Joe Biden decided to hang with Sen. Amy Klobuchar (D-MN) and some construction workers in Superior, Wisconsin. It was an effort to shore up support with labor’s rank-and-file, which has been shaky. In the picture, Joe Biden is seen wearing a hard hat backward. In a way, the photo captured the ongoing incompetency of this presidency: they do everything wrong.
Nothing like having a beer with some great union workers and yes, that would be @JoeBiden in Superior, Wisconsin. @AFLCIO pic.twitter.com/caMGiRXjPe
— Amy Klobuchar (@amyklobuchar) January 25, 2024
It's bad enough that the president botched a simple photo opportunity. It’s even worse than Snopes, a lefty fact-checking outlet, decided to take a bullet for the man over this since it might have faded away after a few days. Instead, it’s lingered, especially after they initially rated the claim as “false.” They were forced to retract it after being bombarded by comments from people who didn’t have any of this gaslighting. Here’s their latest revision:
Hi @snopes here’s an explainer on hard hats pic.twitter.com/qiH328nfSw
— Oilfield Rando (@Oilfield_Rando) January 27, 2024
Snopes fact-check: "Biden wore a hard hat backwards" is misinformation
— End Wokeness (@EndWokeness) January 27, 2024
Who are you going to believe:
Snopes or your lying eyes? pic.twitter.com/p30Qu0uWlY
We [Snopes] received a ton of comments in a very short time challenging our assumption that wearing a hard hat "backwards" means wearing it with the brim facing to the rear, and "forwards" means wearing it brim to the front. On the basis of that assumption, we originally rated the claim that Biden was wearing a hard hat backwards as false.
The prevailing counter-argument is that if the suspension of the hat has been purposely configured by its owner such that the bill and tightening knob are worn to the back (as was the case of the hat Biden wore), to wear that hat with the bill facing forward is, practically speaking, to wear it backwards. Therefore, it's argued, it's actually true that, in the photo op discussed below, Biden was wearing it backwards. The strap and tightening knob, which should have been behind Biden's head, were on his forehead.
A corollary to that argument is "Biden looks damn silly in any case."
We find these arguments sound. Therefore, the claim "President Joe Biden wore a hard hat backwards during a photo op with union construction workers in Superior, Wisconsin" is true, and this fact check has been re-rated as such. Thanks to all who argued on behalf of this correction.
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But the original summary was something to behold (via Fox News):
The left-leaning fact check site Snopes reversed one of its rulings this weekend to admit that President Biden did, in fact, wear a construction hard hat backwards.
Biden was pictured during a visit to union workers in Wisconsin alongside Sen. Amy Klobuchar, D-Minn. The photo clearly shows Biden wearing the hard hat backwards, with the strap and tightening knob clearly visible.
[…]
"The photo is genuine. And it does look, at first glance, like Biden was wearing that hard hat backwards. But after comparing it to other photos and videos of the same event, we were forced to reach the opposite conclusion: The hat on Biden's head was facing forward, bill to the front, not backward," Snopes claimed.
No one likes a pedant. Also, these shoddy fact checks, whose intent is beyond transparent regarding political bias, is why this beat, once respectable, is now regarded as propaganda. That’s because it is.
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