The Hamburglar? How a story about meat limits fell apart
By DAVID BAUDER and ALI SWENSONApril 28, 2021 GMT
FILE - In this Sept. 21, 2019, file photo when former Vice President Joe Biden was running for president, Biden works the grill during the Polk County Democrats Steak Fry in Des Moines, Iowa. President Joe Biden spent only a weekend as the Hamburglar in the conservative media world, but the incident illustrated the speed at which a false and damaging story can spread. The Daily Mail wrote about things that could potentially be in a Biden climate change plan, and cited an academic study that mentioned reductions in greenhouse gases that could be achieved with limits on beef consumption. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
David Bauder And Ali Swenson
FILE - In this Sept. 21, 2019, file photo when former Vice President Joe Biden was running for president, Biden works the grill during the Polk County Democrats Steak Fry in Des Moines, Iowa. President Joe Biden spent only a weekend as the Hamburglar in the conservative media world, but the incident illustrated the speed at which a false and damaging story can spread. The Daily Mail wrote about things that could potentially be in a Biden climate change plan, and cited an academic study that mentioned reductions in greenhouse gases that could be achieved with limits on beef consumption. (AP Photo/Charlie Neibergall)
President Joe Biden spent the weekend as the "Hamburglar" in the conservative media world. The story moved with damaging speed and breadth. It wasn t true.
First things first: Joe Biden isn’t going to take away your hamburgers.
There’s a bizarre rumor going around in right-wing circles and being spread by Fox News and Republican members of Congress that President Biden is scheming to come into your kitchen and pry the cold, dead beef out of your hands. Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado claimed that Democrats “want to limit us to about four pounds [of beef] a year,” a falsity echoed on Fox by host Jesse Watters, who said, “That adds up to a burger a month. That’s it.”
Except it’s not.