President Biden has been facing a backlash after joking about running over a reporter who asked him a question he didn’t like.
On Tuesday, the POTUS visited Ford’s factory in Dearborn, Michigan, to take the company’s first electric truck for a test drive. While showing off the vehicle, Biden took some time to take questions from a group of reporters who gathered at the scene ahead of the president’s visit.
When one of the reporters attempted to ask the 46th US President a question about Israel and the ongoing conflict in the Middle East, Biden seemingly lost his cool and went on to joke about running over the reporter with the Ford F-150 Lightning.
“Mr. President, can I ask you a quick question on Israel before you drive away since it’s so important?” the reporter was recorded asking.
“No you can’t. Not unless you get in front of the car as I step on it,” Biden replied.
After the shocking comment, Biden has become the center of a social media debate, whereas various political figures suggested he crossed the line by threatening the reporter even though it was just a joke.
“While America’s most important Middle East ally is under attack, Joe Biden threatened to run over a reporter for asking a question about it,” Jonathan Turcotte of the National Republican Senatorial Committee campaign wrote. “And this is the takeaway from the totally unbiased media. What a joke.”
“Joe Biden just threatened to run a reporter over with a car for wanting to ask a question about Israel,” Amy Tarkanian, a former Nevada GOP Chairwoman, penned.
“If President Trump had done this, he would have been impeached. Jokingly or not, this rhetoric is completely unbecoming of the President.”
Meanwhile, Stephen L Miller, a right-wing podcast host, wrote: “Biden joking about running down a reporter for asking about Israel in an F-150 truck is a pretty good tell about just how performative the ‘how dare he’ fainting spells of the past 4 years actually were.”
As plenty of social media users suggested, it was not appropriate for Biden to threaten the reporter even if his reply was just a joke. Many have also suggested that the issue would have been taken much more seriously if Trump was the one to make the threat.