In a dinner with White House journalists, President Joe Biden warned that there is “a poison that runs through American democracy” in allusion to Donald Trump’s attempt to interfere in the 2020 election results.
“When lies are used to bury the truth, what is clear, and I say this from the heart, is that you in the free press matter more than ever in the last century,” Biden emphasized.
The president also warned of the problem of “disinformation” at the international level, “where the world order created after the Second World War is “under serious attack”, alluding to the Russian invasion of Ukraine.
Joe Biden also paid tribute to journalists who died in Ukraine, as well as acknowledging that press work is hard because “the industry is changing” and there is “intense pressure to shake things up rather than clarify.”
“But the truth matters. American democracy is not a ‘reality show,’” he stressed.
Biden also said he is not worried about the legislative elections scheduled for November.
“I’m not worried about the legislative elections (in November), or whether they generate more partisan obstruction. I am sure that we will be able to solve it in the six years I have left in the Presidency”, he stressed. The dinner brought together about 2,600 people in a hotel room in Washington. This is the first time a president has attended the White House Correspondents’ Dinner.
Democrat Joseph Robinette Biden Jr, 79, has a long history in US politics. In addition to being vice president in the Obama administration, he was a senator from the state of Delaware for six consecutive terms until he ran in the presidential election against Donald Trump.