Biden was not rushed to the hospital
Early in the morning on Feb. 28, President Joe Biden boarded Marine One, the presidential helicopter.
“YIKES: Joe Biden RUSHED to Hospital Unexpectedly, Press Left STUNNED | New Cancer Scare?!” read a March 2 Facebook post from conservative commentator Benny Johnson.
That post was later deleted, but Johnson had posted a video on X with a similar claim in which he also questioned Biden’s public schedule.
“You know where the president’s going at all times. It’s like prewritten in his schedule,” Johnson said in the Feb. 28 clip. “There’s never any unannounced things.”
Biden did travel to Walter Reed National Military Medical Center that morning, according to PolitiFact. It was for his annual physical and it was not unexpected. He also didn’t appear to be rushed as he strolled across the White House lawn at about 9 a.m., holding a drink.
“I’m going to Walter Reed to get my physical,” the president told reporters, walking through a misty rain on his way to the helicopter.
A summary of Biden’s public appearances from that day, given to news organizations, said the president would be traveling to the hospital for his physical. The pool report said Biden returned to the White House by 12:30 p.m.
Dr. Jacob M. Appel, a presidential health historian at the Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, told PolitiFact there is “wide variation” when the public is told about a president’s annual physical or other medical procedure.
“For instance, former President Trump announced his 2018 and 2019 physicals days in advance, but not his 2020 physical,” Appel said.
In a Feb. 28 memo, Biden’s physician Dr. Kevin O’Connor said the president’s medical conditions “remain stable and well-controlled.”
“President Biden is a healthy, active, robust 81-year-old male, who remains fit to successfully execute the duties of the Presidency, to include those as Chief Executive, Head of State and Commander in Chief,” O’Connor said.
Trump is not Patton’s son
A video posted to Instagram shows MSNBC anchor Ali Velshi talking about how Gen. George Patton, John F. Kennedy, Abraham Lincoln and Benito Mussolini are related.
A woman begins the clip stating, “Governments around the world have been lying to their citizens.”
It switches to Velshi saying many world leaders are related.
“And where is Trump in this nutty family tree?” Velshi asks. “Donald Trump is, get this, the biological son of Gen. Patton.”
But this clip is misleading and taken out of context, according to USA Today. The video in its entirety shows Velshi isn’t reporting these theories, he’s explaining a conspiracy theory endorsed by the fringe group QAnon.
In a November 2021 episode of his show, Velshi talks about this conspiracy theory in a segment he says will “take you down a winding road of delusion.”
There is no credible evidence any of this theory is correct, USA Today said. As for Trump being the biological son of Patton, Gen. Patton died in December 1945 in Germany, Trump was born June 14, 1946 in New York to Mary and Fred Trump.
No change to gun policy
A woman posting a video online appears to have details about a new Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives policy allowing people in the U.S. illegally to purchase firearms. She says the information came from her husband, who owns a gun shop.
“The ATF has made updates to their background check policy and effective today, they give an exemption to illegal immigrants to be able to purchase firearms,” the woman says in the clip posted on X.
But the woman is wrong, according to the Associated Press. There has been no such change and the ATF isn’t the organization that would update the policy.
ATF spokesperson Kristina Mastropasqua told the AP, “It is unlawful for any person who is an alien illegally or unlawfully in the United States to purchase or possess a firearm.”
As for changing that law.
“ATF does not make or change the laws, that role is reserved for Congress,” Mastropasqua said.
Post not from Greene
A social media post that appears to come from Georgia Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene includes an odd claim.
“The ATHEISTS are using SATELLITES to intercept prayer to JESUS and turn them (sic) EVEL!!!!” reads the start of the post that seems to be from Greene’s official Congressional account on X.
The post includes a graphic and the words “CHRISTIANS AGAINST SATELLITES.”
But this post is fake, according to Reuters. The comment can’t be found on any of Greene’s credible accounts and she hasn’t issued statements about satellites and prayer.
This same text and graphic has appeared in other X accounts without any reference to Greene, Reuters said.
• Bob Oswald is a veteran Chicago-area journalist and former news editor of the Elgin Courier-News. Contact him at boboswald33@gmail.com.