Social media users pushed back against President Biden’s insistence on Tuesday that people in America are "banning books" and "banning history."
At the White House, Biden announced a new national monument in honor of Emmett Till, a Black teenager whose 1955 lynching, and his mother Mamie Till-Mobley, who helped catalyze the Civil Rights Movement by drawing national attention to her son's vicious murder. During his remarks, the president claimed history and books are being banned in America.
"Ida B. Wells once said, ‘The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth upon them.’ 'The way to right wrongs is to turn the light of truth on them.’ That’s our charge today…did you ever think we’d be talking about banning books in America? Banning history? I’m serious," Biden said.
Several Twitter users called this out as a "lie" while also pointing at Democratic efforts to ban books and remove statues.
"This is, of course, a lie," Substack writer Jim Treacher tweeted.
RedState writer Bonchie joked, "FL: ‘Here’s 216 pages about the horrors of slavery. Also there’s one clumsy line about how slaves overcame adversity to use skills to their benefit.’ Biden: ‘Why are you banning history?’"
"Nobody’s banned any books. Hell, apparently we haven’t even banned bribery," Twitchy’s Doug Powers wrote.
1776 Project PAC founder Ryan James Girdusky remarked, "His party is toppling statues across America and he said nothing."
"These people just spent the past four years toppling statues in every city in America. Breathless gaslighting," Dallas Express writer Collin Pruett wrote.
OutKick writer Ian Miller explained, "The far left city of Burbank, California, where Biden beat Trump by 40-60 points, banned ‘To Kill a Mockingbird,’ ‘Adventures of Huckleberry Finn,’ ‘Of Mice and Men’ and other books because they said they were racist."
Others defended restricting children's access to sexually explicit books in schools and public libraries and said it doesn't equate to a book "ban."
"No books were banned. They also don't allow Penthouse in elementary schools," conservative account Fusilli Spock wrote.
Fox News contributor Guy Benson wrote, "1) The Obama/Biden admin argued in favor of (political) book banning at SCOTUS. 2) Would Gramps Joe want his young grandkids* reading that infamous pornographic/blowjob book in grade school libraries? (*the ones he acknowledges)"
"He should [go] into detail about what kinds of books are being banned. 90% of America is for it and the Dems know it," CampaignSidekick CEO Drew Ryun said.
"For the last time for the senile people in the back reading off note cards: Nothing has been banned. We are talking about inappropriate books for children," "Save Austin Now" co-founder Matt Mackowiak tweeted.
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Biden’s reference to "banning history" was seen by many as an attack on Florida’s new African American history curriculum. Vice President Kamala Harris made more direct comments against the standards during the same White House event, after attacking them last week.
"Those who attempt to teach that enslaved people benefited from slavery," Harris said. "Those who insult us in an attempt to gaslight us. Who try to divide us with unnecessary debates. Let us not be seduced into believing that somehow we will be better if we forget. We will be better if we remember. We will be stronger if we remember because we all here know, it is only by understanding and learning from our past that we can continue to work together to build a better future."
Black academic Dr. William Allen, who helped craft the Florida curriculum, criticized efforts by the White House to attack the standards based on a single line.
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"The only criticism I’ve encountered so far is a single one that was articulated by the vice president and which was an error," Allen said. "As I stated in my response to the vice president, it was categorically false."
