Biden tells Trump "welcome back" during Oval Office meeting

Question

President Biden and President-elect Donald Trump both promised a "smooth" transition.

President Biden welcomed Trump to the oval room, which I believe that’s the office in the White House. They discussed many things for about two hours. They discussed topics that they would like the opposite team to be aware of. Present Biden showed showed Trump his view of the Ukraine war.

Answer 1

The claim is factually true. To begin with, I found the video of the official meeting between Trump and Biden after Trump won the 2024 elections. In the clip, Biden does say to Trump, “Welcome back.” Also, both authors of the article, Kathryn Watson and Caroline Linton, are legitimate journalists. Both authors have been White House reporters and have written for CBS for over seven years. In addition, though CBS is credited with being left-center leaning, they are regarded as having high-quality factual reporting.

In terms, of the content presented in the article,  it talks about details of the meeting between Trump and Biden. Although CBS could not fully understand what they were discussing it was a matter of national security. They were able to infer based on recent world events. To back up CBS, CNN, and the NYT reported similar things about the discussion between Biden and Trump

To wrap things up, the meeting between Biden and Trump was true, and Biden welcomed Trump back positively.

Biden and Trump Meet

Kathryn Watson Linkedin

Caroline Linton Linkedin

CBS bias and factual check

CNN Article 

New York Times article on Trump and Biden meeting

Comments

Excellent fact-check! You identified the claim, researched the reporters' and news website's backgrounds, and concluded clearly. I also like to use a website to check a news site's political bias. I use this chart from Ad Fontes Media: https://adfontesmedia.com/interactive-media-bias-chart/ It would be interesting to compare this bias chart to the one that you used. I like how you incorporated other news sources like the New York Times and CNN. It further strengthens your claim. Finally, great job listing and hyperlinking your sources. Your post is an ideal fact check!

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Wow, very thorough fact check! I admire how you took the time to provide the Linkedin's of the journalists that contributed to this report. Do you agree with what CBS inferred to be the topics of discussion between Trump and Biden behind closed doors? Do you have any other ideas of what they might've talked about?

Answer 2

This claim is true, the meeting itself was a "welcome back" and the New York Times said, "It was a remarkable half minute, followed by a closed-door meeting of the two men, along with their chiefs of staff, that lasted almost two hours". The source that is used in the claim, CBS, said, "As reporters left the room, Trump said to the House Republicans, 'I suspect I won't be running again unless you do something else, unless you say he's so good we've got to figure something out'". This shows Trump's perspective as he moves into his second term as POTUS. In the claim, it is stated that President Biden "showed Trump his view of the Ukraine war" but there is no actual report of what was discussed behind the closed doors, and CBS's only statement about the content discussed was: "White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre called the meeting "substantive," and said the two men discussed national security and domestic policy issues", which gives no direct mention of a war leading me to believe that the claim is true whilst slight inferences, assumptions, and exaggerations. 

https://www.cbsnews.com/news/trump-biden-meeting-white-house-2024-election/

https://www.nytimes.com/2024/11/13/us/politics/trump-biden-white-house.html

Comments

This is a very solid response to the claim. You identified the information that was stated by the source (CBS) and then went to another credible source to double-check (NYT). For next time I would suggest that you find an additional source to further back up your response. I also think that your response could structured slightly differently for clarity. But overall this comment answers the claim with trusted evidence so I think that it's a great answer.

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Very good factcheck! Do you have an ideas on what they might be talking about pertaining to national security and policy issues if you believe there might be a slight exaggeration (in the claim) to conversation about the Ukraine War? Again, great analysis.

Answer 3

This claim is true. In the full video of their very brief "welcome back", Joe Biden even said "congratulations" to the new President Elect Donald Trump. Each of them agreed on having a smooth transition- "a transition that is so smooth that it will be as smooth as it can get", said by Trump. The source from CBS used in the initial claim proves to be accurate information, with little to no political bias within the article, although CBS does have left-leaning tendencies. I found the full video of their (public) meeting on CNN, however the article and even title of the piece is riddled full of political bias. I only took their primary source of info (the video of the meeting) into account. The White House (.gov) website provides a full transcript of their meeting, with timestamps dating it to be only a minute long cordial conversation. 

https://www.cnn.com/2024/11/13/politics/trump-biden-white-house-meeting/index.html

https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/speeches-remarks/2024/11/13/remarks-by-president-biden-and-president-elect-trump-in-a-meeting/