#BidenLied Trends on Twitter as Angry Libs Realize They Aren’t Getting What They Wanted

Posted for: Layla Godey

In December and January, as he barnstormed around Georgia for Senate runoff candidates Jon Ossoff and the Rev. Raphael Warnock, then-President-elect Joe Biden made a promise: Elect these two and you get $2,000 stimulus checks.

The day before the election, he made it abundantly clear: “By electing Jon and the reverend, you can make an immediate difference in your own lives, the lives of the people all across this country,” he said at a rally.

“Because their election will put an end to the block in Washington on that $2000 stimulus check, that money would go out the door immediately, to help people who are in real trouble.

“Think about what it will mean to your lives. Putting food on the table, paying rent, paying part of your mortgage, paying down the credit card, paying the phone bill, the gas bill, the electric bill.”

Now that he’s in the White House, Biden’s COVID-19 relief package includes $1,400 relief checks, not $2,000. The Democrats’ line is that $600 + $1,400 = $2,000. What part of that don’t you understand?

http://

.@POTUS will build on the $600 down payment provided by Congress last year, sending an additional $1,400 to households across America, totaling direct payments to $2,000 per person. pic.twitter.com/9zfBJT7t7O

— The Democrats (@TheDemocrats) January 30, 2021

The part one doesn’t understand is that, well before Biden was saying this, then-President Donald Trump had signed off on the $600 checks and they’d already started going out on Dec. 29, according to Forbes.

Biden himself — or whoever runs his Twitter account — seemed to acknowledge the distinction between the $600 checks that were going out the door and the $2,000 checks that he was promising.

http://

$600 is simply not enough when you have to choose between paying rent or putting food on the table.

We need $2,000 stimulus checks.

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) January 11, 2021

Thus did #BidenLied begin trending on Twitter over the weekend.

It wasn’t just those to the president’s right who were tweeting it, though; the loudest voices came from the left.

Socialist podcast host and activist Ryan Knight got the ball rolling.

http://

Biden just issued 31 drilling permits, lied about $2000 checks, refuses to support a ban on fracking or Green New Deal, hasn’t released the kids in cages, doesn’t support Medicare for All, but according to @AOC he’s working with “grassroots movements.” This is called gaslighting.

— Ryan Knight 🌹 (@ProudSocialist) January 30, 2021

http://

Nobody should be surprised that @JoeBiden lied about $2000 checks.

He lied the entire primary, but liberals were too busy chanting “Trump bad” to even care that they were nominating a pathological liar. #BidenLied https://t.co/zWIQnhxCrg

— Ryan Knight 🌹 (@ProudSocialist) January 31, 2021

http://

Thank you to everyone who is calling out @JoeBiden and @TheDemocrats for blatantly lying about $2000 checks. They control the entire government and they need to be held accountable. #BidenLied

— Ryan Knight 🌹 (@ProudSocialist) January 31, 2021

Plenty of others on the left got into the fray as well.

http://

#BidenLied about taking care of the American People.

— just maureen (@ASewcialist) January 31, 2021

http://

#BidenLied
Mainstream media isn’t defending the $2,000 to $1,400 bait and switch, because they can’t.

But they aren’t calling it out either, because they aren’t allowed to.

They’re just pretending it’s always been $1,400 and millions of people aren’t pissed.

Normal.

— 2k RIGHT NOW 🦺 (@PatTheBerner) January 31, 2021

Liberals decided to hijack the hashtag with posts like this, usually highlighting their pets:

http://

#BidenLied Anyways enjoy a cute pic of my new kitten pic.twitter.com/l3dOO9rSRW

— undercatt3000 (@undercatt3000) February 1, 2021

That cat doesn’t look blue, pixelated or fast. #GammaRaySDLied.

For those of you unfamiliar with Twitter, this is what’s called hashtag hijacking — drowning out unpleasant trending hashtags by, among other things, bombing them with pics and GIFs of cats or K-pop stars.

Granted, most of these on the left who were going after Biden were already wary of the new president, feeling him to be insufficiently progressive. There were plenty of people on the right using the tag to note that Biden had long been a liar. In the end, however, this was about the hard left of the party having a bad first date with the new president, followed by all of the new president’s friends drowning out their grievances with pictures of their dumb cats, because this is Twitter and if you have critical mass you don’t have to listen to disagreeable facts.

Biden hasn’t been in a position of official legislative power for over a decade; while he had some authority as vice president, little of it was vested in him by the Constitution. (And even then, one senses not much of consequence was delegated to him by former President Barack Obama — who reportedly warned a Democrat before Biden’s 2020 run, “Don’t underestimate Joe’s ability to f— things up.”)

Therefore, being familiar with his history, I’m not at all surprised he lied about what he would accomplish once he finally had power; this is someone who said he was arrested by apartheid-era South African police while on his way to visit Nelson Mandela in prison. (No such thing happened.)

Compared with what we’re going to be seeing over the next four years, this is actually pretty mild. In fact, we should all just be amazed he didn’t plagiarize his relief package.

There are a lot more lies where that came from. And presumably, there are going to be a lot more Biden stans who will hijack hashtags to drown out frustrated conservatives, progressives and independents alike.

Hope you like cats.