Let’s get one thing out of the way: President Joe Biden has not proposed a limit on individual American red meat consumption. No one in his administration has, either. That hasn’t stopped Republican lawmakers and media figures from complaining about a fake red meat restriction and directing their anger at Biden.
Freshman representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene, Lauren Boebert and Madison Cawthorne raged online against Biden and the non-existent meat ban, as did Donald Trump Jr.
“Not only does Emperor Biden not want us to celebrate the 4th of July, now he doesn’t want us to have a burger on that day either. Retweet if you’re still doing both because this is America!” Cawthorne urged his Twitter followers, ginning up some outrage over a phony edict, then using it to game a little social engagement.
“I’m pretty sure I ate 4 pounds of red meat yesterday. That’s going to be a hard NO from me,” said Trump Jr., reacting to a graphic from Fox News.
CNN fact-checked this entire claim after it appears a handful of times on Fox News and on the Twitter feeds of actual Republican lawmakers, finding that the whole issue seems to be a piece published by the Daily Mail last week. That’s right: The origin of this hamburger-based rumor isn’t even American.
The article in question “baselessly connected Biden’s climate proposals to an academic paper from 2020 that is not about Biden and says nothing about the government imposing dietary limits,” according to CNN.
Again, there is no burger ban. There never was a burger ban.