“Cycling is the new golf” is hardly a new cliché – but no-one seems to have told a Fox News pundit who questioned President Joe Biden’s fitness for office after he was filmed (not for the first time) riding a bicycle on a break in Delaware while making no reference to the hundreds of visits to golf courses his predecessor President Donald Trump made during his four years in the White House.
In an interview with Fox News’ Harris Faulkner, former reality TV star Rachel Campos-Duffy, whose husband is a former Republican Congressman, claimed that footage of Biden on a bike ride with his wife Jill on Sunday at Rehoboth Beach, Delaware – their home state – somehow proved that he is unable to fulfil the demands of his office.
“Being the leader of the free world has to be the most demanding job in the whole world and he simply does not have the mental or physical stamina to do this job,” she insisted.
“That is why his handlers and his wife, who by the way look increasingly like visiting angels, have to schedule in these senior breaks for him so he can take naps and go for bike rides because he can't concentrate on the job the way he should,” Mrs Campos-Duffy continued.
“I mean, just compare it to President Donald Trump,” she said, ignoring the more than 300 times that Trump is believed to have visited golf courses while in office, and in a reference to criticism of Biden not holding official press conferences, insisted that the former president “worked these long, long hours and had impromptu hour-long pressers with the media.”
It has been estimated that Trump spent nearly one in three of his days as president at one or more of the resorts he owns, and while Rehoboth Beach where Biden spent the weekend lies 120 miles east of Washington DC, his predecessor’s favoured destination was his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, 1,000 miles from the White House.
His golfing trips were heavily criticised by many media outlets not only because of the perception that he was not devoting his full energies to his office, but also because of the associated Security Service costs, which are believed to have run to tens of millions of dollars.
Trump himself – who in 1989 and 1990 sponsored a multi-day international race in the eastern US modestly called the Tour de Trump – was dismissive of Biden’s penchant for cycling in the run-up to the 2020 Presidential Election.
In a speech in August last year shortly after footage emerged of his rival out on a bike ride, Trump said: “I’ll never be riding a bicycle. I’m not getting hurt riding a bicycle.”
Previously, he had repeatedly attempted to belittle former Secretary of State John Kerry who in 2015 broke his leg when he crashed while riding his bike on the Grand Colombière in the French Alps while on a break from talks in Switzerland regarding Iran’s nuclear capability.
Later that year Trump – who as president would, in 2018, rip up the Iran deal Kerry negotiated – said of Kerry, “He goes into a bicycle race at 73 or 74 years old. He falls, breaks his leg. I don’t want him on a bicycle during nuclear negotiations.”
Kerry was in fact 71 at the time and was not riding in a race.
Trump added: “I swear to you, I will never enter a bicycle race if I’m president.”
Golf, however, turned out to be a different matter entirely.
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Simon joined road.cc as news editor in 2009 and is now the site’s community editor, acting as a link between the team producing the content and our readers. A law and languages graduate, published translator and former retail analyst, he has reported on issues as diverse as cycling-related court cases, anti-doping investigations, the latest developments in the bike industry and the sport’s biggest races. Now back in London full-time after 15 years living in Oxford and Cambridge, he loves cycling along the Thames but misses having his former riding buddy, Elodie the miniature schnauzer, in the basket in front of him.
Donald Trump also criticised President Obama on one of the few occasions he played golf saying that if elected he would never have time to play golf as her would be too busy.
...and then Trump spent about one in three days of his time as president playing golf, at huge expense to the US taxpayer because of the security required.
Donald Trump also criticised President Obama on one of the few occasions he played golf saying that if elected he would never have time to play golf as her would be too busy.
our own Prime Minister is famous for riding bike and is a green advocate, a real cycling ally. The name "Boris Bike" is ubiquitous and immortally etched in our capital's folklore. Ten out of ten.
And if your screen name was Boris Ronson then maybe someone would take your faux concern seriously. But since you've chosen as your namesake a vocal purveyor of lazy anti-cycling stereotypes and falsehoods it comes across as smugly hypocritical for you to now pretend to care.
A bit of a low blow to criticise President Trump for being anti-cycling, when he single-handedly promoted cycling across the United States in the "Tour de Trump". He's probably done more to promote cycling in America than any other living person today.
And it's perfectly reasonable for attacking Joe Biden for relaxing (aka fiddling) while the US self-destructs. And not just that - I mean, for goodness sake, the guy can't even walk up a flight of stairs without falling over, whose bright idea was it to let him out on a bike?!
"Tour de Trump"? It's always got to be about the Orange Clown, doesn't it?
And of course it went bust, just like most of his "businesses".
Your hero has already taken a much-deserved spot as one of the *worst* presidents in US history, according to historians, and really, by any factual metric one would care to cite. Further, it's a statement of fact, not opinion, that he stood as a greater threat to democracy both in America and the world than any single human being. No wonder comrade Putin loves him so much!
I hope that Kool Aid they made you drink was tasty!
A bit of a low blow to criticise President Trump for being anti-cycling, when he single-handedly promoted cycling across the United States in the "Tour de Trump". He's probably done more to promote cycling in America than any other living person today.
Come off it. He sponsored a bike race for 2 years then lost interest. That's it. It's not nothing, but it's closer to nothing than it is to. Your absurdly hyperbolic description.
Hypocrisy yes, but peddling known conspiracy theories regulalry as news means they deserve a specific type of ridicule. They asked Nicky Minaj's cousins friend (or his ex fiancee) to be live interviewed about how the vaccine ruined his life the other week. Deadly serious as well. That was after apologising for the false information (probably an all time first for Fox) for stating it was her cousin who had Gonad Gigantisaurus issues.
That's like saying 'Yes, the Gobi desert is big and sandy, but did you notice how them next door have a sandpit in their back garden? Lots of sandy places about, when you think about it'.
I am sure everyone on this site is pretty ecstatic about that.
For those of you saying this has only a tenuous relevance to cycling, it does. While the media fawn over golfers and golfing, they rarely lose an opportunity to attack cycling, or at best ignore it. This is just another demonstration of the insane media bias. I've heard the R4 prog about electric cars, and it's pretty well as bad as I thought, and the BBC still hasn't mentioned the utterly incredible societal, individual and planetary benefits of a switch to cycling.
... in a reference to criticism of Biden not holding official press conferences, insisted that the former president “worked these long, long hours and had impromptu hour-long pressers with the media.”
I seem to recall that Trump had a "press secretary" who was in the role for nine months and never held a single press briefing during that period.
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You exaggerate sir! They aren't that intelligent.
Donald Trump also criticised President Obama on one of the few occasions he played golf saying that if elected he would never have time to play golf as her would be too busy.
...and then Trump spent about one in three days of his time as president playing golf, at huge expense to the US taxpayer because of the security required.
https://trumpgolfcount.com/
And if your screen name was Boris Ronson then maybe someone would take your faux concern seriously. But since you've chosen as your namesake a vocal purveyor of lazy anti-cycling stereotypes and falsehoods it comes across as smugly hypocritical for you to now pretend to care.
"Tour de Trump"? It's always got to be about the Orange Clown, doesn't it?
And of course it went bust, just like most of his "businesses".
Sigh... Eton, I was enjoying the fact that Nigel was reduced to replying to his own posts to try and get a response.
Your hero has already taken a much-deserved spot as one of the *worst* presidents in US history, according to historians, and really, by any factual metric one would care to cite. Further, it's a statement of fact, not opinion, that he stood as a greater threat to democracy both in America and the world than any single human being. No wonder comrade Putin loves him so much!
I hope that Kool Aid they made you drink was tasty!
Come off it. He sponsored a bike race for 2 years then lost interest. That's it. It's not nothing, but it's closer to nothing than it is to. Your absurdly hyperbolic description.
If you would put aside your political biases, you will notice that there is lots of hypocrisy in all media outlets these days, not just Fox.
Fox and the KCNA are in a league of their own though.
Not sure of your point. Should Fox not be criticised being crap?
I think you got their point very accurately, Captain.
It's a gift, y'can't learn it.
Hypocrisy yes, but peddling known conspiracy theories regulalry as news means they deserve a specific type of ridicule. They asked Nicky Minaj's cousins friend (or his ex fiancee) to be live interviewed about how the vaccine ruined his life the other week. Deadly serious as well. That was after apologising for the false information (probably an all time first for Fox) for stating it was her cousin who had Gonad Gigantisaurus issues.
'If you would put aside your political biases'
On Road.cc?
How DARE you, sir?!
The children must play, the haters must hate, the intransigents will continue to achieve none of their aims.
That's like saying 'Yes, the Gobi desert is big and sandy, but did you notice how them next door have a sandpit in their back garden? Lots of sandy places about, when you think about it'.
Trump said "I'll never be riding a bicycle."
I am sure everyone on this site is pretty ecstatic about that.
For those of you saying this has only a tenuous relevance to cycling, it does. While the media fawn over golfers and golfing, they rarely lose an opportunity to attack cycling, or at best ignore it. This is just another demonstration of the insane media bias. I've heard the R4 prog about electric cars, and it's pretty well as bad as I thought, and the BBC still hasn't mentioned the utterly incredible societal, individual and planetary benefits of a switch to cycling.
Now THAT is some tenuous link to a cycling 'story'...
I seem to recall that Trump had a "press secretary" who was in the role for nine months and never held a single press briefing during that period.
But if you had been paying attention in those nine months, you would have noticed that his shirts and trousers were immaculately ironed.
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