We hear the words “conspiracy theory” thrown around a lot, particularly when the press is reporting on something President Trump said. Of course, the press was busy reporting on how the president was telling Americans to inject disinfectants and might have missed Joe Biden saying at one of his virtual rallies that he fully expected Trump, somehow, to delay the 2020 election.

"That was just made-up propaganda, but not by him."@realDonaldTrump dismisses any talk of delaying the election, saying he was never thinking of doing it, despite @JoeBiden saying "mark my words" claiming Trump would try and delay it "somehow." pic.twitter.com/uwR5ubZSRY — Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) April 27, 2020

.@realDonaldTrump says he hasn't even thought of delaying the election and has no interest in doing so, despite @JoeBiden and @SpeakerPelosi insisting he would try. Trump called it "made-up propaganda."https://t.co/KXAbtvM4yM — Washington Examiner (@dcexaminer) April 27, 2020

Trump managed to twist the knife even further by suggesting there’s no way Biden wrote what he said.

Biden thinks Trump will try to delay the general election amid the coronavirus pandemic. But the Democratic candidate says Trump can't do that.https://t.co/7yQkTbq42O — POLITICO (@politico) April 24, 2020

So.. this was totally made up from Biden. https://t.co/OR3VixzJTe — Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) April 27, 2020

Would have been a good time for the CNN parenthetical treatment. "Biden thinks Trump will try to delay the general election. (He can't.)" — Gabriel Malor (@gabrielmalor) April 27, 2020

Or even “Without evidence, Biden alleges Trump will try to delay the general election in confused aside.” — Matt Whitlock (@mattdizwhitlock) April 27, 2020

Even The Hill reported on it last week in the form of an opinion piece by law professor Jonathan Turley, who wrote:

[Conspiracy theory] is a term that is almost exclusively reserved in the media for Trump and his supporters. That was evident this week when the ultimate conspiracy theory was declared by the presumptive Democratic nominee, Joe Biden, who warned that he was certain Trump plans to delay the election this fall. It is a conspiracy theory utterly without factual or constitutional support, yet his warning was deemed a “prediction” by Politico in a recent article. It has been peddled by various Democratic officials and commentators for months and is all the rage on the internet, even though it should be sold as a set including a tin foil hat and an electromagnetic ghost detector. Biden left little doubt of such a plan by Trump. He said, “Mark my words, I think he is going to try to kick back the election somehow, and come up with some rationale why it cannot be held.” It is just the type of thing that a crazed guy in a tightly buttoned raincoat whispers to you on the subway. But Biden was not finished. If you attended a recent online fundraiser, you saw Biden grow uncomfortably close and go on to explain that it was the Postal Service which actually revealed the conspiracy theory to him.

Of course, having the mainstream media ask Biden about his “mark my words” statement is about as likely as them asking him about the Tara Reade allegation.

This is a classic example of bias, resulting in the media effectively taking sides. Biden’s extreme, dangerous conspiracy theory should have caused a feeding frenzy in the media. But the MSM prefers to target Trump, so Biden gets another pass. https://t.co/uP0gEM9dvA — Ari Fleischer (@AriFleischer) April 25, 2020

Yeah, CNN, where is the parenthetical “without evidence” that you so often like to employ with Trump?

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