New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd on Tuesday defended a column she wrote earlier this year about Vice President Joe Biden’s late son, Beau, and his desire to see his father run for President.
Dowd wrote a column in August that said Beau, who died of brain cancer in May, had asked his dad to run for President.
“He tried to make his father promise to run, arguing that the White House should not revert to the Clintons and that the country would be better off with Biden values,” Dowd wrote.
But in an interview with the CBS show “60 Minutes” that aired Sunday night, Biden said that his son’s request wasn’t what it was made out to be.
“Beau all along thought that I should run and I could win,” Biden said. “But there was not what was sort of made out as kind of this Hollywood-esque thing that, at the last minute, Beau grabbed my hand and said, ‘Dad, you’ve got to run, like, win one for the Gipper.’ It wasn’t anything like that.”
Margaret Sullivan, the public editor for The New York Times, wrote on Tuesday that she looked into the matter after hearing from readers who wondered whether Biden’s comment conflicted with Dowd’s column. She asked Dowd to respond.
From Dowd’s email to Sullivan:
The Vice President confirmed on CBS that he often talked to Beau about running for president, and that Beau thought all along that his dad could run and win. Mr. Biden said what never occurred was a “Hollywood-esque thing that at the last minute” there was a deathbed request where Beau “grabbed my hand and said, ‘Dad, you’ve got to run.’ ”
I never reported a last-minute deathbed scene where Beau grabbed his father’s hand. In fact, my column recounted a conversation they had seated at a table after Beau knew his prognosis was bad. He was terminally ill for some time.
Ultimately, Sullivan decided that Dowd was in the clear. But Sullivan wrote that the news staff took Dowd’s column “a step further — in fact, a step too far.”
She pointed to a news article about Joe Biden’s considerations about whether to run for President mischaracterized Dowd’s column. That article stated: “Ms. Dowd reported that as Beau Biden lay dying from brain cancer, he tried to make his father promise to run, arguing that the White House should not revert to the Clintons and that the country would be better off with Biden values.”
So, be careful what you read in the NYT about what you read in the NYT, because the NYT might not be accurate.
Is there an reason that Dowd still gets prime space in the NYT nowadays? Aside from spewing bile at Hillary regularly, does she actually add anything?
Unbelievable. BIDen Politicizing HIS SON’s BRAIN cancER by Contradicting Maureen DOWD. ONLY from a LiBTARd!11!!!one!!1!!!
Hillary Dowd, Hillary Dowd … hmm, sounds vaguely familiar from the 80s or '90s. I dimly remember people used to read her in the olden days. Or something.
OMG, it’s actually Maureen Dowd! Sounds even less familiar. LOL