Biden repeats debunked claim he traveled 17,000 miles with China’s Xi Jinping

President Biden repeated a claim he had been fact-checked for in the past, telling an audience on Tuesday that he traveled 17,000 miles with Chinese President Xi Jinping.

‘I spent a lot of time with Xi Jinping,’ he said during his remarks at an event touting the Biden ‘Cancer Moonshot’ initiative in New Orleans, Louisiana.

‘I spent over 80 hours with him alone. Over 17,000 miles in China, anywhere in Tibet, near Tibet.’ 

He described telling the Chinese president that ‘possibility’ is the one word that can define America, tying his analogy to the Cancer Moonshot initiative. 

Biden’s claim that he has traveled more than 17,000 miles with Xi has previously been fact-checked and considered primarily inaccurate, however. 

He has made the claim many times over several years and was fact-checked by the Washington Post in 2021. ‘Try as we could, however, we still could not get the travel to add up to 17,000 miles,’ wrote the publication. 

Biden was given three pinocchios for his claim. 

According to the Post, this number of pinocchios means there is ‘significant factual error and/or obvious contradictions.’ It is comparable to a rating of ‘mostly false.’

The White House did not immediately respond to inquiries from Fox News Digital. 

Biden announced $150 million in ARPA-H awards to develop technologies that will allow surgeons to provide more successful tumor-removal surgeries for people facing cancer at the event in New Orleans.

After having dropped out of the 2024 presidential race last month and endorsing Vice President Kamala Harris to succeed him, Biden is now reportedly focusing on the causes that are most personal for him in his remaining months as president. 

Cancer research is of ‘immense importance’ to the president, an aide told CNN.