Was Joe Biden denied entry to the Pentagon on April 16, 2021? No, that's not true: A Pentagon spokesperson denied the claim. There's also no evidence the president visited the Pentagon on that date. He hosted the Japanese prime minister, held a press conference and left the White House for Wilmington, Delaware, according to Biden's public schedule and press reports. There's no credible corroboration for an article that makes the claim, which relies on a single purported unnamed source. The website that published the story is known for making false allegations, many of which Lead Stories has debunked in eight debunks prior to this.
The claim appeared in an article (archived here) published by Real Raw News on April 17, 2021. The story, which was titled "Biden Denied Entry to Pentagon," opened:
The man who calls himself President of the United States, Joseph R. Biden, was denied entry to the Pentagon on Friday, Real Raw News has learned.
At the time of writing, users on social media saw this:
https://realrawnews.com/2021/04/biden-denied-entry-to-pentagon/
Posted by Real Raw News on Saturday, April 17, 2021
The article continued:
Our source said U.S. Pentagon Police, part of the Pentagon Force Protection Agency, stopped Biden and his Secret Service detail in their tracks, informing them that they had standing orders to prevent Biden administration members-including Biden-from entering the building. Those orders reportedly included the use of deadly force.
Lead Stories reached out to the Pentagon to ask about the claim. In an email, dated April 20, 2021, a spokesperson responded, writing:
I can assure you that is NOT accurate.
Also, the fact that the article relies on the word of a single unnamed source raises significant doubt, as does the fact that no reliable news source reported on the alleged event. If Biden -- one of the most closely watched people in the world -- had been denied entry to the Pentagon, it seems improbable to the point of impossible that such a denial was kept a secret.
Biden's public schedule for April 16, 2021, made no mention of a Pentagon visit, as can be seen below. Public schedules don't include all of a president's activities, but there would be no reason to think a planned visit to the Pentagon would be left off the schedule. Since becoming president, Biden has visited the Pentagon and gone inside, with no reported issues. On the day in question, April 16, 2021, Biden hosted the prime minister of Japan, held a joint press conference and left the White House for Wilmington, Delaware.
Here's Biden's public schedule for tomorrow. (Public schedules don't include all of a president's activities.) pic.twitter.com/SDhZZWqCne
-- Daniel Dale (@ddale8) April 16, 2021
Real Raw News has a history of publishing false claims. For example, it reported that U.S. Special Forces arrested former Hillary Clinton campaign aides John Podesta and Huma Abedin (they didn't); it said that Clinton was convicted by a military tribunal (she wasn't); and it reported that an assassination attempt against Donald Trump was foiled in January 2021 (the Secret Service denied the story).
See here for all of our previous debunks of Real Raw News.
