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PeakMetrics / Fact Checks

Politics & government fact checks

Explore claims publishers have checked about politics & government. Read their original ratings and follow the evidence.

12,754 published reviews in this topic

PolitiFactPolitics & government

Joe Biden described America as “the foothills of the Himalayas with Xi Jinping.”

Publisher’s rating: False

Related reporting describes the phrase as part of Biden’s 2022 retelling of an exchange with Xi Jinping, not as a description of America. Biden was recounting Xi asking, “Can you define America for me?” and his answer, “In one word: possibilities.” As he began the story, Biden said, “I was in the foothills of the Himalayas,” then paused, corrected himself, and resumed with “Excuse me, in the foothills of the Himalayas with Xi Jinping.” The account therefore presents the disputed words as a stumble while introducing the story, rather than Biden’s intended definition of America. The reporting also notes that a video of the stumble was edited to omit Biden’s correction and the rest of the story, and that this version circulated online. That context matters: the clipped wording can make it sound as though Biden asserted the phrase as a complete thought, while the fuller account describes him restarting and then telling the anecdote about Xi and “possibilities.”