Fox News admits Biden doesn't actually want to cancel meat. Late night hosts pounce anyway.

Colbert mocks Larry Kudlow
(Image credit: Screenshot/YouTube/The Late Show)

Have you heard President Biden wants to cut your meat consumption to four pounds a year? If so, somebody's feeding you a bunch of baloney. "No matter what you're hearing from Fox News or a Twitter swarm of Republican leaders, including Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Donald Trump Jr., Biden's proposal to cut U.S. carbon emissions says absolutely nothing about banning beef or rationing meat or forcing you to eat Brussels sprouts on July 4," Politico's Michael Grunwald wrote Monday night. "It's malarkey. It's a Whopper. It's USDA Prime bull."

"There is no effort designed to limit people's intake of beef coming out of President Biden's White House or USDA," Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack clarified Monday. "Sometimes in the political world, games get played and issues are injected into the conversation knowing full well that there's no factual basis." Fox News anchor John Roberts acknowledged Monday that he and his network had erred Friday in injecting the idea Biden wants to limit your burgers into the conversation.

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Late Night's Seth Meyers played the retracted clip of John Roberts, plus other iterations of this "insane new lie about Joe Biden." Clearly, "Republicans seem to think Joe Biden's army of antifa super soldiers is gonna come to your house and take your Dr. Seuss books and your hamburgers," he said, "and I'm only slightly exaggerating."

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Larry Kudlow, former President Donald Trump's former economic adviser, took "this dumb and completely baseless lie" one step dumber, Meyers showed. "That's right, in Biden's America you'll have to celebrate July 4th by drinking a 'plant-based beer,' as opposed to, you know, all those meat-based beers. Does he think PBR stands for Pork and Beef Ribs? Does he think Hamm's is made with real ham?"

Yes, "no one was more upset about this made-up news than Fox Business made-up host Larry Kudlow," who warned about "an unthinkable nightmare" where Biden will have us all "drinking 'plant-based beer,'" Stephen Colbert joked at The Late Show. "But some beer companies are fighting back." Namely, "Meat Lager." You can watch that actually terrifying commercial below. Peter Weber

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Peter Weber

Peter Weber is a senior editor at TheWeek.com, and has handled the editorial night shift since the website launched in 2008. A graduate of Northwestern University, Peter has worked at Facts on File and The New York Times Magazine. He speaks Spanish and Italian and plays bass and rhythm cello in an Austin rock band. Follow him on Twitter.