During NBC’s recap of the week’s headlines on Saturday’s installment of Today, Joe Fryer hyped President Joe Biden’s “warning about the future” of an oligarchy under incoming President Donald Trump. However, Fryer, like his ABC and CBS network counterparts, ignored Biden’s Friday claim that he could amend the Constitution by simply issuing a declaration and posting it on social media.
On Today’s anchor couch, Fryer introduced the weekly recap, “Among the major headlines this week, one last major speech from the Oval Office before President Biden puts his political career behind him.”
In a voiceover, he continued, “President Biden gave a farewell address after five decades in politics, both touting his accomplishments.”
A clip then showed Biden declaring that “Every day I’ve kept my commitment to be president for all Americans for one of the toughest periods in our nation's history,” with Fryer adding, “And issuing a warning about the future.”
Biden was also shown claiming that “an oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy.”
Fryer quickly moved on, but not only did Biden’s concern about oligarchy come across as partisan given Democrats’ own cozy relationship with several billionaires, but it left out Biden’s claim that the Equal Rights Amendment is now, for all intents and purposes, the 28th Amendment to the Constitution.
Today I'm affirming what I have long believed and what three-fourths of the states have ratified:
— President Biden (@POTUS) January 17, 2025
The 28th Amendment is the law of the land, guaranteeing all Americans equal rights and protections under the law regardless of their sex. pic.twitter.com/oZtS6Q89zG
In order to become part of the Constitution, an amendment must be passed by three-fourths of the states and in 2020, Virginia passed the ERA to put it over the top or so Biden says. In reality, the archivist of the United States, who is the one actually responsible for formally acknowledging new amendments, cited Joe Biden’s own Justice Department back in December when she declared that proponents of the ERA had missed the ratification deadline. Before she died, progressive feminist hero, former Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, agreed. The ERA was first proposed in 1972 and some states have even rescinded their approval.
If Donald Trump had declared the Constitution amended through a mere proclamation, the media would say it affirmed all their warnings about him and the future of democracy and our institutions. Joe Biden actually did it, and the three main networks have nothing to say about it.
Here is a transcript for the January 18 show:
NBC Today
1/18/2025
7:21 AM ET
JOE FRYER: Among the major headlines this week, one last major speech from the Oval Office before President Biden puts his political career behind him.
[voiceover] President Biden gave a farewell address after five decades in politics, both touting his accomplishments.
JOE BIDEN: Every day I’ve kept my commitment to be president for all Americans for one of the toughest periods in our nation's history.
FRYER: And issuing a warning about the future.
BIDEN: An oligarchy is taking shape in America of extreme wealth, power, and influence that literally threatens our entire democracy.
