Let's Go Brandon! Washington Post Issues the 'Greatest Correction' Ever

None other than Donald Trump Jr. calls the Washington Post’s “Let’s Go Brandon!” walkback “the greatest correction in the history of journalism,” and who am I to disagree?

Over the weekend, WaPo published a “return to civility”-type piece decrying the “increasingly vulgar taunts” hurled at poor Presidentish Joe Biden.

I don’t recall WaPo wringing its hands over “Bushitler” and I do remember WaPo pushing Russian collusion stories including lies that Donald Trump had paid Russian prostitutes to pee on him.

But whatever. Now is the time for civility.

Michael Dick has festooned his front yard with homemade signs, including a large yellow placard that facetiously thanks President Biden for a growing list of grievances — $4-a-gallon gas, inflation, Afghanistan, covid-19. In capital letters in black marker, Dick, 59, recently added “dead civilians” and “dead U.S. soldiers” to his bill of particulars.

In another part of town, alongside a “No trespassing” sign, Michael Schwarz, 60, used black spray-paint to scrawl “Joe Blows” across an electric-pink poster board.

And that’s mild compared to the sentiments some people — largely in conservative areas — are expressing in their front yards and on the signs they lug with them to greet Biden as he travels the country.

Biden barely leaves the White House, unless it’s to visit a fake White House set, but again — whatever.

The report has bylines from Ashley Parker and Carissa Wolf, and additional contributions from Sean Sullivan, Matt Viser, and Dave Weigel. You might remember Weigel as the onetime conservative blogger who got caught on video mocking Tea Partiers just before fully selling out for the benefits of playing the D.C. insider game.

Here’s the correction:

A previous version of this article incorrectly said a crowd broke into a “Let’s go Brandon” chant during a Donald Trump Jr. speech in Georgia. The crowd broke into a “F— Joe Biden!” chant at that speech in September. The error, which was inserted by an editor, has been corrected.

Here’s how the story reads now:

The former president’s son, Donald Trump Jr., has repeatedly promoted the meme, and the original chant, on his social media feeds. At a speech in Georgia in September, he took the stage after the crowd had been chanting “USA! USA!”

“There’s a couple other chants I’ve been hearing going around,” Trump Jr. said. “Have you heard the other one that’s been going around?” The crowd took the cue and broke into cries of “F— Joe Biden!”

Full disclosure: I bought my 15-year-old a “Let’s Go Brandon” t-shirt last week and I can’t wait for him to wear it to school.

But I am left with questions.

Why would an editor swap in “Let’s Go Brandon” for “F*** Joe Biden” in a piece that does its utmost to paint Biden critics as mouth-breathing, knuckle-dragging seething racists?

Was it an honest mistake? We’ve all made them. This is a fast-moving business, and sometimes it’s when I’m editing a piece that I’ll introduce the worst or just silliest error.

Or did the unnamed WaPo editor simply whitewash the truth about a Democrat as a reflex action?