The overtly biased mainstream media tends to manipulate facts or even outright lie to push preferred narratives that likewise tend to benefit Democrats over Republicans, and a chief perpetrator in that regard is the Associated Press.

The AP was just forced to retract a blatantly false story that erroneously alleged that Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard had described President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin as being "very good friends," according to Fox News.

The retraction was accompanied by a correction which noted that Gabbard had instead referenced the friendship between Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, but did not issue a public apology for the false attribution to Gabbard or the obvious effort to smear Trump by closely linking him to Putin.

AP falsely attributes to Gabbard an inaccurate quote about Trump and Putin

On Monday, the AP published a story that previewed an expected phone call between Presidents Trump and Putin to discuss a possible ceasefire deal to end the Russia-Ukraine conflict that included comments made by DNI Gabbard while on a visit to India and falsely asserted that she'd claimed Trump and Putin were "very good friends."

That is not what Gabbard had said, however, and the AP retracted the story and issued a correction the following day.

In a statement on Tuesday, the AP announced, "The Associated Press has withdrawn its story about U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard saying President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin 'are very good friends.'"

"Gabbard was talking about Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi. The AP will publish a corrected version of the story," the outlet added.

AP corrects its mistake after being called out

As promised, the AP took down its initial report and replaced it with a new version that included an altered headline, the actual quote from DNI Gabbard to an Indian media outlet, and an editorial note acknowledging the correction.

Whereas the initial article had a headline that read "Gabbard says Trump and Putin are 'very good friends' focused on strengthening ties," the new headline stated, "Gabbard says Trump is 'looking forward to success' ahead of talk with Putin."

The revised article also included an accurate version of the misquoted remarks from Gabbard to India's NDTV, in which she said, "With President Trump’s leadership in the United States, of course Prime Minister Modi’s longstanding leadership here in India, we have two leaders of our two great countries who are very good friends and who are very focused on how we can strengthen those shared objectives and those shared interests."

At the conclusion of the story was an editor's note that revealed, "This story was updated on Mar. 17, 2025, to delete erroneous reporting that U.S. Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard said President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin 'are very good friends.' Gabbard was talking about Trump and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi."

The AP is "total trash" and "maliciously incompetent"

In response to what had transpired over the past two days, DNI Gabbard's deputy chief of staff, Alexa Henning, shared a screenshot of the AP's initial inaccurate headline and wrote in an X post, "The @AP is total trash. DNI @TulsiGabbard was referring to PM Modi & President Trump and this is the headline they publish."

She also shared a screenshot of AP's notification that the story had been withdrawn, which notably did not include any apologies for the reputational damages caused by the glaring mistake.

"This is why no one trusts the maliciously incompetent and purposefully bias media," Henning added. "If this isn’t a clear example of pushing a solely political narrative, then nothing is."