The New York Times‘ Angelo Fichera on Wednesday published several extraordinary fact checks on President Joe Biden’s slippery talking points about his economic record.
While Biden, 81, is an “elderly man with a poor memory,” according to the special counsel, his cogent staff likely carefully crafted the scripted talking points the Times fact-checked.
The fact check comes just days after a feud surfaced between the White House and the paper. Biden aides were “extremely upset” with the outlet for reporting analysis about the president’s age and memory.
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White HouseThe feud appeared to continue with the Times‘ issuing rare fact checks over Biden’s elaborate claims about his alleged economic success, coined by the White House as so-called “Bidenomics.”
Fact Check 1:
CLAIM: “We now have a thousand billionaires in America. You know what their average tax rate is — federal tax? 8.2 percent,” Biden claimed in January.
VERDICT: The Times‘ ruled the comment as “misleading”:
Mr. Biden was referring to a White House study that sought to use a “more comprehensive measure of income” than the way income is currently assessed. In other words, it offered a hypothetical on what the rate would be if the law was different.
Fact Check 2:
CLAIM: “I signed the CHIPS and Science Act, which attracted $640 billion in private companies’ investments that are building factories, creating jobs in America again,” Biden said in February.
VERDICT: The Times ruled the claim as “false”:
Estimates of private investments spurred by the CHIPS and Science Act, which gave billions to the chip industry, do not come in at $640 billion. By some measures, it is a fraction of that: One estimate by the Semiconductor Industry Association puts the figure at about $220 billion.
Fact Check 3:
CLAIM: “And let’s get something straight. Trump talks about putting checks in pockets. But in 2021, as soon as I came to office, I was the guy who sent every one of you those $1,400 checks,” Biden said in January.
VERDICT: The Times ruled the need for more context:
Both Mr. Biden and Mr. Trump signed legislation providing stimulus payments to Americans as the United States grappled with the coronavirus. In March 2020, Mr. Trump signed a $2 trillion measure known as the CARES Act, which provided payments of $1,200 per person and an additional $500 per child. Months later, in December 2020, Mr. Trump signed a stimulus package that included $600 checks and an additional $600 per child. (He had pushed for the second round of payments to be increased to $2,000.)
Fact Check 4:
CLAIM: “The only president other than Donald Trump that lost jobs during an administration was Herbert Hoover,” Biden claimed in January.
VERDICT: The Times ruled the statement was out of context:
Biden is correct that Mr. Trump ended his term with a negative jobs record — the only president to do so after World War II — but omits that this occurred because of the coronavirus pandemic.
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Wendell Husebo is a political reporter with Breitbart News and a former GOP War Room Analyst. He is the author of Politics of Slave Morality. Follow Wendell on “X” @WendellHusebø or on Truth Social @WendellHusebo.
