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Fact check: A look at Biden’s first year in false claims

2022-01-20
AndrewAndrew

Washington (CNN) When President Joe Biden passingly said in a voting rights speech last week that he had been “arrested” in the context of the civil rights movement — even suggesting this had happened more than once — it was a classic Biden false claim: an anecdote about his past for which there is no evidence, prompted by a decision to ad-lib rather than stick to a prepared text, resulting in easily avoidable questions about his honesty.

Biden’s imaginary or embellished stories about his own history were the most memorable falsehoods of his first year in office. They were not, however, the only ones.
The President also made multiple false claims about important policy matters, notably including three subjects that occupied much of his time: the US withdrawal from Afghanistan, the economy and the Covid-19 pandemic.
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False claims about his own past

Biden made a series of claims about his own past that were just not true. It was these easy-to-understand, hard-to-defend personal falsehoods — more than his false claims about complex policy issues or obscure statistics, which supporters could more easily dismiss as good-faith errors — that provided the best ammunition for opponents looking to portray him as deceptive. And like some of Trump’s tall tales about his past, Biden’s tended to be peripheral to his message. In other words, he was hurting his reputation for little possible gain.

False claims about Afghanistan

Biden was bedeviled over the summer by his chaotic withdrawal of US troops from Afghanistan. And he made a variety of false claims as he tried to defend his handling of the situation — further undermining his authority on an issue on which he was already struggling to persuade the public.

False claims about the economy

The state of the economy was a key rhetorical battleground between Biden and his critics: He argued it was thriving; they argued it was failing. And although both sides often cited valid data points, the President also made some false claims to bolster his case.

False claims about the Covid-19 pandemic

Many of Biden’s first-year speeches were devoted to the Covid-19 pandemic. Biden was almost incomparably more accurate on this subject than Trump was, tending to factually convey the severity of the situation rather than match his predecessor’s fantastical rhetoric about how bad numbers were not actually bad numbers and how the virus would just disappear. But Biden made a smattering of false claims on this topic, too.

False claims in unscripted settings

When Biden stuck to prepared speeches vetted by his staff, he tended to be factual (though certainly wasn’t perfect). When he ad-libbed or participated in unscripted exchanges with journalists and citizens, he was more likely to sprinkle in inaccuracies — making false or misleading claims about everything from his handling of the situation at the southern border to Virginia political history to gun laws to the size of a tax break for people who own racehorse

During Biden’s first 100 days in the Oval Office, he was repeatedly incorrect or misleading in describing the actions of the Trump administration.