Fact check: Biden’s horrific debate performance made worse by multiple lies and gaffes
Critics of former President Donald Trump are always quick to challenge the veracity of the Republican’s statements but President Biden was guilty of multiple whoppers during Thursday night’s presidential debate — when he was coherent.
Here were the commander in chief’s biggest fibs and gaffes:
No troops have died
What Biden said: “I’m the only president this century that doesn’t have any — this decade — that doesn’t have any troops dying anywhere in the world, like [Trump] did.”
Truth: At least 16 troops have died in overseas attacks over his tenure, including, infamously, the 13 soldiers killed in an ISIS-K attack during the botched August 2021 US evacuation from Afghanistan.
We beat Medicare
What Biden said: ‘We finally beat Medicare.”
Fact: Huh? It’s unclear if even the octogenarian president knew what he meant here, but the obvious verbal blunder occurred after he froze discussing his record on the economy.
Trump, 78, sarcastically responded: “He did beat Medicare. He beat it to death.”
Endorsed by Border Patrol
What Biden said: The US Border Patrol union “endorsed me, endorsed my position.”
Truth: The National Border Patrol Council refuted Biden’s claim — mid-debate. “To be clear, we never have and never will endorse Biden,” the union posted on X.
Which accord?
What Biden said: “[Trump] pulled out of the Paris Peace Accords, uh, Climate Accord.”
Fact: The president confused the Paris Climate Accords, the YEAR international pact aimed at tackling climate change, with the Paris Peace Accords that marked the end of the Vietnam War in 1973.
Black unemployment
What Biden said: “Black unemployment is the lowest level it’s been in a long, long time.”
Truth: In April 2023 under Biden, black unemployment hit a record low of 4.8%, beating a previous low of 5.3% reached under Trump in 2019.
However, the rate last month was 6.1%.
Social Security
What Biden said: “[Trump] wants to get rid of Social Security. … He’s wanted to cut Social Security and Medicare.”
Truth: The ex-president has repeatedly said he wants to protect Medicare and Social Security.
Taxing the rich
What Biden said: “We have a thousand millionaires in America, I mean billionaires. And what’s happening? They’re in a situation where they in fact pay 8.2% taxes.”
Truth: The top 1% of taxpayers (income of at least $548,000) paid an average tax rate of nearly 26% in 2020, while the top 0.001% — 1,475 taxpayers with at least $77 million in adjusted gross income – paid 23.7%, according to IRS data cited by the Washington Post.
Trump’s unemployment rate
What Biden said: “[The] unemployment rate rose to 15% [under Trump]; it was terrible.”
Fact: The unemployment rate was 6.4% when Trump left the White House in 2021. Unemployment rose from 4.4% in March 2020 at the beginning of the pandemic to 14.8% in April 2020. The unprecedented global outbreak wreaked economic havoc worldwide.
Border crossings
What Biden said: “I’ve changed in a way that now you’re in a situation where there are 40% fewer people coming across the border illegally. That’s better than when [Trump] left office.”
Truth: He’s confusing data. The daily average of migrant apprehensions dropped more than 40% — to nearly 2,400 — since Biden issued an executive action that went into effect a month ago prohibiting asylum at the southern border.
However, there’s already more than 7 million illegal-border crossings under Biden, who during his first two years in office had already racked up over million more than Trump reportedly compiled in his four years in office.
Drug prices
What Biden said: “We brought down the price of prescription drugs … to $15 for an insulin shot as opposed to $400. No senior has to pay more than $200 for any drug … beginning next year.”
Truth: Under the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act that Biden signed into law, Medicare enrollees must still pay up to $35 monthly, and seniors and disabled people must fork over as much as more $2,000 yearly out-of-pocket starting in 2025.
