President Joe Biden sat down with YouTube youth culture icon Speedy Morman for a lie-spewing episode of 360 With Speedy. The show, part of the entertainment and culture website Complex, was recorded on July 12, the day before Trump’s assassination attempt.
During the interview, he took a few moments to claim once again that former President Trump is a “real danger to the country.” This rhetoric is being viewed by some as motivation for the actions of would-be assassin Thomas Crooks just a day later.
The interview was so full of falsehoods that even CNN was forced to issue a brutal fact-check of Biden’s comments. The claims ranged from simple fact-twisting to outright lies.
Defending his executive actions on the border, Biden claimed that fewer people were now coming into the country than “at any time Donald Trump was president.” This comment was, according to CNN, blatantly false.
Federal officials are watching the number of Border Patrol encounters. In June 2024, this number was 83,536. That’s lower than June 2019. However, it’s higher than the monthly numbers for June 2017, 2018, and 2020.
In a press release, US Customs and Border Protection said June 2024 had the lowest figure since January 2021, when Biden took office. It was never said that it had been the lowest since Trump took office in January 2017.
When asked about his age, Biden talked about how people once thought he was “too young” to be in government. He repeated something he has said many times before: “I was the second-youngest man in the history of the Senate to get elected.”
CNN fact-checkers noted this is a lie. He was the sixth-youngest man to become a US senator when he took office at age 30 in 1973. FactCheck.org reported that Biden was the second-youngest senator from Delaware, not the whole country.
Morman asked Biden about his debate remark that the US is providing Israel with all the weapons they need. Biden responded that he said “defensive” weapons and that he denied them “offensive” weapons like 2,000-pound bombs.
Biden’s claim is false, cautions CNN. He didn’t specify “defensive” weapons in the debate. After sending Israel thousands of 2,000-pound bombs during the Gaza war, the Biden administration paused a shipment due to concerns about harming innocent people. His administration continues to provide 500-pound bombs and other weapons. There is no clear definition of what counts as an “offensive weapon.”
Next, Biden told Speedy that all the programs he started had saved the government money. He cited $160 billion in savings expected from two prescription drug provisions outlined in his Inflation Reduction Act of 2022.
A June analysis showed that Biden approved $6.2 trillion in new borrowing and $1.9 trillion in deficit reduction. Biden has often said the federal budget deficit has declined during his time in office. The deficit was high at the end of Trump’s term due to emergency pandemic spending, but it fell as expected when that spending ended under Biden.
Marc Goldwein from the Committee for a Responsible Federal Budget said the deficit reduction happened despite Biden’s actions, not because of them.
While prescription drug policies are projected to save $160 billion, many other Biden initiatives have cost the government money. Goldwein said that Biden has signed laws and taken actions that have increased the deficit more than they have reduced it. These include pandemic relief, infrastructure laws, support for veterans, foreign aid, efforts to reduce student debt and boost food stamp benefits.
Most laughable, Biden talked about his “progress against inflation.” He repeated his false claim of “inheriting” 9% inflation and boasted that it’s now 3%.
CNN fact-checkers say that inflation was 1.4% in January 2021 and didn’t reach 9% until June 2022. The inflation rate was 3% in June 2024. Biden can claim “credit” for the decline over the last two years. However, it’s not true that he inherited 9% inflation from Trump. Any lowering of inflation can only be weighed against Biden’s own skyrocketing rates.
As calls continue for Biden to step down, he bolsters his campaign the only way he knows how. Step aside, lawfare strategy. Biden is perfecting “lie-fare” strategy.
