Fact-Checking Biden: Where The President’s Speech Got It Wrong
While President Joe Biden's speech swung between pragmatic and hopeful notes, news outlets identified some exaggerated or misleading claims and numbers.
The New York Times:
We Fact-Checked Biden’s Prime-Time White House Address
President Biden, in a prime-time address on Thursday night, exaggerated elements of the coronavirus pandemic along with his, and his predecessor’s, response to it. Here’s a fact-check. (Qiu, 3/11)
The Washington Post:
Fact-Checking Biden’s Address To The Nation
President Biden’s address to the nation was heavy on emotion and hope, but light on facts. Here are two moments where the president stretched the truth. (Kessler, 3/11)
PolitiFact:
Fact-Checking Joe Biden On The American Rescue Plan
The address was the culmination of Biden’s weeks of effort to get the rescue plan through Congress. Here, we’ll fact-check a few claims from Biden’s Thursday night speech, as well as some of his talking points from recent weeks about the impact on COVID-19 on jobs, food insecurity and schools. (Sherman, 3/11)
The Washington Post:
Biden’s Vaccine Victories Build On Trump Team’s Work
President Biden beckoned leaders of two of the world’s largest pharmaceutical companies to the White House on Wednesday and credited his administration for the “nearly unprecedented collaboration” between the longtime rivals, Merck and Johnson & Johnson, now jointly producing a coronavirus vaccine. But the breakthrough touted by Biden was first conceived by Trump officials last year, culminating in a Jan. 4 conference call arranged between Merck and Johnson & Johnson’s senior leaders, said four Trump administration officials with knowledge of the efforts. (Diamond and Stanley-Becker, 3/11)
Also —
The Philadelphia Inquirer:
Biden Mentioned A Pa. Woman During His Address Who Just Wanted ‘The Truth.’ We Found Her.
Kirsten Hess wasn’t watching President Joe Biden’s prime-time address Thursday marking one year of the coronavirus pandemic. But she got about 20 text messages telling her to turn on the TV. “Last summer, I was in Philadelphia and I met a small-business owner, a woman,” Biden said. “I asked her, I said, ‘What do you need most?’ Never forget what she said to me. She said, looking me right in the eye and she said, ‘I just want the truth. The truth. Just tell me the truth.’” (Terruso, 3/11)
6ABC Philadelphia:
President Joe Biden's Primetime Speech Being Met With Mixed Reaction
President Joe Biden's first primetime address to the nation marking the one-year anniversary of the COVID-19 pandemic has been met with mixed reaction. As many Philadelphians wait their turn to get vaccinated, those who are eligible waited in long lines at the FEMA mass vaccination site at the Pennsylvania Convention Center on Thursday night. (Brooks, 3/12)
NPR:
Poll: Biden Approval 62% On Handling Of COVID-19 Pandemic
There is no more pressing issue for the U.S. — or the world — right now than the COVID-19 pandemic. And politically, how President Biden is perceived to be handling it over the next year or so could define his presidency and his chances for reelection, if he runs. So far, he's off to a good start, according to the latest NPR/PBS NewsHour/Marist survey, out Thursday. Sixty-two percent of Americans approve of how Biden is handling the pandemic. (Montanaro, 3/11)
