In a prime-time interview on Friday, President Biden dismissed concerns about his poor performance in last month’s first presidential debate.
In an interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos, Biden downplayed and misrepresented polls that showed him falling further behind former President Donald J. Trump since the debate, exaggerated Trump’s overtures and made hyperbolic statements about his own record and recent events.
Here’s a fact check.
What was said
“After that debate, I did 10 major events back to back, including until 2 a.m. after the debate. I did an event in North Carolina. I did an event in Georgia. I did an event like the one I had today. The people came out and the response was overwhelming, no no no, no no.”
This is an exaggeration. Since the June 27 debate, Biden has traveled up and down the East Coast, attending more than 10 events, according to his public calendar. While opinions are divided on whether these events qualify as “large” and “large” in attendance, Biden has made gaffes at several of them.
“I’m going to beat him again in 2020,” Biden said of Trump at a rally in Wisconsin before Friday’s interview.
At a Fourth of July barbecue with military personnel and their families, Biden called Trump “one of our former colleagues” before later correcting himself.
And at a fundraising reception in East Hampton, New York, he confused Italy with France when referring to the location of a veterans cemetery he had recently visited.
What was said
“I’m the guy who shut Putin up. Nobody thought it would happen.”
This requires context. Biden’s campaign said he was referring to reports that Russian President Vladimir Putin had hoped for a swift and decisive victory in Ukraine but failed, with Russian forces suffering heavy losses. The campaign said Biden was able to do so in part because of his ability to muster allies and aid.
And yet, Putin’s war in Ukraine continues two years on, and Russia’s economy continues to grow despite harsh sanctions imposed by the United States and other Western countries. The World Bank recently upgraded Russia from an upper-middle-income country to a high-income country.
What was said
“Every pollster I’ve talked to says it’s 50-50. 50-50. When I’m behind, there’s only one poll that’s really far behind, the CBS poll and the NBC poll, excuse me.”
This is an exaggeration. The Biden campaign pointed to a Bloomberg poll showing Trump with a 2 percentage point lead, arguing that most polls show Trump’s lead within the margin of error and are a statistical indicator of the uncertainty of poll results.
While it’s true that many polls have Trump’s leads within the margin of error, he is ahead in most polls: The FiveThirtyEight average of national polls has him ahead by 2.5 percentage points, while the RealClearPolitics average had him ahead by 3.3 percentage points as of Friday night.
Of 12 polls compiled by Real Clear Politics and 14 by FiveThirtyEight, only one, Reuters/Ipsos, showed a tie. The Biden campaign argued that Biden was mistaken and was referring to a New York Times/Siena College poll that gave Trump a 6-point lead. A Wall Street Journal/CNN poll also gave Trump a lead.
What was said
“The New York Times had me 10 points below before this election even got involved. I was 10 points below. Nothing has changed substantially since the debate in the New York Times poll.”
This is misleading. A New York Times/Siena College poll showed Trump’s lead among both likely voters and registered voters had grown by 3 points. Biden also exaggerated the results of a New York Times pre-debate poll.
Before the debate, a June Times poll showed Trump leading among likely voters 48% to 44% (a 3-point margin before rounding) and among registered voters 48% to 42%. After the debate, Trump led 49% to 43% among likely voters and 49% to 41% among registered voters (a 9-point margin before rounding).
The Biden campaign argued that the poll has a margin of error of 2.8 percentage points and that Trump’s lead was within that range, suggesting a slight shift.
What was said
“This is the man who told us to put bleach on our arms to combat a coronavirus that has killed over a million people. This is the man who wants to dismantle the health care system we put in place. This is the man who wants to give back to big pharmaceutical companies the power to charge exorbitant prices for medicines.”
This is an exaggeration. President Trump caused uproar and confusion in April 2020 when he spoke about the effectiveness of disinfectants and light as treatments for COVID-19. While he did not order people to inject bleach, he did suggest using disinfectant as an experimental idea that was “interesting.”
During a press conference in April 2020, members of President Trump’s coronavirus task force said that the virus dies in direct sunlight, and that bleach kills the virus indoors in five minutes and isopropyl alcohol kills the virus in 30 seconds.
Trump responded: “So we know that disinfectant kills the virus in one minute. One minute. Can we do something similar by injecting it into the body or by washing it in? We know that it gets into the lungs and has a devastating effect on the lungs. So that would be interesting to look at.”
The Biden campaign said Biden’s health care comments were a reference to Trump’s recent proposal to repeal and replace Obamacare, a proposal that Trump campaigned on in 2016 but has remained unclear on where he stands now and has yet to release a health care reform plan.
Trump continues to criticize the Affordable Care Act as an expensive “disaster,” but said at a rally in Iowa in January that his administration would either “deal with Obamacare or do something new.” Trump also posted on social media in March that he was “not running to repeal the ACA,” but did not specify what he would do.
Similarly, Trump has said nothing about repealing a provision in the Control of Inflation, Climate, Health, and Tax Act that allows Medicare to negotiate drug prices. Some Republicans have expressed interest in repealing that provision, but Trump has not commented.
What was said
“Well, Mark is a good guy. We’ve never had anyone like that before, and he tried to get the nomination.”
This is misleading. When asked about reports that Sen. Mark Warner of Virginia was planning to convene other Senate Democrats to discuss Biden’s future as the Democratic presidential nominee, Biden denied the reports, claiming that Warner was a former political rival.
But Warner has never run for president. He considered running nearly two decades ago but announced in 2006 that he would not seek the nomination. Biden briefly ran for president in 2008 but dropped out in January after a poor showing in the Iowa caucuses.
