Fact-Checking Biden’s ABC Interview
The president defended his debate performance with exaggerations about polling, his recent appearances and his opponent.
President Biden rejected concerns about his fumbling performance in the first presidential debate last month in a prime-time interview on Friday.
In the interview with George Stephanopoulos of ABC News, Mr. Biden downplayed and misstated polls showing him falling farther behind former President Donald J. Trump since the debate, exaggerated Mr. Trump’s proposals 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 in a row, including until 2 o’clock in the morning after the debate. I did events in North Carolina. I did events in — in — in Georgia, did events like this today, large crowds, overwhelming response, no — no — no slipping.”
This is exaggerated. Since the debate on June 27, Mr. Biden has traveled up and down the East Coast and participated in more than a dozen events, according to his public calendar. Whether or not the events can be considered “major” and crowds “large” are matters of opinion, but Mr. Biden did misspeak at several.
Before the interview on Friday, Mr. Biden said of Mr. Trump at a rally in Wisconsin that he would “beat him again in 2020.”
At a Fourth of July barbecue with military members and their families, Mr. Biden referred to Mr. Trump as “one of our former colleagues” before correcting himself.
And at a fund-raising reception in East Hampton, New York, he confused Italy and France when referring to the location of a veterans’ cemetery he recently visited.
“I’m the guy that shut Putin down. No one thought could happen.”
This needs context. Mr. Biden’s campaign said he was referring to reports that Russian President Vladimir V. Putin had hoped for and failed to achieve a quick and decisive victory in Ukraine and that Russia’s military had suffered heavy losses. That, the campaign said, was possible in part because of Mr. Biden’s marshaling of allies and aid.
Still, Mr. Putin’s war in Ukraine continues two years later. And despite heavy sanctions imposed by the United States and other Western countries, its economy continues to grow. The World Bank recently upgraded Russia from a upper-middle-income country to a high-income one.
