CNN exaggerated its personal affect by internet hosting Joe Biden for a “city corridor” on Tuesday night time. Chris Cuomo previewed it by claiming “We’re minutes away from historical past!” Nicely, at the very least they handled the occasion as historic sufficient for his or her “truth checker” Daniel Dale to review it for boo-boos.
However guess what? Dale by no means appeared on CNN’s tv reveals to share his Wednesday findings of “4 false claims” by Biden. He final appeared on TV per week in the past, fact-checking the Trump facet of the impeachment trial on Cuomo Prime Time. This on-line piece is not any comparability to Dale calling Trump a “firehose” of lies, however it was truth checking. These are the 4 cited:
1 Minimal wage. Biden mentioned “once we listed it at $7.20, if we saved it listed by — to inflation, individuals could be making 20 bucks an hour proper now.” No, Congress authorized a minimal wage of $7.25 in 2009, so Dale mentioned “Regulate for inflation, $7.25 in January 2009 was equal to $8.98 in January 2021.”
2. Immigration. Biden mentioned “The overwhelming majority of the individuals, these 11 million undocumented, they don’t seem to be Hispanics; they’re individuals who got here on a visa — who was in a position to purchase a ticket to get in a airplane and did not go house. They did not come throughout the Rio Grande swimming…” Dale replied “the Migration Coverage Institute suppose tank estimated in 2018 that 73% of undocumented individuals within the US communicate Spanish at house and 68% are from the Mexico and Central America area, with an extra 7% from South America.”
3. China. Biden claimed that in China, “extra individuals are retired than working. How can they maintain financial progress when extra individuals are retired?”
Dale replied: “It’s not even near true that extra individuals in China are retired than working — even in the present day, not to mention when Biden was vice chairman and the Chinese language workforce was youthful. China reported having about 775 million employed individuals on the finish of 2019; China had a reported 254 million individuals aged 60 or above, the normal retirement-benefits age for males.”
4. Free neighborhood school. Biden repeated his referred to as for neighborhood school to be free for all. He mentioned it would price $9 billion: “We spend nearly that cash as a break for individuals who personal racehorses.” Dale replied “There is no such thing as a obtainable proof for the declare that the tax break for racehorse house owners prices the federal government nearly $9 billion. The White Home declined to supply a supply for the determine.”
It is unclear if this was the “fourth” false declare, as a result of Dale additionally tackled Biden’s unusual discuss on vaccines. He centered on Biden saying when “we got here into workplace, there was solely 50 million doses that have been obtainable.” Moments later, he mentioned, “We bought into workplace and discovered the availability — there was no backlog. I imply, there was nothing within the fridge, figuratively and actually talking, and there have been 10 million doses a day that have been obtainable.”
However he defended Biden telling Cooper “while you and I talked final, we talked about it is one factor to have the vaccine, which we did not have once we got here into workplace, however a vaccinator.” Dale wrote “A few of Biden’s Republican critics have focused on his declare that ‘we did not have’ the vaccine once we got here into workplace — suggesting that Biden was denying {that a} Covid-19 vaccine existed in any respect underneath President Donald Trump. Given the opposite feedback Biden had simply made, we predict it is clear in context that this was not his precise which means.”
This declare demonstrates the elasticity of “truth checking.” There’s the plain which means of what Biden mentioned, however then Biden’s media defenders say “effectively, it is not his precise which means.” If Trump had come after Biden in historical past and claimed there was no vaccine when he was inaugurated, then it will be “Pants On Hearth” time, at all times giving no good thing about the doubt. Dale did the identical Biden protection on Twitter:
Biden had mentioned simply prior that there have been “solely” 50 million vaccine doses when he took workplace. I am wanting into that declare (and a bunch of different claims Biden made tonight), however he clearly wasn’t making an attempt to assert the vaccine didn’t exist in any respect underneath Trump. https://t.co/2EtKDWyR7o
— Daniel Dale (@ddale8) February 17, 2021
