FactChecking Biden’s Address to Congress

Summary

In his first address to a joint session of Congress, President Joe Biden got some facts wrong and stretched others, mainly repeated claims we’ve heard before:

• Biden said he inherited the “worst economic crisis since the Great Depression.” But when he took office, the economy had recovered some from its low point earlier in the pandemic.
• He repeated the debunked claim that he had “traveled over 17,000 miles” with Chinese President Xi Jinping.
• Biden referred to the American Jobs Plan creating “millions of jobs” and generating “trillions of dollars in economic growth.” The jobs estimate is accurate, but economic growth projections are mixed.
• The president said he is “restoring the program” to address the causes of migration from Northern Triangle countries that “the last administration decided … was not worth it.” Although funding for the initiative declined and was delayed during the Trump administration, it wasn’t completely eliminated, as Biden’s remark may have suggested.
• Biden said the “vast majority” of the “over 11 million undocumented folks” in the U.S. overstayed a visa. But immigration experts estimate that most people living in the U.S. illegally crossed the southern border without authorization.
• The president claimed the 1994 assault weapons ban, which expired 10 years later, “worked,” but the academic evidence isn’t clear.

Biden spoke on April 28, one day shy of his 100th day as president.

Analysis

The Economy Biden Inherited

Biden early in his speech spoke about inheriting an economy severely battered by COVID-19, the “worst economic crisis since the Great Depression,” he said. The economy was struggling, but it had improved some by the time he was sworn in.

“I stand here tonight, one day shy of the 100th day of my administration. One hundred days since I took the oath of office and lifted my hand off our family Bible, and inherited a nation, we all did, that was in crisis,”