Tipsheet

Biden's False Claims Get Called Out by CNN

Leah Barkoukis
Leah Barkoukis  |  September 26, 2022 7:00 AM

CNN called President Biden out for making false claims about gas prices and the unemployment rate during a speech at a Democratic National Committee event last week.

The president said prices at the pump are down “$1.30 a gallon," and claimed the average price is "less than $2.99" in 41 states and Washington, D.C. 

Those figures are wrong, as CNN points out, which prompted the White House to even correct the record.

Facts First: Biden’s claim about average gasoline prices was false, as the White House acknowledged by correcting the official transcript after CNN inquired about the claim on Friday afternoon. In fact, zero states have an average price under $2.99 per gallon, figures from GasBuddy and the American Automobile Association show. As the correction notes, Biden got a key digit wrong: 41 states and the District of Columbia have an average price under $3.99, not $2.99.

Biden has correctly used the $3.99 figure in previousremarks, and it’s good when a White House is willing to correct inaccuracies. But the price of gas is one of the most important numbers in politics. Even if the President made an inadvertent error this time, his incorrect remark was televised live on CNN and MSNBC.

The national average price for regular gasoline is $3.689, according to AAA.

Biden also falsely claimed the 3.7 percent unemployment rate is the lowest it's been in more than 50 years. CNN noted, however, that he is ignoring what happened in the Trump economy. 

A White House official noted Friday that on at least five previous occasions this month, Biden has correctly said that the current unemployment rate is “near” a 50-year low. (Before the Trump era, the rate hadn’t been as low as 3.5% since 1969.) By claiming this time that the 3.7% rate is the lowest in more than 50 years, though, Biden not only erased the recent uptick from 3.5% to 3.7% but erased the performance of the pre-pandemic economy under his Republican predecessor.