In recent weeks, President Joe Biden has claimed repeatedly now that inflation was at 9 percent when he took office in January 2021. Last week's comments came in an interview with CNN's Erin Burnett, which touched upon inflation. Biden tried to push Americans into being more grateful about the economy, including through such a false claim, as he then even bragged about the matter. The Washington Post's Glenn Kessler has more examples of such false claims about inflation, though, including and especially about the 9 percent figure.
"Three times now, Biden has suggested that inflation was 9 percent ... when he took office."
— Aaron Blake (@AaronBlake) May 15, 2024
"The fact that the president has gotten this wrong three times suggests this is more than slip of the tongue. He earns Four Pinocchios."
(via @GlennKesslerWP)https://t.co/MwNb5j1Ucn
The 9 percent claim that Biden made to Burnett wasn't the first and it wasn't the last time. On April 10, while giving a press conference with the Japanese prime minister, the president claimed that "we have dramatically reduced inflation from 9 percent down to close to 3 percent," even bragging we're supposedly "in a situation where we’re better situated than we were when we took office where inflation was skyrocketing" and that "we have a plan to deal with it."
When Biden took office, the inflation rate was 1.4 percent. GoBankingRates' analysis of the inflation rates from the most recent presidents since President Lyndon B. Johnson was in office highlight how former President Donald Trump had the second lowest rate of inflation, while Biden has had one of the highest.
Part of Kessler's commentary about such a claim mentions how, with added emphasis, "White House officials say that Biden means to say that the factors for 9 percent inflation in mid-2022 were already in place when he assumed the presidency. In other words, higher prices for goods and services would have happened no matter who was elected president in 2020."
We tend to hear a lot that "Biden means to say" something. For whatever he meant to say, he kept repeating such claims.
During the May 8 interview with CNN, Biden specifically claimed that "no president’s had the run we have had, in terms of creating jobs and bringing down inflation. It was 9 percent when I came to office, 9 percent."
BIDEN: "No president's had the run we had in terms of creating jobs and bringing down inflation!"
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 8, 2024
The vast majority of those jobs were recovered from the pandemic — and inflation, which is accelerating again, has averaged a sky-high 5.6% under Biden. pic.twitter.com/Uk0DLDvCDx
It's rather bold, and tone deaf, for Biden to go with bragging on inflation. It's no wonder he has to lie about it. RealClearPolling has Biden at just a 34 percent approval rating on inflation, and a 39.6 percent approval rating on the economy. A Gallup poll from late last month also showed how Americans' trust in Biden to do the right thing on the economy is at historic lows.
Multiple polls also show better news for Trump on these topic economic issues, as they more so trust the former president to handle the economy and inflation. This is especially the case in swing states.
Then, even more recently, Biden repeated that lie again during his May 14 interview with Yahoo! Finance. Inflation "was at 9 percent when I came in and it’s now down around 3 percent."
White House Press Secretary Karine Jean-Pierre was confronted with these moments during Wednesday's press briefing.
Biden — for the second time in less than a week — falsely claims inflation "was at 9%" when he took office.
— RNC Research (@RNCResearch) May 14, 2024
It was 1.4%. pic.twitter.com/lmiX9SFhjS
Q: "Two times over the past two weeks, the president said inflation was 9% when he came into office. Is the president misleading Americans on that or does he just not realize that inflation was 1.4% when he came into office?"
— Townhall.com (@townhallcom) May 15, 2024
KJP: "Thank you for the question..." pic.twitter.com/xNoTj1xE7x
"These are all variations on a theme--that inflation was already raging when Biden took office. But that’s false. The inflation rate was 1.4 percent when Biden took the oath of office," Kessler said when addressing all three examples.
Kessler also included comments that Biden made about job creation and wages.
"Job creation by presidential term is often a misleading metric. Biden took office in the midst of a pandemic, and to some extent many of these jobs are recovered from the pandemic," Kessler wrote. Mia has fact-checked such claims multiple times about job creation.
Kessler also noted that "going back to January 2021, wages overall have not kept up with inflation."
He ultimately granted the president "Four Pinocchios," which means it's a "whopper."
Earlier on Wednesday, the Consumer Price Index (CPI) was released. "Month-over-month, consumer prices increased 0.3 percent for an annual advance of 3.4 percent — still well above the Federal Reserve's target of just 2.0 percent," Spencer reported."Core CPI inflation — which excludes food and energy — also increased 0.3 percent in April for a 3.6 percent year-over-year gain."