In his first televised interview since his admittedly “dangerous” presidential debate, President Joe Biden made just a few exaggerated and deceptive statements.
Right here’s what Biden mentioned in his 22-minute, prime-time interview with ABC Information’ George Stephanopoulos on July 5:
- Biden exaggerated when he claimed that the U.S. share of worldwide semiconductor — or chip — manufacturing capability has declined to “nearly nothing.”
- Biden, once more, wrongly claimed that former President Donald Trump instructed the general public to inject bleach as a therapy for COVID-19.
- Biden denied that he had fallen additional behind Trump in post-debate polling, saying “nothing’s modified considerably because the debate within the New York Occasions ballot.” The Occasions post-debate ballot confirmed Trump forward by 6 proportion factors — a rise of three factors.
- Biden repeated his deceptive speaking level that Trump “misplaced extra jobs than he created.” That ignores the swift and devastating financial affect of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Semiconductors
Biden claimed that the U.S. share of worldwide semiconductor — or chip — manufacturing capability has declined to “nearly nothing.” That’s a little bit of an exaggeration.
“We used to have 40% of laptop chips,” the president mentioned. “We invented the chip, the little chip, the pc chip. It’s in every part from cellphones to weapons. And so, we used to have 40%, and we’re all the way down to nearly nothing.”
The federal authorities “performed a central position within the improvement of semiconductors” and the U.S. used to account for about 40% of semiconductor fabrication capability in 1990, based on a Congressional Analysis Service report revealed in 2020. The capability share in North America — primarily the U.S. — had declined to 11% in 2019, which ranked fifth on the earth behind South Korea, Taiwan, Japan and China, the report mentioned.
CRS described the chips as small digital units which can be “elementary to almost all trendy industrial and nationwide safety actions” and “important constructing blocks of different rising applied sciences, equivalent to synthetic intelligence, autonomous methods, 5G communications, and quantum computing.”
Considerations concerning the competitiveness of the U.S. semiconductor trade led to Biden signing into regulation in August 2022 the CHIPS and Science Act, which, amongst different issues, included $39 billion for a fund designed to spice up chip manufacturing capability within the nation.
In a report launched in Might, the Semiconductor Business Affiliation, together with the Boston Consulting Group, projected that investments “facilitated by incentives below the CHIPS Act” would lead the U.S. share of worldwide fab capability to develop from “10% right now to 14% by 2032.” With out new investments, U.S. fab capability would have gone down to eight% by 2032, the joint report mentioned.
Bleach
Biden, once more, wrongly claimed that Trump instructed the general public to inject bleach as a therapy for COVID-19.
“It is a man who instructed us to place bleach in our arms to cope with COVID, with 1,000,000 — over 1,000,000 folks died,” Biden mentioned, referring to U.S. deaths from the illness.
As we’ve written, Biden is twisting the phrases of Trump, who by no means instructed public to “put bleach” of their our bodies. Throughout an April 2020 press briefing on the White Home, Trump recommended that scientists on the Division of Homeland Safety take a look at the usage of “very highly effective gentle” and “disinfectant” within the physique to kill the virus that causes COVID-19. He didn’t inform People to strive it themselves.
New York Occasions Ballot
Stephanopoulos mentioned Biden fell “additional behind” Trump in nationwide polling after the June 27 debate, together with the most recent New York Occasions/Siena Faculty ballot that confirmed Trump up by 6 proportion factors. The president pushed again, saying the New York Occasions/Siena Faculty ballot confirmed him “behind 10 factors” previous to the talk and “nothing’s modified considerably because the debate within the New York Occasions ballot.”
However, as Stephanopoulos mentioned, the most recent Occasions/Siena ballot exhibits Trump has widened his lead. The previous president now leads Biden “49 p.c to 43 p.c amongst probably voters nationally, a three-point swing towards the Republican from only a week earlier, earlier than the talk,” the Occasions wrote. That’s the most important lead Trump “has recorded in a Occasions/Siena ballot since 2015,” the Occasions article mentioned.
Even with unbiased presidential candidate Robert F. Kennedy Jr. included, the Occasions/Siena ballot exhibits Trump up by 5 factors — 42% to 37% — with Kennedy receiving 8% amongst probably voters.
The ballot’s margin of error was “plus or minus 2.9 proportion factors for the probably voters.”
In different polling, the Suffolk College/USA Right now Nationwide Voter Ballot discovered Trump “edged forward” of Biden 41% to 38% in a ballot of registered voters, whereas Kennedy polled 8%. The 2 main get together candidates have been tied at 37% in Might.
Trump’s 3 level lead is inside the Suffolk/USA Right now ballot’s margin of error, which is plus or minus 3.1 proportion factors.
As Stephanopoulos famous, Biden received the favored vote by greater than 7 million in 2020, but it surely took slim victories in just a few swing states for Biden to win the Electoral Faculty and the presidency.
Biden’s Speaking Level on Jobs
As he did through the debate, and on many different events, Biden in contrast Trump to Herbert Hoover, the Despair-era president. Biden mentioned Trump — like Hoover — “misplaced extra jobs than he created.”
However, as we’ve written, Biden is ignoring the financial affect of the COVID-19 pandemic.
The U.S. added almost 6.7 million jobs in Trump’s first 37 months in workplace. However a string of 37 months of consecutive job progress led to March 2020, when the economic system misplaced 1.4 million jobs and bottomed out the subsequent month when it misplaced almost 20.5 million jobs, based on the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The job market began to get better in Might 2020. However by the tip of Trump’s 4 years, the U.S. had about 2.7 million fewer complete jobs.
Below Biden, employment is up 6.2 million from the pre-pandemic peak in February 2020 — however the complete improve since Biden took workplace in January 2021 is about 15.6 million, BLS knowledge present.
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