For the entirety of his administration, President Trump was daily accused of incompetence and of lying by the media and by high profile Democrats.  His so-called “incompetence” was belied by the booming economy, the record unemployment — especially in minority groups, the rebuilding of our nation’s energy independence, the return of manufacturing to the U.S., the lack of involvement in new wars, the reluctant payment of their fair share for defense by NATO countries, the confidence that most Americans had in the future, and the negotiation of peace agreements between several Arab nations and Israel. In many cases, his “lies” were eventually proven to be true as in his claim that the Trump Tower was being “wire-tapped.”  In most other cases, the media and others simply twisted his words, took them totally out of context, or flat out lied about what he had said, despite the fact that the videos of his actual words existed and were shown on FOX and other conservative news sites.  

But in this administration, we have seen unabashed, unmitigated incompetence from the disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal and the 400 plus Americans still trapped there, to the container ships sitting idle in California harbors while the docks are stacked with containers with no trucks to deliver them and shelves across the country frustrate Americans with their emptiness.  Soaring gasoline and heating fuel costs and the rising cost of everything as inflation hit 5.4% in September along with the supply chain crisis makes this winter look bleak for most Americans. And then there is the daily lying as well as slandering of the good people of this country- – – those who are not among the Democrat elites.  In his townhall with CNN, here are the lies that Biden spouted, all of which were fact checked, mostly by CNN themselves, or corrected by the White House.

  1. When Biden was asked about the crisis at the border (perhaps a subtle question as to why he didn’t go there this weekend instead of back to Delaware, his regular weekend presidential* home), he responded,  “I’ve been there before, and I haven’t, I mean, I know it well. I guess I should go down… now, my wife, Jill, has been down. She’s been on both sides of the river. She’s seen the circumstances there.”

But Biden has never “been to the border” for a visit that CNN could find.  Not ever.  And Jill Biden was there in 2019 during the presidential campaign, but never as First Lady*.

  • Biden said the highest current tax rate was 35%.  It is actually 37%.  Shouldn’t the man who is planning to raise taxes on the wealthy know how much they are actually paying already?
  • He claimed he had created more jobs in the first 8 months of his administration than any other president.  But CNN had to explain that the situation caused by the pandemic could not reasonably be equated to the same time frame in any previous administration.  The jobs he “created” were merely people who had been forced out of work during the shutdowns slowly taking jobs with companies who now, once again, needed workers.  We are still about 5 million jobs shy of what we had before the pandemic, some of those lost through Biden’s own cancellation of the Border wall construction, the Keystone XL Pipeline, and his bans on drilling and fracking.
  • He repeated a lie that FOX Corp. had a vaccination mandate in place.  But CNN again had to admit that was not true.  Workers who are not vaccinated are regularly tested instead, and still allowed to work.
  • He claimed that before he took office, only 2 million Americans had been vaccinated and now there were 190 million because “I went out and bought everything I could do and buy in sight and it worked.”

The AP fact checked this one, pointing out that almost 16 million doses of the vaccine had been administered by the time Biden took office, and that it was President Trump’s administration who had bought up 300 million doses from Pfizer and Moderna months before Biden took office.

  • Biden then said he would certainly consider using the National Guard to help in delivering goods in order to relieve the current supply chain crisis.  The White House corrected this one, telling FOX News that “Requesting the use of the national guard at the state level is under the purview of Governors and we are not actively pursuing the use of the national guard on a federal level.”

But beyond the lies, Biden also remains woefully ignorant of things which he as president should know.  No doubt the long naps and weekend retreats to Delaware lessen the time he has to become versed in foreign affairs.  When Biden joined Great Britain to make a deal with Australia to provide them with submarines, he was unaware, a government official later admitted, that France already had a multi-billion-dollar deal with Australia.  The new deal cut out France, costing them billions and prompting them to recall their ambassador to the United States.

During the townhall, when someone in the audience asked him if he would defend Taiwan if China attacked, Biden answered with a rather convoluted and confusing reply, prompting Anderson Cooper to ask again if we would defend Taiwan against an attack by China to which Biden finally said, “Yes, we have a commitment to do that.”  Again, the White House rushed to his rescue, assuring Americans that there has been no change in our policy towards Taiwan.   A “Jen Psaki” style “no answer” since most Americans have no real idea what our policy is. 

 In fact, there exists a Taiwan Relations Act which states that we will establish close commercial relations with Taiwan, provide Taiwan with weapons necessary to defend themselves against a forcible take-over by mainland China, and reserve the right to resist any force that would endanger the “security or social and economic systems of the people of Taiwan.”  Doesn’t that sound like we would intervene if China attacks them?  Yet at the same time, the Act assures our hope of a peaceful settlement between China and Taiwan, and that we accept there is only one China (which includes Taiwan). This ambiguous TRA has remained the centerpiece of a delicate balancing act between China and the U.S. since 1979.  

But it is a rather confusing “policy.”  No wonder Biden “misspoke.”  In the past, when China rattled its sabers in 1996, the U.S. sent two aircraft carrier battle groups to the Taiwan strait.  China backed down.  Despite their theft of much of our technology, our military weapons remain superior to theirs, though not as often publicly demonstrated.  Yet, under this undeniably weak and stubborn president, who can say if China will take the chance to attack Taiwan?  And who can say what this president will do if it does?