In a frantic attempt to shore up flagging support within his party, President Joe Biden sent an open letter to Democrats on Monday riddled with delusions and lies.
Following widespread criticism after his dismal first debate performance against former President Donald Trump last month, Biden reaffirmed his commitment to be the Democrat nominee, citing his track record and what he suggested is his electoral strength against his Republican opponent.
Here are three delusional lies from the letter.
1. Trump Will Bend to the Will of Oil Donors Upon Receiving Substantial Campaign Donations
Biden addressed his competitor’s energy policy, stating, “It wasn’t an isolated moment for Trump to stand at Mar-A-Lago and tell the oil industry they should give him $1 billion and he will do whatever they want.”
The New York Times reported that in May, two attendees at an energy round table campaign event held at Mar-a-Lago heard the former president promise that his policies would benefit oil companies.
There is not, however, proof that Trump will “do whatever they [the companies] want,” as Biden proposed in his letter.
The Times has also noted that Biden himself has not been hard on oil as he insists; U.S. oil production has supposedly reached an all-time high under the Biden administration, even as the production isn’t reflected in energy prices.
“He [Biden] has authorized an enormous $8 billion oil development in Alaska known as the Willow project,” The Times wrote. “He also granted a crucial permit for the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a project championed by Senator Joe Manchin III, a West Virginia Democrat, despite opposition from climate experts and environmental groups.”
It was reported that Karoline Leavitt, spokeswoman for the Trump campaign, said Trump is “supported by people who share his vision of American energy dominance to protect our national security and bring down the cost of living for all Americans.”
2. Trump Plans to Cut Social Security and Medicare Benefits
Biden continued to assert that the former president “want[s] another $5 trillion in tax cuts for rich people so they can cut Social Security and Medicare.”
Trump has repeatedly affirmed that he has no plans to cut Social Security or Medicare benefits for Americans.
The Biden campaign has consistently peddled this lie, going back to March of this year.
In an interview with CNBC’s Joe Kernen, Trump was asked about the rising national debt and his opinion on entitlements such as Medicare and Social Security, and specifically if cutting those entitlements would aid in lessening the national debt.
“So first of all, there is a lot you can do in terms of entitlements in terms of cutting and in terms of also the theft and the bad management of entitlements, tremendous bad management of entitlements,” Trump said. “So I don’t necessarily agree with the statement. I know that they’re going to end up weakening Social Security because the country is weak.”
Trump explicitly stated that he does not agree with Kernen’s question, and referenced that fixing the bad management and waste in these entitlement programs is a possible step forward. The Biden campaign ran with it, drawing unfair and inaccurate conclusions about Trump’s statement.
The Biden camp continued to call out Trump on entitlement programs, to which the Trump campaign replied in a post on X, “If you losers didn’t cut his answer short, you would know President Trump was talking about cutting waste,” not the actual programs, as Biden insists.
3. The Biden Administration Is Currently Lowering Costs for Americans
The president claimed that his policies are actively “lowering costs for families — from health care to prescription drugs to student debt to housing.”
In reality, Biden’s policies have resulted in cumulative inflation of 20 percent and prices that are rising more quickly than Americans’ incomes. Biden hasn’t “lower[ed] costs for families.” Rather, “grocery prices have increased by nearly one-third and gas has risen by 50 percent,” and “it now costs the average American family $12,000 more to maintain the same living standards as before Biden took office.”
Inflation reached a peak of 9.1 percent in June 2022, almost halfway through Biden’s term. Even with inflation slowly decreasing, hitting just over 3 percent in May, prices are still sky-high. The cumulative 20 percent inflation figure represents the overall increase in inflation since the president’s inauguration, with pre-Biden era inflation ringing in at 1.4 percent, below the Federal Reserve’s goal of 2 percent.
A Gallup poll from May 2024 revealed that only 38 percent of Americans have confidence that Biden is doing the right thing for the economy. According to Reuters, the economy has been the most important issue to Americans for over ten consecutive weeks.
