BREAKING NEWS – New York City, New York – Jim Tankersley who is the Economics Reporter for the very liberal New York Times, fact checked a statement made by Joe Biden in the debate.
“We left him a booming economy. And he caused the recession.”
— Mr. Biden
“This is false.
The economy was not ‘booming’ in the final year of Mr. Biden’s time as vice president, and Mr. Trump did not ‘cause’ the pandemic recession. When President Barack Obama and Mr. Biden left office, the economy was healthy, though growth had dipped below 2 percent in 2016 in part because of a contraction in business investment stemming in part from a plunge in oil prices rippling through America’s energy industry. Unemployment had fallen steadily.
Under Mr. Trump, economic growth accelerated from 2016, spurred by the fiscal stimulus of tax cuts and increased government spending and continued monetary stimulus from the Federal Reserve. The first three years of Mr. Trump’s presidency were similar, in terms of economic and job growth, to the first three years of Mr. Obama’s second term.
The coronavirus pandemic plunged the United States into recession this spring. Mr. Biden and others have criticized Mr. Trump’s response to it, blaming him for deaths from the virus and a contraction in economic activity. But there is no evidence Mr. Trump’s actions caused the recession: every major wealthy country in the world has experienced a sharp economic contraction along with its outbreak of the virus.”
According to a source from the Biden campaign, and the NYT, the former vice president called the newspaper, and accused them of “intentionally putting out there well established facts that will hurt my campaign”. According to the source, Biden went on to say, “Democrats will still believe anything I say, and even if they don’t, they’ll vigorously rationalize my ongoing confusion and continued memory loss.” The DNC went one step further, accusing the NYT of breaching an oral contract regarding always giving Biden a pass, and are demanding Tankersley be publicly executed as a warning to other objective reporters.