Fact Checking President Biden’s 2024 State of the Union Address
Summary from the AllSides News Team
President Biden gave his 2024 State of the Union Address on Thursday, leading several media outlets to fact check claims made in the speech.
Inflation: Biden claimed inflation is “the lowest in the world.” USA Today (Lean Left bias) said, “Biden is simply wrong here,” citing France and Canada as having lower inflation rates according to the latest data from the International Monetary Fund. The Washington Post (Lean Left bias) agreed, adding Germany, Japan, and Italy to the list of countries with lower inflation.
IVF: Biden claimed the Alabama Supreme Court “shut down” in vitro fertilization treatments across the state. The Daily Signal (Right bias) and USA Today both said Biden improperly framed the ruling and did not mention that the Alabama legislation actually signed a law protecting the treatments on Thursday.
Prescription Drugs: Biden said prescription drugs abroad cost 40% of what they cost in the U.S. USA Today and Washington Post said the President was “mostly right” and “basically correct,” respectively. Both outlets cited a 2024 report from the think tank Rand, which found prescriptions in the U.S. are on average 278% more expensive than those in 33 other nations.
How The Media Framed It: The Daily Signal wrote that Biden “made numerous claims, many of them contentious and sharply partisan.” The Washington Post examined 12 claims that “caught [their] attention.” USA Today said “Biden largely stuck to the facts,” but “on several occasions… overstated the truth, left out key context or was simply wrong.”
Featured Coverage of this Story
From the Left
Fact-checking President Biden’s 2024 State of the Union address
A State of the Union address generally is a product of many hands and is carefully vetted. But State of the Union addresses are political speeches, an argument for the president’s policies, so context is sometimes missing. Here’s a roundup of a dozen claims in Tuesday night’s speech that caught our attention, listed in the order Biden made them.
As is our practice, we do not award Pinocchios in speech roundups.
“15 million new jobs in just three years — a record, a record!”
At the moment, Biden can claim...
From the Left
State of the Union fact check: What President Joe Biden got wrong (and right) While President Joe Biden largely stuck to the facts during his third State of the Union address Thursday, on several occasions he overstated the truth, left out key context or was simply wrong.
In a wide-ranging speech on issues including inflation, border security and conflicts in Ukraine and Gaza, Biden on multiple occasions attacked – but never identified by name – his Republican opponent in November, former President Donald Trump. But in contrasting himself with his challenger and making his case for a second term, Biden occasionally strayed from the...
From the Right
Fact-Checking Biden’s State of the Union Address
President Joe Biden delivered his 2024 State of the Union address in the House Chamber of the U.S. Capitol on Thursday night.
During the 67-minute speech, frequently interrupted by applause from fellow Democrat senators and members of Congress, Biden spoke on a wide range of issues, from border security and the economy to abortion and foreign policies relating to Israel and Ukraine.
The president made numerous claims, many of them contentious and sharply partisan. The Daily Signal fact-checked many of those claims to assess whether they were truthful and accurate.
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