Biden repeats false claim that inflation was at 9% when he took office after being called out last week

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Biden makes false inflation claim twice in less than a week

President Biden repeats his false claim to Yahoo! Finance that inflation was at 9% when he first took office, something he was called out for last week following an interview with CNN.

President Biden repeated his false claim that inflation was at 9% when he first took office less than a week after being called out for making the same assertion.

Speaking with Yahoo! Finance about his newly announced tariffs on China, Biden defended his handling of the economy while acknowledging the impact inflation has had on Americans. 

"Inflation has gone slightly up," Biden told Yahoo! Finance's Brian Sozzi. "It was at 9% when I came in. And it's now down around 3%."

Inflation was at 1.4% when Biden took the oath of office in January 2021 and peaked at 9.1% in June 2022. It stands at 3.5% as of March 2024, which is above the Federal Reserve’s target rate of 2%.

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President Biden repeated the false claim that inflation was at 9% when he first took office during his interview with Yahoo! Finance. (Screenshot/Yahoo! Finance)

Biden made the same claim last week to CNN's Erin Burnett, who, like Sozzi, did not challenge him on the falsehood.

"No president has had the run we had in terms of creating jobs and bringing down inflation. It was 9% when I came into office, 9%," Biden told Burnett.

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Several media outlets fact-checked Biden's comment. Snopes gave it a "false" rating.

According to FactCheck.org, a White House official said Biden was trying to convey contributing factors to inflation like the supply chain crisis that began before Biden took office.

President Biden announced new tariffs on China during an address in the Rose Garden at the White House on May 14, 2024. (Tierney L. Cross/Bloomberg via Getty Images)

Biden faced renewed criticism on social media Tuesday for apparently lying about inflation twice in one week. 

"All Biden does is LIE!" wrote Rep. Jim Banks, R-Ind.

"Dems wonder why the message isn’t working; it’s because the message is that Dems think voters are fools," Washington Examiner Editor-in-Chief Hugo Gurdon wrote.

"[U]sed to be very important for all the Very Serious Democracy Defenders to denounce the President when he tells outright Lies… used to be," GOP strategist Logan Dobson said.

The White House did not immediately respond to Fox News Digital's request for comment.

Polls continue to show Biden trailing former President Trump in the key swing states, particularly on issues affecting voters like the economy.

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Biden was defensive in the CNN interview regarding the economy, saying, "We've already turned it around," before citing one poll that showed most Americans say they are "personally in good shape" economically, which he repeated in the Yahoo! Finance interview.

"The polling data has been wrong all along. You guys do a poll at CNN; how many folks do you have to call to get one response?" Biden lashed out to Burnett. "The idea that we're in a situation where things are so bad. … When I started this administration, people were saying there's going to be a collapse in the economy. We have the strongest economy in the world. Let me say that again, in the world."

President Biden was called out last week for his false inflation claim in his interview with CNN. (Screenshot/CNN)

That attitude did not sit well with former top Obama adviser David Axelrod. 

"It is absolutely true. The world was plunged into an economic crisis and America was plunged into an economic crisis by the pandemic, and we've come back faster than almost any other country, and he's right about that. But that's not the way people are experiencing the economy," Axelrod told Burnett after the interview.

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"They're experiencing it through the lens of the cost of living. And he is a man who's built his career on empathy. Why not lead with the empathy?"

He continued, "And I think he's making a terrible mistake. … If he doesn't win this race, it may not be Donald Trump that beats him. It may be his own pride."