Biden’s 2024 State of the Union speech, fact-checked

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Fact-checking Joe Biden’s 2024 State of the Union address

Facing a challenging path to reelection amid low favorability ratings and public wariness over the economy, President Joe Biden used his 2024 State of the Union address to take a fighting posture. He repeatedly drew contrasts with his presumptive Republican opponent, former President Donald Trump, and occasionally sparred with GOP lawmakers in the audience.

"This is a moment to speak the truth, to bury lies," Biden said, referring to the Jan. 6, 2021, storming of the U.S. Capitol? by Trump supporters who believed falsehoods that the 2020 election had been stolen. "Here's the simple truth: You can't love your country only when you win."

We fact-checked Biden’s key statements on the economy, immigration, reproductive rights, crime and Trump.

Immigration

Biden blamed Republicans for sidelining Senate border security bill?

For years, Republicans have blamed Biden for the historically high illegal immigration under his watch. Some Republicans wore red and white?pins that said "Stop the Biden border crisis" in large capital letters.?

As Biden entered the House chamber, Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene, R-Ga.,?gave him a pin with text that?said: "Say her name: Laken Riley." Riley was a?22-year old University of Georgia nursing student who was killed Feb. 22 while on a run. The man charged with her killing illegally crossed the U.S.-Mexico border in September 2022.

As he discussed border security and immigration, Taylor Greene interrupted Biden and challenged him to say Riley’s name.?

"Lincoln Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal," Biden said, misstating Riley’s first name. Some high-profile Democrats criticized him for using the phrase "illegal," which some argue is dehumanizing.

Biden also said it was Republicans’ turn to act and cooperate with him and Democrats on a border security bill. He blamed Republicans for sidelining a Senate immigration bill, which failed in a 49-50 vote, that he claimed was "the toughest set of border security reforms we’ve ever seen."

"It would also give me and any new president new emergency authority to temporarily shut down the border when the number of migrants at the border is overwhelming."

This needs?context. The proposal sought to enable the executive branch to block people from seeking asylum in between ports of entry if illegal immigration encounters reached certain levels.?

It aimed to change what happened when people reached the border, but that doesn’t mean people would stop showing up. Despite the emergency authority, the government’s ability to quickly remove people from the U.S. would still hinge on its resources, and other countries’ willingness to take back immigrants.?

"In short, there is no authority that Congress could pass that would allow for a ‘complete and total shutdown of the border,’" Theresa Cardinal Brown, the Bipartisan Policy Center’s senior adviser for Immigration and border policy?previously told PolitiFact. "That's just not how borders work in any real sense. Especially not our border with Mexico."

"That bill would hire … 100 more immigration judges to help tackle the backload of 2 million cases."

The backlog number is higher — there are more than?3 million cases in immigration courts as of November 2023, according to Syracuse University’s Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse. The backlog grew by 1 million cases from November 2022 to November 2023.

Economy

"Consumer studies show consumer confidence is soaring."

It depends on the measure. Two long-running?consumer confidence measures are?released by the?University of Michigan and the Conference Board, a business membership and research organization.?

Consumer confidence, as measured by the University of Michigan survey, has climbed sharply since bottoming out in the summer of 2022, when inflation reached 9%, a four-decade high. However, the rating under Biden remains lower than it was for four of the past five presidents at the same point in their tenures.

Biden scores higher on the Conference Board survey, which is focused more on questions related to the labor market than inflation. The labor market has been a strength for Biden during his watch, and the Conference Board survey shows that consumer sentiment is now higher than it was under three of the previous four presidents at this point in their tenures.

"I’ve already cut the federal deficit by over a trillion dollars."

This merits asterisks. The deficit — the difference between federal spending and federal revenues —?fell by $1.4 trillion between 2021, Biden’s first year in office, and 2022, his second year. That was a larger decline than any in any previous one-year span.?

However, this reduction stems largely from the phasing out of pandemic era relief programs. Also, even at its reduced levels, the deficit remains higher under Biden than it was pre-pandemic. The deficit in 2022 and 2023 under Biden was higher than in each of Trump’s first three years, partly because of bills such as the 2021 American Rescue Plan, a pandemic recovery measure.

Read PolitiFact’s full roundup of fact-checks from Biden’s address. >>

Your Friday reading

• In the Republican response to the State of the Union address, Sen. Katie Britt, R-Ala., criticized Biden for creating a “border crisis” through executive actions. Here’s the context behind some actions Britt highlighted.
• Surprise guests are a feature of the president's State of the Union address. A big surprise for the 2024 address was the presence of expelled Rep. George Santos, R-N.Y. How was he allowed to watch in the House chamber?
• U.S. Rep. Katie Porter, D-Calif., said billionaires “rigged” the California Senate primary through “dishonest means,” citing outside funding of attack ads against her. We rated that False.

Thanks for reading,?

Ellen Hine

Audience engagement producer