CLAIM: In less than 72 hours, Joe Biden... killed 70,000+ union jobs
Fact Check Rating: Mostly False
This claim appears to be based on Biden’s executive actions to revoke the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline and to halt construction on the southern border wall. However, the number of jobs lost is greatly exaggerated. Approximately 1,000 permanent jobs were lost due to the cancellation of the pipeline, according to the Canadian company that was building it. Claims that an additional 10,000 support jobs were lost are not verifiable and at worst only represent temporary losses or losses of potential jobs, not current ones. Likewise, the claims that the halt in border wall construction would cause over 10,000 job losses were based on potential jobs that do not currently exist and are likely exaggerated as well. How the 70,000+ figure was reached is unclear as no source for this claim enumerates sufficient losses to add up to this amount.
Sources:
https://www.rushlimbaugh.com/daily/2021/01/22/biden-nuked-thousands-of-union-jobs-on-his-first-day/
https://quibbify.com/biden-kills-up-to-70000-jobs-on-first-day-in-office/
https://www.politifact.com/factchecks/2021/jan/21/facebook-posts/how-bidens-executive-order-halting-keystone-xl-pip/
CLAIM: ...Eliminated Women’s Sports
Fact Check Rating: False
This claim appears to refer to an executive order Biden signed on his first day in office which is titled “Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation”. Many opinion pieces appearing in right-wing and mainstream conservative publications have claimed that this order will allow athletes to participate in men’s or women’s sports based on their gender identity rather than their biological sex at birth. However, the EO simply reaffirms the administration’s commitment to uphold existing laws that protect individuals against sex and gender discrimination. The specific interpretations of these laws are largely handled by states but also federal agencies and local governments. By clearly reaffirming these laws, Biden is expressing that the executive branch seeks to remove barriers to transgender athletes participating in the sports that correspond to their gender identity, but it does not immediately change any laws or rules.
Sources
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-preventing-and-combating-discrimination-on-basis-of-gender-identity-or-sexual-orientation/
https://www.wsj.com/articles/joe-bidens-first-day-began-the-end-of-girls-sports-11611341066
https://www.heritage.org/gender/commentary/after-inaugural-rhetoric-unity-biden-signs-divisive-transgender-executive-order
https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/jan/22/transgender-athletes-joe-biden-executive-order
https://www.newsweek.com/fact-check-does-bidens-executive-order-allow-transgender-athletes-compete-gender-their-1563790
CLAIM: ...Destroyed Female Rights/Equality
Fact Check Rating: False
This claim appears to be a restatement of the above claim related to transgender athletes and is clearly hyperbolic and lacking any backing, and therefore anything to fact check. Suffice it to say that no President of the United States could destroy over a century of progress toward women’s rights and equality in their first week in office even if that was his intention. According to the campaign website for candidate Joe Biden, his agenda toward women could more accurately be described as the opposite of destroying rights and equality, and it will require more time to determine how his actual presidency lives up to these promises. Furthermore, as a Senator and Vice President, Biden made violence against women a legislative priority.
Sources
https://joebiden.com/womens-agenda/
https://obamawhitehouse.archives.gov/1is2many/about
CLAIM:...Invaded Syria
Fact Check Rating: False
No international media outside of the middle east have reported that Joe Biden has escalated the US involvement in Syria since taking office. Israeli news organization i24 News reported on January 21st that a Syrian government source claimed a US convoy of 40 trucks and armored vehicles had entered the country, but other sources in Israel have established this to be Syrian propaganda. In the US, this has generated conspiracy theories that Biden is escalating the war, which are thus far entirely unsupported by facts on the ground.
Sources
https://www.i24news.tv/en/news/middle-east/1611293792-us-military-convoy-enters-northeast-syria-report
https://www.jpost.com/international/false-claims-in-syria-biden-will-start-war-as-us-presence-there-rejected-656440
CLAIM: ...Left the National Guard to freeze in a parking garage
Fact Check Rating: Mixed
In the days following the Inauguration, national media reported that a number of National Guard troops who had been called to Washington DC to provide security were being forced to rest in a parking garage with insufficient amenities and poor hygiene after being told to vacate the US Capitol building. Upon being made aware of the situation, members of Congress rectified the situation and determined that a single officer of the Capitol Police had ordered the troops into the garage without following the chain of command. President Biden, while not personally responsible for the situation, apologized for the hardship and First Lady Jill Biden visited the troops personally to thank them for their service. I am rating this claim as “mixed” because the situation was real, but it was not Joe Biden or his administration who left the troops in that position.
Sources
https://www.nytimes.com/2021/01/22/us/national-guard-parking-garage.html
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/21/politics/national-guard-capitol/index.html
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/national-guard-parking-garage/
CLAIM: ...Admitted he doesn’t have a plan to fight COVID
Fact Check Rating: False
It is unclear where this claim originates from as it is categorically false with not even a kernel of truth as is typical of false claims. Joe Biden campaigned on a platform of combatting the coronavirus and immediately began working on solving the crisis before even assuming office. The White House has made public the strategy to combat the virus. Media reported that members of the Biden administration had complained that the Trump team had not left them a coherent vaccine distribution plan, however the Biden plan addresses this failure as well.
Sources
https://www.whitehouse.gov/priorities/covid-19/
https://www.whitehouse.gov/wp-content/uploads/2021/01/National-Strategy-for-the-COVID-19-Response-and-Pandemic-Preparedness.pdf
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/21/politics/biden-covid-vaccination-trump/index.html
CLAIM...Broke his own mask mandate EO
Fact Check Rating: False
Snopes investigated this claim and determined that Biden did not violate the terms of his executive order requiring mask-wearing on federal property when he briefly was maskless at the Lincoln Memorial. Oversimplification of the EO’s wording is behind this claim, as the location and reason for Biden’s temporary lack of mask do not violate the actual order.
Sources
https://www.snopes.com/fact-check/biden-violate-mask-mandate/
https://www.newsweek.com/joe-biden-mask-mandate-lincoln-memorial-1563657
CLAIM: ...Ended US Energy Independence
Fact Check Rating: False
This claim is a gross exaggeration and oversimplification of an executive order signed by Biden that places a moratorium on new leases for oil and gas drilling on federal lands. While Bloomberg News reports that energy drilling on federal lands accounts for approximately 10% of domestic production, this EO restricts future (not current) leases and has no effect on the 90% of production done on non-federal lands. Furthermore, the EO is part of a broader Biden administration agenda to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and move the economy to green energy to avoid climate change, a transition that would also result in energy independence due to less reliance on imported and domestically produced fossil fuels.
Sources
https://www.worldoil.com/news/2021/1/21/biden-prepares-to-end-new-oil-and-coal-leases-on-federal-land
https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefing-room/presidential-actions/2021/01/20/executive-order-protecting-public-health-and-environment-and-restoring-science-to-tackle-climate-crisis/
CLAIM: ...Canceled lower cost insulin and epinephrine shots
Fact Check Rating: Misleading
As part of a broad review of health policies enacted by the Trump administration, the Biden administration has placed a temporary freeze on a December 2020 policy that nominally requires clinics to pass all discount savings from insulin and epinephrine shots to patients. However, according to Bloomberg News, “health centers said they already pass on those savings and this rule is merely an administrative burden that paints them as entities that price-gouge patients.” Freezing this rule would appear to have little-to-no impact on the price health care consumers pay for these shots.
Source
https://news.bloomberglaw.com/pharma-and-life-sciences/bidens-hhs-freezes-trump-insulin-epinephrine-rule-until-march
CLAIM: Re-introduced Critical Race Theory
Fact Check Rating: Misleading
In September 2020, Donald Trump signed an executive order forbidding federal agencies and other entities receiving federal contracts to use racial bias and sensitivity/diversity training, which was largely seen as a move against Critical Race Theory, a common boogeyman of conservative media. Joe Biden signed an executive order which reversed this order, allowing agencies and contract recipients to once again put their employees through this training. I rate this claim as misleading because critical race theory itself has never been promoted by federal agencies but rather has been employed as a wedge issue and used to scapegoat all diversity and sensitivity training as being divisive or radical.
Sources
https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/2021/01/20/biden-executive-order-overturns-trump-diversity-training-ban/4236891001/
https://www.federaltimes.com/management/hr/2021/01/21/biden-overrides-trump-orders-on-diversity-training/
CLAIM: ...Rescinded a ban on Chinese involvement in the American power grid
Fact Check Rating: Misleading
As part of a broad freeze on Trump administrative rules and executive actions in order to review and assess their impact, the Biden administration placed a 90-day freeze on Executive Order 13920 which, among other things, banned the use of certain imported electrical infrastructure technology. While this would include technology potentially made in China, the original EO did not specifically target China, nor specific meddling by China in the US power grid, an action that of itself would be viewed as hostile and potentially an act of war. Additionally, experts and politicians disagree on the true seriousness of a threat to infrastructure from Chinese-made technology.
Sources
https://disrn.com/news/biden-reverses-trump-ban-on-chinese-communist-involvement-in-us-power-grid/
https://fas.org/irp/offdocs/eo/eo-13920.pdf
https://www.natlawreview.com/article/biden-administration-announces-sweeping-slate-administrative-actions
https://www.theverge.com/2019/3/17/18264283/huawei-security-threat-experts-china-spying-5g
CLAIM: ...Dissolved the 1776 Commission
Fact Check Rating: True
On day one of his administration, Joe Biden signed an executive order which dissolved the controversial 1776 commission created by the Trump administration. The commission was widely criticized and was seen as an attempt to counter the 1619 Project, a New York Times Pulitzer-prize winning project to teach an accurate version of slavery in US public schools. The dissolution of the 1776 Commission is widely seen as an effort to combat revisionist history propaganda in US public school curricula.
Sources
https://www.cnn.com/2021/01/20/politics/biden-rescind-1776-commission-executive-order/index.html
https://apnews.com/article/biden-revoke-trump-patriotic-education-259b9302ab24bac55fa14676a1a9d11e
CLAIM: ...Stopped the deportation of illegal aliens
Fact Check Rating: Misleading
The Department of Homeland security announced that it was enacting a 100-day pause on the deportation of some undocumented immigrants from the United States in order to review Trump administration policies, as is happening across the entire federal government at the beginning of the Biden administration. Deportations are not stopped permanently and are expected to continue in accordance with US law following the pause.
Sources
https://www.npr.org/sections/president-biden-takes-office/2021/01/21/959074750/biden-suspends-deportations-stops-remain-in-mexico-policy
https://www.texastribune.org/2021/01/20/biden-remain-in-mexico-immigration/
