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  • FactChecking Biden’s State of the Union

    Para leer en español, vea esta traducción de Google Translate.

    Summary

    In his final State of the Union address prior to the November general election, President Joe Biden focused on Ukraine, the Israel-Hamas war, the economy, reproductive rights, prescription drug costs and border security. Biden also criticized many of the policies of “my predecessor” — without naming former President Donald Trump. But he sometimes stretched the facts or left out important context.

    • Biden boasted that under his leadership “wages keep going up.” But over the entirety of Biden’s presidency, wages are down when adjusted for inflation.
    • Biden claimed that the more recent U.S. inflation rate of about 3% is the “lowest in the world!” But several nations reported lower rates than the U.S. in December.
    • He again claimed to have “cut the federal deficit by over one trillion dollars” — although declining deficits have mostly been the result of expiring emergency pandemic spending.
    • Biden said he had created a “record” 15 million new jobs. His 14.8 million new jobs is a record for any president in the first three years, but it’s not the highest job growth rate that any president has achieved in that period of time.
    • He suggested that “many” of the new jobs in U.S. semiconductor factories will be “paying $100,000 a year and don’t require a college degree.” But an industry trade group previously reported that only workers with bachelor’s or graduate degrees make that much.
    • Biden said that, “My policies have attracted $650 billion in private sector investment in clean energy [and] advanced manufacturing.” Those are announcements about intentions to invest, not actual investments.
    • Biden highlighted recent decreases in murder and violent crime rates, but neglected to mention that they are still coming down from their pandemic peak.
    • Biden omitted context of a Trump comment following an Iowa school shooting.
    • The president said billionaires pay an average federal tax rate of only 8.2%, but that’s a White House calculation that includes earnings on unsold stock as income.
    • Biden said that because of the Affordable Care Act, over 100 million people can no longer be denied health insurance due to preexisting conditions. But pre-ACA, employer plans covered many of those people and couldn’t deny policies.
    • Biden said he was “cutting our carbon emissions in half by 2030.” That’s the U.S. goal, relative to 2005 emissions, but studies suggest current policies will not reduce emissions by that much.

    Biden spoke to Congress on March 7.

    Analysis

    Wages

    Biden boasted that “wages keep going up, inflation keeps coming down.” But over the entirety of Biden’s presidency, wages are down when adjusted for inflation.

    Average weekly earnings for rank-and-file workers went up 14.8% during Biden’s first three years in office, according to monthly figures compiled by the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But inflation ate up all that gain and more. “Real” weekly earnings, which are adjusted for inflation and measured in dollars valued at their average level in 1982-84, actually declined 3.1% since Biden took office.

    The inflation-adjusted average weekly earnings of production and nonsupervisory workers — who make up 81% of all employees in the private sector — and the inflation-adjusted average hourly earnings of all employees have both been on the rise for the last year and a half, with real weekly earnings rising 1.5% since hitting the low point under Biden in June 2022.

    Inflation has also moderated greatly since hitting a peak increase of 9% for the 12 months ending in June 2022, the biggest such increase in over 40 years. The unadjusted Consumer Price Index rose 3.1% in the 12 months ending in January, the most recent figure available, and as Biden said, it has been trending down.

    But looking at the entire three years of Biden’s presidency so far, the Consumer Price Index has risen a total of 18%.

    Inflation

    Biden claimed that inflation in the U.S. “has dropped from 9% to 3% – the lowest in the world!”

    The year-over-year inflation rate was 3.1% in January, down from 9% in June 2022, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. But that’s still higher than the 1.4% rate when Biden took office.

    Furthermore, the current U.S. inflation rate is not the lowest of any country.

    President Joe Biden delivers the State of the Union address during a joint meeting of Congress in the House chamber at the U.S. Capitol on March 7 in Washington, D.C. Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images.

    December data from the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development show that Italy — a member of the G7, a group of seven of the world’s most advanced economies — had a lower year-over-year inflation rate than the U.S. While the U.S. inflation rate was 3.3% for the 12 months ending that month, Italy’s was 0.6%.

    Other countries with “advanced economies,” as defined by the International Monetary Fund, and millions of residents, including Denmark (0.7%), Lithuania (1.2%), Belgium (1.4%) and South Korea (3.2%), also had lower inflation rates than the U.S., as of December.

    Even by the White House’s own calculations, which adjust for differences in how countries calculate inflation, Biden’s claim was inexact.

    In a Jan. 11 post on the social media platform called X, the White House Council of Economic Advisers wrote that, as of November, the latest month with complete G7 data, “both core & headline U.S. inflation were among the lowest in the G7” — not the lowest.

    That’s because Italy had a lower headline inflation rate than the U.S., according to the CEA’s post. Supporting documentation provided by the White House shows that Italy’s rate was 0.5% and the U.S. rate was almost 2.5%.

    Headline inflation – unlike core inflation – factors in food and energy prices.

    Deficits

    Biden continues to misleadingly claim, as he did during his address, that’s he’s “already cut the federal deficit by over $1 trillion dollars.”

    Budget deficits have declined from the record spending gap of $3.1 trillion in fiscal year 2020, the last full fiscal cycle before Biden took office. In FY 2021, the deficit was about $2.8 trillion; in FY 2022, it was almost $1.4 trillion; and in FY 2023, which ended Sept. 30, it was roughly $1.7 trillion.

    But as we’ve explained several times, the primary reason that deficits went down by about $350 billion in Biden’s first year, and by another $1.3 trillion in his second, is because of emergency COVID-19 funding that expired in those years.

    Budget experts said that if not for more pandemic and infrastructure spending championed by Biden, deficits would have been even lower than they were in fiscal 2021 and 2022.

    As of February, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected that under current law, the deficit would fall to $1.6 trillion in fiscal 2024, rise to $1.8 trillion in fiscal 2025, then return to $1.6 trillion in fiscal 2027. “Thereafter, deficits steadily mount, reaching $2.6 trillion in 2034,” the CBO said.

    ‘Record’ Jobs

    As he has done in recent speeches, Biden boasted that he has created a “record” 15 million new jobs in his first three years in office. He frequently adds on the campaign trail that that’s more than any president had created in three years or in the first four-year term.

    “Fifteen million new jobs in just three years – a record, a record!” he said on Thursday night, right after saying “our economy is literally the envy of the world.”

    He’s right on the new jobs — to a point.

    Since Biden took office, the U.S. economy added 14.8 million jobs (not quite 15 million) — which is a record number of jobs, at least since 1939, for any president in his first three or four years in office, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data that go back to January 1939.

    But Biden isn’t accounting for population and job growth. Other presidents have seen a greater percentage increase.

    The 14.8 million additional jobs under Biden represent a growth rate of 10.3%, as measured from January 2021, when Biden took office, through January 2024, the latest month for which data are available from the BLS. While impressive, the 10.3% growth rate isn’t as high as under some past presidents when there were fewer jobs.

    In President Jimmy Carter’s only four years in office, from January 1977 to January 1981, the U.S. added 10.3 million jobs. That’s an increase of 12.8%. In Carter’s first three years, the U.S. added 10.1 million jobs, or 12.5%.

    In President Lyndon Johnson’s only full term in office, from January 1965 to January 1969, the U.S. economy added 9.9 million jobs — a 16.5% job growth. In the first three years of that term, from January 1965 to January 1968, the U.S. added 7.2 million jobs, which was an increase of 12.1%.

    In President Bill Clinton’s first term, from January 1993 through January 1997, the U.S. added 11.6 million jobs, an increase of 10.5%. That’s a slightly higher rate of job growth than in Biden’s first three years. But in Clinton’s first three years, the number of jobs increased by 7.8%, which is smaller.

    However, the U.S. added a total of 22.9 million jobs in Clinton’s two terms, an increase of 20.9%, from 109.8 million jobs in January 1993 to 132.7 million in January 2001. It remains to be seen if job growth continues at such a pace under Biden in a second term, if he wins reelection.

    Semiconductor Jobs

    On multiple occasions, Biden has left the misleading impression that new jobs in U.S. semiconductor factories would pay above $100,000 annually for those without a college degree.

    During his speech, he said: “Private companies are now investing billions of dollars to build new chip factories here in America, creating tens of thousands of jobs. Many of those jobs paying $100,000 a year and don’t require a college degree.”

    In a 2021 report, the Semiconductor Industry Association, a trade group, and Oxford Economics found that 277,000 people worked in the industry with an average salary of $170,000 in 2020. While the report said industry workers “consistently earn more than the U.S. average at all education attainment levels,” it noted that “average wages vary based on educational attainment.”

    But only those with a bachelor’s degree ($120,000) or a graduate degree (over $160,000) had wages that topped six figures. Workers with a high school education or less could expect to earn a little more than $40,000. Those with at least some college experience could make $60,000, while earning an associate’s degree could increase that to $70,000.

    According to the report, only 20% of semiconductor workers at the time had not attended college. Conversely, 56% of workers had a bachelor’s or graduate degree.

    Clean Energy/Advanced Manufacturing Jobs

    Biden boasted that, “My policies have attracted $650 billion in private sector investment in clean energy, advanced manufacturing, creating tens of thousands of jobs here in America.” But those are announcements about intentions to invest, not actual investments.

    The policies Biden is referring to are mainly the CHIPS Act, which includes $39 billion to fund manufacturing facilities in the U.S. and $11 billion for semiconductor research and development, the Inflation Reduction Act, which includes an estimated $369 billion to combat climate change while also investing in “energy security,” the $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan, and the bipartisan infrastructure law, which included $550 billion in new infrastructure spending.

    The claim about the amount of private sector investment in clean energy and manufacturing that those policies have created is based on a White House tabulation of public announcements about investments, or as a White House press release puts it, “commitments to invest.”

    “These are announced plans for investments,” Douglas Holtz-Eakin, president of the center-right American Action Forum, told us in a phone interview. “They may take years to happen, or they may not happen at all.”

    “He makes it seem like the investments have happened already or that they are happening this year, and they are not,” Holtz-Eakin said. “They may not come to fruition. Market conditions change.”

    And, he said, while $650 billion sounds like a lot of investment, with gross capital stock in the U.S. over $69 trillion, even if that amount were invested this year, “it wouldn’t exactly transform the economy.”

    Crime

    Biden highlighted the continued drop in murder and violent crime rates since he took office, but he left out some important context.

    “Last year the murder rate showed the sharpest decrease in history,” Biden said. “Violent crime fell to one of its the lowest levels in more than 50 years.”

    It’s true that there has been a sharp decline in murder and homicide rates recently.

    The number of homicides was 10% lower in 2023 than in 2022, according to a January report from the Council on Criminal Justice, which gathered data from 32 participating cities.

    And, as we’ve written before, a November report from the Major Cities Chiefs Association showed a 10.7% decline in the number of murders from Jan. 1 to Sept. 30, 2023, compared with the same time period in 2022, in 69 large U.S. cities.

    Similarly, violent crime has also gone down, according to the most recent data released by the FBI, and the Council on Criminal Justice report found that there were “3% fewer reported aggravated assaults in 2023 than in 2022 and 7% fewer gun assaults in 11 reporting cities. Reported carjacking incidents fell by 5% in 10 reporting cities but robberies and domestic violence incidents each rose 2%.”

    But in both cases, the homicide and violent crime rates are higher than they were in 2019 — the year before the COVID-19 pandemic broke out.

    While it’s unclear exactly why, there was a sharp increase in homicide and violent crime during the pandemic that may have been broadly due to the wide availability of guns and the insecurity brought on by the pandemic, according to an analysis from the Brennan Center for Justice.

    While Biden was correct in pointing out a recent decrease in murder and violent crime, he didn’t account for the preceding increase during the pandemic.

    Trump’s ‘Get Over It’ Comment

    While speaking about the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, and other gun violence, Biden said, “Meanwhile, my predecessor told the NRA he’s proud he did nothing on guns when he was president. After another school shooting in Iowa recently, he said — when asked what to do about it — he said, ‘Just get over it.’”

    But Biden omitted much of what Trump said after the Jan. 4 shooting at Perry High School in Iowa, where a 17-year-old student killed a sixth-grader and injured four other students and the principal.

    The following day, at a campaign rally in Sioux Center, Iowa, Trump offered his “support and deepest sympathies” to the victims of the school shooting. “We’re really with you as much as anybody can be. It’s a very terrible thing that happened. It’s just terrible to see that happening,” Trump said. “That’s just horrible. It’s so surprising to see it here.”

    He added, “But we have to get over it. We have to move forward. But to the relatives, and to all of the people who are devastated right now, to the point they can’t breathe, they can’t live, we are with you all the way.”

    Taxes Paid by Billionaires

    As he has said many times before, Biden claimed that billionaires pay an average federal tax rate of 8.2%, less than the rate paid by “a teacher, a sanitation worker, or a nurse.” But that’s not the average rate in the current tax system; it’s a White House calculation that factors in earnings on unsold stock as income.

    When looking only at income, the top-earning taxpayers, on average, pay higher tax rates than those in the income groups below them, as we’ve explained. Biden’s point — which he doesn’t make clear — is that the current tax system does not tax earnings on assets, such as stock, until that asset is sold, at which point they are subject to capital gains taxes. Until stocks and assets are sold, any earnings are referred to as “unrealized” gains.

    The president has used the 8% figure to argue that wealthy households, those worth over $100 million, should pay a 25% minimum tax, as calculated on both standard income and unrealized investment income combined.

    The problem with the current system, the White House has said, is that unrealized gains could go untaxed forever if wealthy people hold on to them and pass them on to heirs when they die. 

    Under what’s called stepped-up basis, the value of an asset is adjusted to the fair market value at the time of the inheritance. This wipes out any taxes on the unrealized gains that accumulated from the time the investor bought the asset and the time it was inherited.

    When we wrote about this last year, Erica York, a senior economist and research manager at the Tax Foundation, explained that wealthy households can also borrow money against the assets they own “to consume their wealth without paying tax.” After the family member passes away, the assets can go to heirs, who won’t have to pay taxes on the unrealized gains. York referred to the strategy as “buy, borrow, die.”

    Biden’s brief talking point leaves the misleading impression that billionaires are only paying 8% on average in federal taxes under the current tax system.

    Preexisting Conditions

    Biden said that because of the Affordable Care Act, “over 100 million of you can no longer be denied health insurance because of preexisting conditions,” claiming that Trump wants to repeal the ACA and take away this protection.

    The 100 million figure is an estimate of how many Americans not on Medicare or Medicaid have preexisting conditions. But if the ACA were eliminated, only those buying their own plans on the individual, or nongroup, market would immediately be at risk of being denied insurance.

    The ACA instituted sweeping protections for those with preexisting conditions, prohibiting insurers in all markets from denying coverage or charging more based on health status. Those protections were most important for the individual market. Even before the ACA, employer plans couldn’t deny issuing a policy — and could only decline coverage for some preexisting conditions for a limited period if a new employee had a lapse in coverage.

    We last wrote about this issue in December, when Biden said “over 100 million people” had protections for their preexisting conditions “only” because of the ACA, a figure he also used during the 2020 campaign.

    Again, those with employer plans did have protections before the ACA. The law’s broad protections would benefit people who lost their jobs or retired early and found themselves seeking insurance on the individual market. As of 2022, 20 million people, or about 6.3% of the U.S. population, got coverage on the individual market.

    As for Trump, he has said he wants to get rid of the law, posting on social media in November that Republicans “should never give up” on terminating the ACA. Trump said he was “seriously looking at alternatives,” but he hasn’t provided a plan. And he never released one while he was president, either.

    Given what Trump has backed in the past, he may well support a plan that wouldn’t be as comprehensive as the ACA and would lead to an increase in the uninsured and fewer protections for those with health conditions. But Biden makes the assumption Trump wouldn’t replace the ACA with anything at all.

    Carbon Emissions

    In one of his few, short references to climate change in the speech, Biden said, “I’m cutting our carbon emissions in half by 2030.”

    Biden is likely referring to the emissions target for heat-trapping greenhouse gases his administration set for the U.S. in April 2021 as part of rejoining the Paris Agreement, the international accord that ideally aims to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels — and from which Trump had officially withdrawn the country in 2019. The goal under Biden is to reduce American emissions by 50% to 52% from 2005 levels by 2030.

    The Biden administration has made substantial progress in meeting the goal, most notably with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act, Biden’s signature climate legislation that includes investments in clean energy. But as we’ve written, when the president has previously claimed the U.S. is “on track” to achieve its Paris goal, estimates suggest existing policies will not quite get the country all the way there.

    “Based on Congressional action and currently finalized regulations, we are not on track to meet 50-52% below 2005 by 2030,” Jesse Jenkins, who leads the Princeton Zero carbon Energy systems Research and Optimization Laboratory, told us in an email last April. Jenkins said then it was possible “the gap could be closed” once certain rules are finalized and others are proposed. The Biden administration, however, has recently announced or is reportedly planning changes that some say would weaken rules related to vehicle and gas power plant emissions.

    In a January update, the research firm Rhodium Group estimated that under current policy, the U.S. will cut emissions 29% to 42% below 2005 levels in 2030.

    A recent analysis by Carbon Brief, a U.K.-based climate-focused website, similarly projected that if Biden were reelected, the U.S. would get to a 43% reduction. That’s much higher than a second term for Trump — who, assuming he would undo Biden’s policies, would cut emissions by just 28% — but also still not to the full halfway mark.

    Editor’s note: FactCheck.org does not accept advertising. We rely on grants and individual donations from people like you. Please consider a donation. Credit card donations may be made through our “Donate” page. If you prefer to give by check, send to: FactCheck.org, Annenberg Public Policy Center, 202 S. 36th St., Philadelphia, PA 19104. 

    Sources

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    Davenport, Coral. “Biden Administration Is Said to Slow Early Stage of Shift to Electric Cars.” New York Times. 17 Feb 2024.

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    Biden, Joe (@POTUS). “A billionaire minimum tax of just 25% would raise $440 billion over the next 10 years. Imagine what we could do if we just made billionaires pay their taxes like everyone else.” X. 30 Nov 2023.

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    Lopez, Ernesto and Bobby Boxerman. “Crime Trends in U.S. Cities: Year-End 2023 Update.” Council on Criminal Justice. Jan 2024.

    Kiely, Eugene et al. “Biden’s Numbers, January 2024 Update.” FactCheck.org. 25 Jan 2024.

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    Source

  • What to know about Steph Curry’s ankle injury

    SAN FRANCISCO — A blue bucket of ice and a hardly touched pink smoothie sat in front of Steph Curry’s locker. Team employees transferred his belongings to a back room, out of sight from reporters. The mood amongst the team was a mix of cautious optimism, nervous energy and veteran perspective.

    Curry, the two-time MVP and face of the Warriors franchise, rolled his right ankle late in Thursday night’s 125-122 loss to the Chicago Bulls. He heavily limped off the court and headed straight to the locker room with 3:51 left. Not much was known right after the game, and the uncertainty will cloud over the team until he gets a firm diagnosis and timetable. As the Warriors (33-29) fight to escape the play-in round, the rest of the season will turn on the axis of the ligaments in Curry’s ankle.

    “His spirits are high, we’ll see,” Draymond Green said postgame. “I think he may get an MRI.”

    Curry rolled his right ankle on a drive in the game’s waning minutes, shortly after taking a key charge. He wasn’t available to the media postgame. Steve Kerr said he hadn’t yet talked to the training staff and only knew that Curry had his foot in a bucket of ice.

    Still playing at an elite level in his 15th season, Curry remains as indispensable to the Warriors as ever. He has played in all but three games this season, earning his 10th All-Star selection while averaging 27.2 points per game. Two ankle surgeries and chronic injuries threatened Curry’s early career, but he’s otherwise been mostly healthy.

    He’s the fulcrum of the Warriors’ offense that leverages the gravity of his shooting and off-ball movement. Losing him at this point in the season, with 20 games remaining and every night representing a chance to move up or down the Western Conference Standings, could be brutal. And it seems like some are bracing for him to be sidelined.

    “I know we’re going to miss him if he does have time off,” Klay Thompson said of his longtime backcourt partner. “We’ve been in this position before where he has had time off and we just got to do it collectively. I know he’ll be ready to go when he does come back, whenever that is. We just want to wish him a speedy recovery and to take his time.”

    Before the Bulls game, Kerr noted that his team was finally healthy for the first time since the very start of the season. Thursday was the second game he had a full complement of players within the structure of their newfound identity: starting Draymond Green at center and Brandin Podziemski in Klay Thompson’s place.

    All that continuity and identity gets tossed aside if Curry isn’t a part of it. If Curry has to miss time, the Warriors will likely have to change the way they play. Chris Paul, one of the greatest point guards of all time, will determine more possessions. Perhaps Kerr will re-insert Thompson back into the starting lineup for more spacing.

    “No one is Steph Curry,” Green said. “That definitely will change things, but we know the sets that we like to get to with Chris in the game and what he is great at. We will do more of what he’s great at.”

    Paul is 38 years old and just recently came back from a fractured hand. While he’s been effective when healthy this year, throwing together a spread pick-and-roll offense around him on the fly probably isn’t tenable. Running split actions without the threat of Curry’s perimeter shooting won’t be as effective. Trusting Podziemski and Jonathan Kuminga with more playmaking duties, in the home stretch of the season, could be risky.

    The options, of course, will be worse if Curry has to miss time. But they’ll have no choice but to find away.

    “If he is out, that’s unfortunate, but it’s part of it,” Thompson said. “With the length of the season, it’s hard to play every game, especially without having minor injuries. We’ll do well without him. We’ll rely on our history and how to execute.”

    Source

  • Judge Sentences Former Paramedic To Prison For The Death Of Elijah McClain

    Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from BlackMansStreet.Today

    (Trice Edney Wire) – A judge sentenced a former Colorado paramedic to five years in prison for contributing to the 2019 death of Elijah McClain.

    Peter Cichuniec, 51, a former lieutenant in Aurora Fire and Rescue was convicted Friday of criminally negligent homicide and second degree assault for the unlawful administer of drugs that eventually killed McClain.

    Jeremy Cooper, the paramedic working with Cichuniec, is scheduled to be sentenced in April.

    Supporters of Cichuniec packed the courtroom to tell Judge Judge Marck Douglas Warner that Cichuniec was a caring person.

    Speaking to supporters, Cichuniec said that he wished McClain was alive and that he wished that he had done things differently. He was dressed in a striped prison uniform.

    Shenee McClain, Elijah McClain’s mother, said the paramedics murdered her son. She raised one of her hands in a closed fist in the air as she left the court.

    McClain’s mother told the court that everyone who was involved in the death of her son on that night back in August of 2019 didn’t show any remorse.

    “Our communities cannot know peace until we see the justice departments hold their enforcers accountable,” she said. “My son will never be a dad, an uncle, or a grandfather. Randy Roedema stole my son’s life. All the belated apologies in the world cannot remove my son’s blood from Randy’s hands.”

    A judge sentenced Roedema to 14 months in the Adams County Jail and four years probation.

    Elijah McClain, a 23-year-old massage therapist, was walking from a convenience store after buying a soft drink and something to eat, when someone called police and telling cops he looked “sketchy” because he wore a mask to cover his face.

    He wore a ski mask, which his mother said he wore because he was anemic and often cold. He was not suspected of committing a crime. “He wasn’t fighting,” his mother insists. “He was handcuffed and on the ground for fifteen minutes. He was begging for his life. The only moving he’s doing is vomiting, trying to breathe,” she said.

    Paramedics injected McClain with 500 milligrams of ketamine. It was too much for McClain, who was 5′ 7″ tall and weighed 140 pounds. He died later in a local hospital.

    Interim Chief of Police Vanessa Wilson fired Randy Roedema, a lieutenant of the Aurora police department and three others officers for mocking McClain’s speaking pattern. A judge sentenced Roedema to 14 months in the county jail.

    The City of Aurora paid McClain’s family $15 million dollars for the murder of their son.

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  • 5 memorable moments from Biden’s State of the Union

    President Biden delivered a fiery State of the Union address to a bitterly divided Congress — and nation — Thursday night, one that many viewed as unusually political as the president prepares to take on former President Trump in the general election.

    The hour-plus speech touched on a host of issues dominating the 2024 cycle — such as immigration and abortion — and featured some heckling from conservatives and progressives alike, including a spontaneous exchange between the president and one of his foremost GOP critics. 

    Facial expressions from Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.) also drew headlines, as the Louisiana Republican became the third Speaker to sit behind Biden as he delivered a State of the Union address.

    Here are five memorable moments from the president’s address.

    Biden, Greene get into unusual back-and-forth

    Among the most buzzworthy moments of the address was an unusual back-and-forth between the president and Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) — one of his fiercest critics on Capitol Hill — about Laken Riley, the Georgia student who, according to police, was killed by a man who had crossed the border illegally.

    Greene handed Biden a pin when he entered the chamber for his speech that read “say her name Laken Riley.” Greene had distributed the pins to lawmakers ahead of Thursday night’s address.

    Then, while Biden was discussing the situation at the southern border during his speech, Greene yelled out “it’s about Laken Riley” and other Republicans shouted “say her name.”

    Biden held up the pin Greene gave him and responded to the congresswoman from the dais.

    “Laken Riley, an innocent young woman who was killed by an illegal,” he said. “To her parents I say my heart goes out to you having lost children myself. I understand.”

    The exchange drew some criticism from Democrats. Rep. Pramila Jayapal (D-Wash.), the chair of the Congressional Progressive Caucus, told reports after the speech “I wish he hadn’t engaged with Marjorie Taylor Greene and used the word illegal.”

    Speaker Mike Johnson (R-La.), meanwhile, when asked about the exchange, said Republicans became “very emotional” during the address because it was an “overly partisan speech.” Johnson on Wednesday had urged his members to maintain decorum during Biden’s remarks.

    “People got very emotional tonight because it was an overly partisan speech and it was filled, full of information that is just objectively not true. And so you saw the visceral reaction, I think, from people in the chamber and I suspect that a lot of people at home were feeling that same frustration,” he said.

    Progressives hold up signs saying ‘stop sending bombs’

    Several progressive lawmakers criticized the Biden administration’s approach to Israel, holding up signs reading “stop sending bombs” as Biden discussed the conflict with Hamas.

    Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.), the only Palestinian member of Congress, as well as Reps. Cori Bush (D-Mo.) and Ilhan Omar (D-Minn.) were seen holding the paddle signs.

    The quiet protest nods to the division Biden is facing within his own party, with many frustrated by his military support for Israel amid mounting deaths of Palestinian civilians.

    Biden spoke at length about the conflict during his address, saying both that “Israel has a right to go after Hamas” and noting that many of the 30,000 Palestinian casualties have no ties to the terror group.

    The Biden administration on Thursday said it would launch a temporary pier intended to help direct aid to Gaza.

    Biden also offered some of his most pointed comments about Israel’s need to protect civilians.

    “To the leadership of Israel I say this: Humanitarian assistance cannot be a secondary consideration or a bargaining chip. Protecting and saving innocent lives has to be a priority,” he said. 

    Trump infiltrates House chamber

    Former President Trump may not have been in the Capitol for Thursday night’s speech, but his presence was felt throughout the House chamber.

    Greene, a close ally of the ex-president, wore a bright red MAGA hat during Biden’s remarks. Rep. Troy Nehls (R-Texas), meanwhile, donned a shirt that featured Trump’s mugshot with the words “never surrender!” in addition to a patriotic bowtie. The Texas Republican stood in the back of the chamber with his blazer wide open, displaying the Trump shirt.

    But it was not just the attire that screamed Trump. Biden’s speech — which Republicans criticized as being unusually political for a State of the Union address — did not mention Trump but referred to “my predecessor” thirteen times, according to prepared remarks provided by the White House.

    Biden slammed Trump for his comments about the Jan. 6, 2021, attack on the Capitol, blamed the former president for tanking the bipartisan immigration bill crafted by a group of senators, and condemned his efforts to overturn Roe v. Wade by stacking the Supreme Court with conservative justices.

    The lines drew applause from Democrats but got an expectedly icy reception from Republicans.

    “The speech was angry, it was divisive. It was out of touch with reality,” Rep. August Pfluger (R-Texas) said, criticizing portions that called on Republicans to support a bipartisan immigration package drafted in the Senate.

    “I think that he was insinuating that we are the ones that are causing [the border] to not be secure. And so it’s just, where’s the inspiration for our country? Where’s the leader that is not so angry, yelling at us. I honestly felt like it was just an angry speech,” he added.

    Johnson shakes head throughout remarks

    Speaker Mike Johnson’s (R-La.) facial reactions to Biden’s speech drew attention of their own, with the nods and even occasional eye rolls a running feature behind the president.

    Ahead of the address, Johnson’s first as Speaker, he encouraged his party to carry themselves with decorum during the speech.

    But the mild-mannered Speaker’s disagreement with the speech came through all the same, including shaking his head no and offering a slight eye roll when Biden criticized Trump for “fail[ing] the most basic duty” to care for the American people during the COVID-19 pandemic.

    “People are saying that I made funny facial expressions. I tried to keep a poker face, but it was very difficult. I disagreed so vehemently with so much of what he said, and I think the people back home did as well,” Johnson told reporters after the speech.

    “There’s a lot of memes, I guess, going around tonight about my facial expressions. I did not like the speech, I don’t think the American people liked it, and there wasn’t much I could do about that. I guess I didn’t hide that very well,” he told Fox News’ Sean Hannity.

    Johnson rolled his eyes and shook his head when Biden discussed his administration’s policy on the federal deficit. 

    Johnson also shook his head a couple of times when Biden criticized the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act that Trump signed into law in 2017. It continued when Biden slammed Trump for the increase in the national debt during his presidency. 

    And Johnson sneered and shook his head “no” when Biden accused Republicans of wanting to put Social Security “on the chopping block” and granting tax cuts for wealthy individuals. 

    Lankford nods yes as Biden praises stalled immigration package

    Sen. James Lankford (R-Okla.) gave a solemn nod and mouthed “it’s true” when Biden ran down a list of immigration priorities that would have been addressed by a bipartisan package negotiated by the Oklahoma Republican.

    As soon as Biden mentioned the stalled reform bill, cameras immediately panned to Lankford, who was swiftly abandoned by his party after the monthslong effort caved with the loss of support from key Senate Republicans.

    A stone-faced Langford initially starred straight ahead as Biden both praised the bill as “the toughest set of border security reforms we’ve ever seen” and took Republicans to task for failing to support it.

    “Oh, you don’t like that bill, huh?” Biden said amid Republican boos. “That conservatives got together and said was a good bill? I’ll be darned. That’s amazing.”

    But as Biden ran down the list of priorities in the bill – 1,500 border agents, as well as funding the hiring of 100 more immigration judges and 4,300 more asylum officers – Lankford began to nod in agreement.

    Copyright 2024 Nexstar Media Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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  • Watch: Trump’s CIA Intel Briefings Could Be Limited Due to Classified Doc Claims, Brennan Suggests


    Deep State operative signals CIA to keep ‘methods,’ ‘sources’ from Trump citing concerns he could ‘misuse’ them.

    Ex-CIA Director John Brennan admitted Republican frontrunner Donald Trump would begin receiving classified intel briefings, but suggested his former colleagues could limit details due to Trump’s alleged mishandling of classified documents.

    Obama’s former CIA director made the comments on MSNBC Thursday, telling Nicole Wallace the plan to brief Trump with classified intel was “somewhat surreal” because of the numerous indictments against the former president.

    “Nicole, it’s somewhat surreal,” Brennan said.

    “The individual who is under indictment for mishandling classified information is going to be getting classified intelligence briefings, but this traditionally is provided to the candidates for president by the sitting president. And so therefore I think it makes sense for the Biden Administration to offer that to Donald Trump,” he added.

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    Brennan went on to suggest his former colleagues at the CIA might withhold knowledge of sources or methods citing concerns Trump could “misuse” the intel, as he’s been accused of doing in special counsel Jack Smith’s classified documents case.

    “Now, I’m pretty certain that my former intelligence colleagues will provide briefings that are not going to do any type of damage to source and methods in terms of providing information to Donald Trump that he could misuse,” Brennan claimed.

    “But they will provide analytic overviews and briefings about some of the world’s hot spots and letting Donald Trump know what the assessments are at this point.

    “So I think it’s going to be analysis that will be devoid of the source of methods. The sensitive things that we are most concerned about the types of things that were in all those documents that he had in the bathroom and other areas in Mar-A-Lago…”

    If intel is indeed kept from Trump as suggested, it would be emblematic of corrupt CIA Deep State gatekeepers’ resentment of the former president, especially considering Trump’s case is still pending litigation.

    The former intel head’s claims come as Trump is seeking for Judge Aileen Cannon to toss his Mar-a-Lago documents case citing presidential immunity, selective and vindictive prosecution, vagueness of prosecution, and personal property claims.



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  • Construction Of 700km Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway Commence As FG Approves N1.07trn

    dave-umahi

    One week after the Federal Executive Council (FEC) approved a contract worth N1.067trn for the construction of the first phase Lagos-Calabar Coastal highway, the federal government said it had begun the 700km construction.

    Though the project was initially franchised on a public-private partnership, the paucity of funds on the contractor’s part made the Minister of Works David Umahi seek FEC approval to award the project

    Umahi said the 47.47km dual carriageway has five lanes on each side and a train track in the middle. He added that the contractors began the project after the official handover of the first phase of the project to Hitech Construction Company Ltd.

    The former Ebonyi State Governor explained that the highway forms part of the 700km road connecting nine states, with two spurs leading up north, noting that the facility would be constructed with concrete

    This means that the coastal highway would be constructed using concrete technology and would start from Lagos state through the Lekki Deep Seaport, Ogun, Ondo, Delta, Bayelsa, Rivers, Akwa Ibom and ends at Cross Rivers state.

    He said, “They have completed some filling of 1.3 kilometres from the day the project was awarded to them. It shows the speed they are going to deploy this project. Within a couple of weeks, we awarded the project to them, they mobilised a lot of dredging equipment, and you can see that they have recovered 1.3 kilometres of section one of the phase.

    “These repairs are expected to cover not only the top of the bridge but also the under-bridge works.

    “At the Third Mainland Bridge, we have three or four critical elements to be rehabilitated. The first one is the deck, and the deck is about 11 kilometres. That is a dual carriageway, including the ramps, and it has been done by CCECC. They have done very beautiful jobs, but we have not concluded.  Before the end of March, we’ll be concluding the asphalt milling and the asphalting.

    “But that is not all our commitment there. We are installing the guardrails, we are replacing the lights with solar lights, we are going to put some decorative lights too, and then we are going to put CCTV cameras both on top and under the bridge to check insecurity and illegal mining of sand, which is causing scouring on the piles and the pipe bits.”

    Construction Of 700km Lagos-Calabar Coastal Highway Commence As FG Approves N1.07trn is first published on The Whistler Newspaper

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  • Fact Check: Fact-checking Joe Biden on inflation, the deficit and consumer confidence in the State of the Union

    As president, Joe Biden saw the economy endure 40-year-high levels of inflation. But during his 2024 State of the Union address, he took a victory lap on the reduced inflation rate, job creation and other economic metrics.

    “I came to office determined to get us through one of the toughest periods in our nation’s history,” Biden said. “And we have. It doesn’t make the news, but in thousands of cities and towns the American people are writing the greatest comeback story never told.” 

    We have found many of the claims he repeated to be accurate or close.

    Biden said the U.S. has seen “15 million new jobs in just three years.” (Rounded, he’s correct; it’s about 14.8 million.) He said unemployment is “at 50-year lows.” (It was at 50-year lows in 2023 but has climbed marginally since then.) He said there are “800,000 new manufacturing jobs in America and counting.” (We rated a similar Biden statement Mostly True.)

    He said, “The racial wealth gap is the smallest it’s been in 20 years.” (This is accurate by one measure but not by another.) And he said, “Wages keep going up and inflation keeps coming down.” (Wages adjusted for inflation are on track to return to where they were when Biden was inaugurated within a few months; for the past year-plus, wages have outpaced inflation.)

    Three statements about inflation, consumer confidence and the deficit needed more context.

    Biden: “Inflation has dropped from 9% to 3% — the lowest in the world!”

    The U.S. has lower inflation than most advanced industrialized nations, but it does not rank No. 1 internationally.

    Biden is correct that year-over-year inflation has dropped from 9% in summer 2022 to a little above 3% today amid sharp interest rate hikes by the Federal Reserve.

    In December 2023, seven countries in the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development  — Canada, Denmark, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands and South Korea — had inflation rates lower than that of the U.S. 

    Twenty OECD member countries had higher inflation rates than the U.S., including France, Germany and the United Kingdom, each of which belongs to the G-7 of elite economies.

    Biden: “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 summer 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.

    And for more than two years through December 2023, the survey’s consumer sentiment score was lower than it was in April 2020 — a startling finding, given that in April 2020 the unemployment rate was 13.2% and Americans were facing the uncertainty of a once-a-century pandemic.

    Biden scores higher on the Conference Board survey, which has more questions based on the labor market than on inflation. 

    The labor market has been an economic strength on Biden watch. And the Conference Board survey shows consumer sentiment is now higher than it was under three of the previous four presidents at this point in their tenures.

    Other surveys show a continuing sour public sentiment about the economy. For instance, a February Marquette Law School poll found that 35% of national respondents said the economy was “excellent” or “good,” compared with 65% who said it was “not so good” or “poor.”

    Biden: “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.

    In addition, the cumulative debt has continued to climb even though the deficit has narrowed.



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  • San Jose Sharks, after trading Anthony Duclair, lose to Islanders

    SAN JOSE – Thomas Bordeleau scored in his return to the NHL but the San Jose Sharks could not slow down the New York Islanders, who scored four second-period goals on their way to a 7-2 win at SAP Center on Thursday.

    The Sharks trailed 3-2 after forward Mike Hoffman scored his 10th goal of the season at the 11:49 mark of the second period. But the Islanders took over from there, as Kyle MacLean, Mathew Barzal and Sebastian Aho all scored in a span of 4:21 to help hand the Sharks their ninth straight loss.

    Sharks starting goalie Magnus Chrona, coming off a 36-save performance against the Dallas Stars last weekend, allowed six goals on the first 23 shots he faced. But the Sharks skaters did not do much to help him, as turnovers and perhaps some shoddy backchecking and play in front of their net contributed to the lopsided loss.

    Bordeleau’s goal was his second of the season for the Sharks. On a San Jose power play, a pass from William Eklund to the front of the Islanders’ net went off Bordeleau’s skate and past goalie Ilya Sorokin at the 2:45 mark of the second period.

    Bordeleau was recalled from the Barracuda on Wednesday to provide some needed reinforcements.

    Roughly 90 minutes before the start of Thursday’s game, the Sharks announced they had traded forward Anthony Duclair and a 2025 seventh-round draft pick to the Tampa Bay Lightning for AHL defenseman Jack Thompson and a 2024 third-round pick.

    Alexander Barabanov, who, like Duclair, is a pending unrestricted free agent, was scratched from the Sharks’ lineup Thursday as a precaution against injury. Barabanov is among a handful of Sharks players who could be on the move before the NHL trade deadline on Friday at noon (PST).

    The Sharks allowed goals to Noah Dobson and Alexander Romanov in the opening 18:31 of the first. Dobson’s goal came on the first shot of the game, as he fed the puck toward the net before it went off Sharks defenseman Kyle Burroughs and past Chrona.

    The announced crowd for Thursday’s game was 10,077 – the second-smallest of the season at SAP Center after 10,070 tickets were distributed for Tuesday’s home game against the Dallas Stars.

    The Sharks finish their three-game homestand Saturday against the Ottawa Senators.

    THOMPSON UPDATE: Thompson, 21, has played most of this season with the Syracuse Crunch of the AHL. He will report to the Barracuda, who play in Cedar Park against the Texas Stars on Friday and Saturday.

    This season, Thompson had 32 points in 46 games for Syracuse and made his NHL debut with Tampa Bay on Jan. 6. He was a late addition to the AHL All-Star Classic last month at Tech CU Arena.

    Over two AHL seasons, Thompson, listed at 6-foot-1 and 187 pounds, has 56 points, including 43 assists, in 118 games.

    One Eastern Conference scout told this news organization that Thompson is considered “a good prospect.”

    He’s a “smart, puck-moving d-man. Can quarterback a power play, skates well. Lacks a little size, but makes up for it with skill. Has been very good at the AHL level.”

    The Athletic recently rated Thompson as the Lightning’s third best prospect, and Tampa Bay’s prospect pool as the 29th-best in the NHL. The Sharks’ prospect pool was ranked fourth-best in the NHL.

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  • Vandals Desecrate Monuments Honoring Blacks

    A vandal was arrested for desecrating Mother Bethel AME Church in Philadelphia.

    Special to the Trice Edney News Wire from BlackMansStreet.Today

    (Trice Edney Wire) – The recent vandalism of a statue of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. and other Black luminaries involved in the civil rights movement, is part of of nationwide pattern of destroying monuments that honor Black leaders.

    A Martin Luther King Jr. statue in Denver, Colorado’s City Park was found damaged Wednesday morning after a gaping hole was cut out of the bronze plaque affixed to the statue.

    The memorial is one of several Black monuments recently reported stolen or vandalized in the United States.

    One of the largest targets is the Lincoln Memorial Park Cemetery in Carson-Compton, California.

    More than 100 bronze nameplates and a 1944 bronze plaque honoring African American veterans were stolen from the cemeteries. Police have not arrested anyone.

    In February, Ricky Alderete,45, was arrested by Wichita Police for allegedly stealing Jackie Robinson’s statue and planning to sell it as scrap metal.

    Police took Alderete into custody, and he is being held on a $150,000 bond.

    Robinson’s statue was stolen from McAdams Park in Wichita, Kansas. On January 25, police received reports that the statue was cut off at the ankles. Days later, the statue was found burning in a trash can.

    Alderete was charged with four counts, including felony theft and aggravated criminal damage to property, according to police.

    Also in February, Laneisha Shantrice Henderson was arrested for attempting to burn down Martin Luther King Jr.’s childhood home in Atlanta.

    Henderson poured gasoline over the home’s front porch and accent bushes before being stopped and detained by two off-duty New York police officers who were visiting the home as tourists. 

    “That action saved an important part of American history tonight,” Atlanta Police Chief Darin Schierbaum said. Henderson was arrested by police officers and charged with attempted arson.

    Black churches are not immune to vandalism.

    Mother Bethel Affrican Methosit Church, a Black Philadelphia church, designated a National Historic Landmark in 1974, recently had several windows broken, including three of the church’s historic stained-glass windows.

    Philadephia police arrested Haneef Cooper, 39. He was charged with criminal mischief for vandalizing Mother Bethel in the Society Hill neighborhood.

    Pastor Rev. Mark Kelly Tyler estimated the damage at $30,000 because of the specialized craftsmanship needed to repair the historic stained glass.
    Ed Dwight created the memorial in Colorado in 2002, honoring Dr. King and smaller statues of Mahatma Gandhi, Rosa Parks, Sojourner Truth, and Frederick Douglass.

    The statue stands where the annual parade begins every year on Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

    The Denver police department’s bias-motivated crime unit is investigating.

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  • Watch: Border Invader Sporting ‘Biden-Harris’ Shirt Claims Campaign Gear Should Expedite Illegal Entry


    ‘I have it on so they can let me in!’ says Honduran illegal wearing Biden shirt.

    An illegal alien filmed attempting to enter the US told reporters he should be let in the country for wearing a campaign shirt supporting Democrat President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris.

    After the illegal immigrant from Honduras was informed he was wearing the shirt of the US president and vice president, he went on to joke the campaign gear should facilitate access to the country.

    The invader’s choice of attire and jest illustrate how some illegals are acutely aware the corrupt Biden presidential administration supports open borders.

    Check out illegals’ responses when asked which president is better for illegal immigrants:

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    The footage comes as Col. Douglas Mcgregor warned Tucker Carlson the Democrat Party wants to “allow an invasion of the country, not use the military to stop it, and then populate the military with the people who are invading the country and hope for the best.”



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