President Biden was fact-checked by community notes after claiming that the United States always pays its debts.
In a Tuesday Twitter post, Biden touted his administration’s accomplishments before being corrected by the content label.
“America is not a deadbeat nation,” Biden wrote. “We have never, ever failed to pay our debt. But MAGA Republicans are engaged in reckless hostage-taking by threatening to force America into default. It’s dangerous and wrong.”
America is not a deadbeat nation.
We have never, ever failed to pay our debt. But MAGA Republicans are engaged in reckless hostage-taking by threatening to force America into default. It’s dangerous and wrong.
— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) May 3, 2023
“Readers added context they thought people might want to know,” the content label said.
The fact-check claimed the United States defaulted on its debts multiple times, providing links to four sources. (RELATED: Disinformation ‘Experts’ Are Keeping Quiet After Latest Twist In Hunter Biden Laptop Scandal)
Months after Congress created currency in 1862, the government defaulted, according to the first link provided for the San Francisco Examiner. This was the Greenback Default of 1862.
The second link provided by the fact-check chronologically recounts every debt default in American history, including the following events: The Continental Currency Default of 1779, The Default on Continental Domestic Loans, The Greenback Default of 1862, The Liberty Bond Default of 1934 and The Monetary Default of 1979.
The third link identified four times the United States defaulted on its debt, and the fourth link does the same.
The anonymous author of the community note goes by the alias “Goodhearted Cliff Penguin.” Community notes contributors use aliases to reduce bias and polarization, according to Twitter.
This is not the first time President Biden spread false information on Twitter, despite flirting with the idea of a Disinformation Governance Board last year.
In May 2022, Biden posted a misleading tweet stating that there was no vaccine available when he was inaugurated. Following backlash, a similar fact-check label was eventually affixed to the tweet, saying that the Pfizer vaccine was approved by the FDA in December 2020.
