Former Democratic Missouri Sen. Claire McCaskill raged Thursday at The New York Times on “Morning Joe” for fact-checking President Joe Biden.
McCaskill said the Times’ fact check against Biden’s economic claims is “ridiculous,” given that former President Donald Trump is running in the 2024 presidential election.
“And can I make a suggestion? I move that every newspaper in America quits doing fact checks on Joe Biden until they fact-check Donald Trump every morning on the front page,” McCaskill said. “It is ridiculous that The New York Times fact-checked Joe Biden on something. He vomits lies. Trump vomits lies everyday, over and over and over again and it’s just ridiculous that The New York Times is doing a fact check on Biden when Trump — they’re numb to the lies coming out of Trump’s mouth.”
MSNBC’s Joe Scarborough argued Trump repeatedly lies because he is a fascist and criticized him for declaring the U.S. is “in decline.”
The Times published a fact-check Wednesday on Biden’s “misleading statements” about the economy. The piece labeled his remark that billionaires’ tax rate is 8.2% as “misleading,” saying the president cited a White House study that included gains in unsold stocks that remain untaxed until the asset is sold.
While this report estimated the top 400 wealthiest families’ tax rate is 8.2%, the study did not account for corporate income taxes or other average federal income tax rates.
The White House defended the report’s 8.2% figure in a statement to the Times.
“Most Americans agree that when a billionaire’s wealth increases by millions of dollars in a year, that is income,” Michael Kikukawa, a White House spokesman, said in a statement. “And economists across the political spectrum, including the American Enterprise Institute and the nonpartisan congressional Joint Committee on Taxation, agree that a person’s income is equal to the change in their net worth. By quantifying the income the wealthiest Americans receive from unrealized capital gains, the C.E.A.-O.M.B. analysis applies this standard definition of effective tax rates, adding to our understanding of just how low billionaires’ tax rates are.”
The Times further said Biden’s claim that the CHIPS And Science Act “attracted $640 billion in private companies’ investments” is false. The accurate figure is estimated to be $220 billion.
Biden said in late January that he, not Trump, sent $1,400 stimulus checks to American families during COVID pandemic. The Times said the claim needed context, as the Trump administration also sent stimulus checks during the pandemic. It also said Biden’s claim that Trump lost jobs at the end of his administration needed context as Trump left office during the height of the pandemic.