Did President Joe Biden say during a January 26, 2023, event that "No president added more to the debt in four years than my president"? Yes, that's true: But a social media video of his comment is missing context. Just before this remark, Biden said that he was talking about "my predecessor" -- a reference to President Donald J. Trump. The official White House transcript of Biden's talk shows the word "president" crossed out and "predecessor" added in brackets. Biden claimed that Trump raised the national deficit every year for four years; a spending rate that the Democratic president said accounts for "25 percent of the country's entire debt."
The claim appeared on Facebook on January 26, 2023, with the caption "BIDEN: 'No President added more to the debt in 4 years than my President.'" It opened with Biden on stage, speaking into a microphone:
No president added more to the debt in four years than my president. I misspoke -- 25 percent of our country's entire debt.
This is what the post looked like on Facebook at the time of this fact check's publication:
The audio in this video is accurate and has not been manipulated. However, it lacks context. Seconds before Biden said what's in the Facebook video, he discussed how, during President Trump's 2016-2020 term, the national deficit increased four years in a row. Right after the statement in the video, he said:
I misspoke: 25 percent of our country's entire debt.
Twenty-five percent, accumulated over 200 years, added to the -- by the last administration in just four years.
PBS NewsHour posted a video of the entire speech here. The official White House transcript of Biden's comments can be found here.
Additional Lead Stories fact checks of claims about Biden are here, here and here.
