Washington Examiner - Political News and Conservative Analysis About Congress, the President, and the Federal Government By Rob Crilly
The White House dismissively shrugged off questions about President Biden’s misleading arithmetic as unimportant on Friday as it was asked how he could have misstated the enormity of the COVID-19 death toll.
In an address to the nation a day earlier, Biden said the pandemic’s U.S. death toll of 527,726 was greater than the number of deaths from World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War, and 9/11.
The result was a slew of fact-checkers at news organizations across the political spectrum pointing out that the coronavirus toll was actually about 60,000 fewer than those four world events.
A previous misstep with a near identical claim last month was explained away by saying Biden had only been referring to battlefield deaths, rather than the generally accepted higher numbers that include accidents and disease, but this time press secretary Jen Psaki expressed irritation at being asked how the comparison could creep in for a second time.
“I’m glad you are focused on the important business,” she said during her daily briefing, “but I’m happy to check on it for you.”
Her flippant reply comes after Democrats, including Biden, spent former President Donald Trump’s term slamming him almost daily for his disinterest in correct facts and figures. But when asked about one of their own, Psaki went flippant.
Thursday night’s address, on the anniversary of the nation going into lockdown, was a chance for Biden to sell his $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan to the public and offer a powerful message of empathy with a grieving audience.
He pulled a card from his pocket, which carried the latest death toll.
“As of now, total deaths in America, 527,726,” he said. “That’s more deaths than in World War I, World War II, the Vietnam War, and 9/11 combined,”
But most conventional tolls suggest otherwise.
For example, tallies maintained by the Congressional Research Service say there were 116,516 American deaths in World War I, 405,399 in World War II, and 58,220 in the Vietnam conflict. That comes to almost 580,000 — even before adding in the thousands killed on 9/11.
CNN was among the fact-checkers to conclude the claim was misleading.
“If Biden had said that there have been more American COVID-19 deaths than American battlefield casualties from those wars, this would have been true,” it said. “But it’s incorrect that there have been more American COVID-19 deaths than all kinds of deaths from those wars, including non-battlefield deaths.”
Message discipline has been at the heart of Biden’s White House as it looks to turn the page on a previous administration that was frequently mocked or accused of endangering lives for exaggerating progress on tackling the pandemic.
Yet Biden used the same comparison last month at an event to mark the death toll passing half a million.
“Today, we mark a truly grim, heartbreaking milestone: 500,071 dead,” he said. “That’s more Americans who have died in one year in this pandemic than in World War I, World War II, and the Vietnam War combined.”
