Fact Check: Joe Biden Said Donald Trump Gave No Money to Small Businesses to Help with Pandemic

CLAIM: Democrat presidential candidate Joe Biden said during the last debate Thursday night that President Donald Trump has done nothing to help small businesses during the coronavirus pandemic.

“They passed a package called PPP,” Biden said. “They need the help. These guys will not help them. They will not give them any of the money.”

VERDICT: FALSE. The “centerpiece” of Trump’s coronavirus relief effort was the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP), which provided forgivable loans to millions of small businesses across the United States.

The PPP program has provided small businesses with over $511 billion of loans, with an average loan size of $110,000.

Biden made this same false claim in the first debate. Breitbart’s Susan Berry reported:

Alfredo Ortiz, president and CEO of the Job Creators Network (JCN), said in a statement following the debate that Joe Biden made “one of the biggest gaffes in debate history” by claiming Trump has done nothing to help small businesses during the pandemic.

He explained:

Maybe he forgot the Paycheck Protection Program — the centerpiece of President Trump’s COVID relief efforts that delivered over $500 billion to small businesses and saved 51 million jobs. On top of that, President Trump’s record tax cuts and regulatory relief created the best economy in history before the pandemic struck.

Ortiz said Trump is now working to reopen the country, which Biden criticized during the debate, claiming the president is unconcerned about Americans’ safety.

“Biden is on record saying he will shut the economy down again if another wave occurs,” Ortiz said. “That would devastate our economy.”

He added that Biden’s economic plan, as observed during the debate by moderator Chris Wallace, would raise taxes by $4 trillion.

Ortiz said, in addition to this immense tax hike, Biden would oversee the launch of the Green New Deal and would “socialize major parts of our economy, and enact a gradual government takeover of our healthcare system.”

“President Trump, by contrast, has unveiled a healthcare reform vision that reflects the principles of Job Creators Network Foundation’s ‘Healthcare for You’ framework — lower costs, more choices, and better care,” he asserted.

“We don’t need Obamacare 2.0,” Ortiz concluded. “We need to empower the free market in healthcare and all sectors of our economy. That is the key to our long-term prosperity.”