Claim: Joe Biden said the American economy was in terrible shape when he took office.
“We had an economy that was in free fall,” Biden said in answer to the first question of the debate Thursday night.
Verdict: False.
The American economy was rapidly recovering from the pandemic and lockdowns before Joe Biden took office. In the third quarter of 2020, the economy grew at an annual pace of 34.8 percent, according to the Department of Commerce. The following quarter, it grew at an annual rate of 4.2 percent. In the first quarter of 2021, the economy grew at an annual rate of 5.2 percent.
Unemployment, which had soared when businesses were ordered to close their doors during the pandemic, was also rapidly falling. After hitting a high of 14.8 percent in April of 2020, it had fallen to 6.4 percent when Biden was sworn in.
By contrast, when Joe Biden was vice president, unemployment was above 6.4 percent from January of 2009 through April of 2014. When President Barack Obama and Biden were re-elected in 2012, the unemployment rate was 7.7 percent.
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