Fact Check: Harris Falsely Claims The Economy Needed To Be Rescued When She Took Office

Claim: Kamala Harris said the American economy was in terrible shape when she took office.

“The economy had crashed, in large part because of the mismanagement by Donald Trump of that crisis. When we came in, our highest priority was to rescue America,” Harris said in an interview with CNN’s Dana Bash that aired on Thursday night.

Verdict: False.

The American economy was rapidly recovering from the pandemic and lockdowns before Kamala Harris and 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, the unemployment rate had fallen to 6.4 percent when Harris was sworn in as Vice President.

Far from “mismanagement” worsening the economic challenge caused by the pandemic, the Trump administration’s response avoided what would otherwise have been an economic calamity.

This is a falsehood that Joe Biden has told many times over the years, stretching back to the 2020 campaign. The Biden-Harris administration then used this mischaracterization of the economy in 2021 as the rationale for passing the massive $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan that was a major contributor to the worst surge of inflation in 40 years.