FactChecking Biden’s Inaugural Address

Returning to a time when inaugural addresses promised unity and hope, but few facts, the newly sworn-in President Joe Biden delivered a traditional speech at his inauguration that offered little for fact-checkers.

When he did offer us some facts to check, the 46th president of the United States largely hit his marks on domestic threats, COVID-19 and the Woman Suffrage Parade of 1913 in a 21-minute speech.

Domestic Threats

Biden, Jan. 20: And now, a rise in political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism that we must confront and we will defeat.

Biden is correct about the rise in “political extremism.” Even before the Jan. 6 attack on thereport, which was issued in October, about “an elevated threat environment” from political extremists.