Biden Defends Economic Record, Criticizes Trump and Addresses Controversies in Recent Interview with CNN

During a recent interview with CNN, President Joe Biden defended his stance on the economy and accused his predecessor Donald Trump of failing to create jobs. Biden said, “We’ve already turned it around … the polling data has been wrong all along.” In response to a question on why people should believe him instead of Trump, Biden claimed, “He’s never succeeded in creating jobs and I’ve never failed. I’ve created over 15 million jobs.” However, CNN’s polling director Jennifer Agiesta noted that while Americans generally reported being personally in good shape financially, there was widespread dissatisfaction with economic conditions in the country. A majority of Americans (70%) said economic conditions in the US were poor, and dissatisfaction was particularly high among those with lower incomes, people of color, and younger Americans. Biden visited Wisconsin to promote new economic investments that could lead to thousands of new jobs, including a new $3.3bn investment by Microsoft in artificial intelligence. Biden also criticized Trump’s failure to deliver on a similar pledge to Foxconn, a Taiwanese company, to build tech manufacturing jobs in the Midwest. Biden argued that Trump’s plan had failed, and the Foxconn site in Racine, Wisconsin, had largely been abandoned. Regarding the threat that Trump might refuse to accept the election results if he loses, Biden said, “I promise you he won’t,” adding, “The guy is not a democrat with a small d.” Biden stated that Trump did not believe in democracy and had promised to use his attorney general to target certain people and to be his supporters’ “retribution” if reelected. Biden also commented on being called “genocide Joe” at pro-Palestinian protests on US college campuses and suggested that protesters had gone too far. He admitted that there was a legitimate right to free speech and protest, but he condemned the use of hate speech and threats against Jewish students. Biden also criticized mistakes made by the US after 9/11, such as invading Afghanistan and Iraq, and compared them unfavorably to Israel’s actions in Gaza. Biden stated that civilians had been killed in Gaza as a result of US bombs and that the US had delayed one shipment of powerful 2,000-pound bombs. Biden promised that the US would not support Israeli military operations inside Rafah, but he stressed that the US would still provide Israel with support to defend itself from outside attacks, such as the Iron Dome system.