Biden Gets Fact-Checked By Politifact: Wrong About How Early He Called to Invoke the Defense Production Act

Former Vice President and Democratic Presidential nominee Joe Biden had a question-and-answer session with reporters following his Wednesday event in Wilmington, Delaware, not far from his home.

As he was about to pack up and go, Biden took one last question from a reporter that he said “I know you always ask a hostile question.” That reporter asked, “you said that you warned President Trump in January that there was going to be a pandemic and what needed to be done. If you knew that, then why were you still hosting crowded campaign rallies in March?”

Biden denied that he said what had to be done, but that President Trump needed to “take this seriously.” He said that the president shouldn’t have been praising the president of China.

He then repeated a talking point he’s used previously — that he was ahead of the curve in calling for the Defense Production Act to be used to boost manufacturing of high-demand health products, such as protective equipment.

Politifact wrote that since he has continued to say it, they put it on the “Truth-O-Meter.” Their conclusion was that he was wrong about how early he called to invoke the Defense Production Act.

Joe Biden has on several occasions said he was the first person to call for invoking the Defense Production Act in response to the coronavirus. We looked at the timeline. He wasn't. https://t.co/EoZxd0E3jI

— PolitiFact (@PolitiFact) September 4, 2020

From Politifact:

Biden was far from the first official to call for use of the Defense Production Act to boost manufacturing of urgently needed medical supplies. 

A full 18 days before Biden made his first public comment on the act, Trump’s Health and Human Services secretary had publicly floated the idea, and Trump made it official the same day Biden made his remarks. 

In between, dozens of Democratic lawmakers publicly called for the act to be used, and Biden did not mention it in a Democratic primary debate.