Former House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is facing backlash after The Washington Post fact-checked her recent statement claiming that fewer migrants entered the United States under President Joe Biden compared to during President-elect Donald Trump’s first term.
In an interview with The New York Times, Pelosi asserted, “I don’t think we were clear enough by saying fewer people came in under President Joe Biden than came under Donald Trump.” She suggested that the messaging issues were to blame for the public’s perception of Biden’s immigration policies.
However, The Washington Post disagreed, awarding Pelosi’s statement its highest rating for misleading information: “Four Pinocchios.” According to their analysis, “at least four times as many migrants entered the United States under Biden than under Trump.”
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Pelosi’s office later clarified that she was referring to deportation figures rather than overall border crossings. An aide cited a Reuters report suggesting that Biden was on track to surpass the annual deportation numbers seen under Trump. However, The Washington Post’s fact-check noted that the data does not support Pelosi’s comparison, and Biden’s total deportations are still expected to fall short of Trump’s overall numbers.
“Pelosi might have argued that Trump’s broad-brush roundup of undocumented immigrants led him to release more criminals in the United States than Biden. Given Trump’s constant mantra that Biden was letting criminals into the country, perhaps that would have been an effective counterargument,” said the WaPo Fact Check. “But that’s not what Pelosi said. And what she said, even as revised, is wrong. She earns Four Pinocchios.”
During the same New York Times interview, Pelosi also made comments about the recent election results, suggesting that Vice President Kamala Harris might have had a stronger campaign if Biden had exited the race earlier. Pelosi remarked, “Had the president gotten out sooner, there may have been other candidates in the race. Kamala, I think, still would have won, but she may have been stronger, having taken her case to the public sooner.”
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The statement drew criticism from MSNBC host Symone Sanders Townsend, who questioned Pelosi’s strategic decisions during the election cycle. “Nancy Pelosi is praised for her strategic thinking, but where was her calculator now?” Townsend asked on her program, adding, “She played a role in the very public unraveling of Biden’s campaign.”
The fact-check and Townsend’s remarks underscore the growing rift within the Democratic Party as they grapple with the election’s outcome and prepare for the transition to the incoming Trump administration. Pelosi’s comments have added fuel to the internal debate over messaging and strategy, revealing tensions as party leaders reassess their approach heading into the next political chapter.
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