Decide for yourself based on Joe Biden’s record and statements.

FOR Cutting Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and Veterans’ Benefits

Joe Biden has advocated for cutting social security for 40 years. [The Intercept]

1983 Joe Biden floats the idea of raising the retirement age.

1984 Joe Biden partners with Republicans to co-sponsor a freeze on social security.

1995 Joe Biden says he’s tried four times to freeze Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and veterans’ benefits.

1995 Joe Biden votes for Balanced Budget Amendments that cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and veterans’s benefits

1996 Joe Biden floats the idea of chained CPI cuts to Social Security.

1997 Joe Biden votes again for Balanced Budget Amendments that cut Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and veterans’ benefits.

2007 Joe Biden brags that he’s proud of his support for a Social Security age increase.

2007 Joe Biden tells NBC’s Meet the Press that cuts to Social Security and Medicare should “absolutely” be on the table.

2018 Joe Biden says Social Security and medicare “still need adjustments.”

FOR Nominating Right Wing Conservative Supreme Court Justices

Antonin Scalia

“Vice President Biden said the late Antonin Scalia will be remembered as ‘one of our most influential justices.'” In 1986 Joe Biden “voted as a senator to confirm Scalia to the Supreme Court.” [The Hill]

Clarence Thomas

“Biden’s handling of the explosive hearing before a panel of white men has long been a subject of criticism.”

“The then-Senate Judiciary Committee chairman allowed Thomas to testify before Hill — after initially saying Hill would get to testify first.”

“In Anita Hill’s biography, “Speaking Truth To Power,” she criticized Biden’s role in the hearings, suggesting he inappropriately weighted Thomas’s presumed innocence and forced her to go into details that “disgusted” her.”

“”The senators’ tendency toward ad hoc rulemaking weighed in heavily against fairness,” she wrote.” [The Hill]

AGAINST Abortion Rights

In 1973 Biden said that Roe v. Wade “was wrongly decided.” [Wiki]

“In 1981 he voted for a failed constitutional amendment allowing states to overturn Roe v. Wade.” [Wiki]

Until Biden ran for president he was against the Hyde Amendment. “From 1976 to June 5, 2019, Biden supported the Hyde Amendment,” which restricts federal funding for abortion.” [Wiki]

“In 1981, he voted to end federal funding for abortion for victims of rape and incest.” [Wiki]

“Biden previously supported the Mexico City policy.” [Wiki] “The Mexico City policy, sometimes referred to as the global gag rule, is a United States government policy that blocks U.S. federal funding for non-governmental organizations that provide abortion counseling or referrals, advocate to decriminalize abortion, or expand abortion services.” [Wiki]

In 2006 Joe Biden said, “I do not view abortion as a choice and a right.” [Source]

“As vice president, Biden actively worked to undermine reproductive rights by trying to cut mandated coverage for contraception from the Affordable Care Act.” [The Intercept]

AGAINST Medicare For All

In 2019 Joe Biden falsely said, “The fact is that right now the vast majority of Democrats do not support Medicare for All,” he said, adding, “It couldn’t pass the United States Senate right now with Democrats. It couldn’t pass the House.” [KHN]

“Biden claimed that universal Medicare would simply be unaffordable.” [The Week]

“Biden claimed that either 160 or 149 million people would lose their coverage under universal Medicare.” [The Week]

Biden claims Medicare-for-all will take too long. “We’re talking four, six, eight, ten years, depending on who you talk about, before we get to Medicare-for-all. Come on.” [The Week]

In March 2020 “Former Vice President Joe Biden suggested Monday that he would veto the universal health-care legislation known as “Medicare for All” championed by his primary rival Sen. Bernie Sanders if it were passed after Biden took office.” [CNBC]

FOR A Complete Ban on “Gay Americans” in The Military

In 1993 Biden voted in favor of “a federally mandated policy that deemed homosexuality incompatible with military life thereby banning gay Americans from serving in the United States armed forces in any capacity without exception.” [Wiki]

FOR “Don’t Ask Don’t Tell”

In 1996 Joe Biden voted for “‘don’t ask, don’t tell,’ a military policy that required gay, lesbian, and bisexual troops to stay in the closet in order to serve.” [Vox]

AGAINST Gay Marriage – Voted For the Defense of Marriage Act

In 1996, Senator Joe Biden voted for the Defense of Marriage Act, which “defined marriage as between a man and a woman and allowed states not to recognize same-sex marriages. Same-sex couples could not claim federal benefits.” [Politifact] [Wiki]

PRAISED Segregationists

In 2020 Joe Biden “spoke fondly of the ‘civility’ of his relationship with a Mississippi senator who once called to ‘abolish the Negro race.'” “His remarks — delivered on the eve of Juneteenth, the day that marks the bitter end of slavery in 1865, two years after the Emancipation Proclamation — Biden voiced fondness for one colleague in particular, James Eastland, a Mississippi senator with a despicable legacy of racial hatred and incitement who was also a mentor to Biden in his early days in Washington.” [Rolling Stone]

“Joe Biden once praised the segregationist Republican Sen. Strom Thurmond of South Carolina as “one of my closest friends” and championed him as someone who believed in America’s diversity.” “Thurmond, a Southern Democrat-turned-Republican, ran for president in 1948 on a segregationist platform and led a record-setting filibuster to block the Civil Rights Act in 1957.” [Washington Examiner]

AGAINST School Busing

In the 1970’s Joe Biden actively worked to oppose busing as a way to desegregate schools. “Biden came out in favor of an amendment introduced by North Carolina Sen. Jesse Helms, a staunch opponent of civil rights legislation and desegregation efforts.” “Helms responded by welcoming Biden ‘to the ranks of the enlightened.'” When that amendment failed, Biden introduced a new amendment that “passed, outraging Massachusetts Republican Edward Brooke, who at the time was the only black senator in Congress. Brooke called the Biden amendment ‘the greatest symbolic defeat for civil rights since 1964.'” [Vox]

FOR In-Person Voting in Wisconsin During A Pandemic

“Former Vice President Joe Biden said last Thursday in a virtual press briefing, in which he insisted that in-person and mail-in voting could both be done safely—even though he considers the possibility of a national convention in the state to be a potential risk to public health.”

“Biden’s approach to the Wisconsin contest has put both himself and Wisconsin Democrats in an awkward position as county leaders painted a dire picture of what voting could look like in the middle of a pandemic.” [The Daily Beast]

FOR Iraq War

“Biden himself had enormous influence as chair and argued strongly in favor of the 2002 resolution granting President Bush the authority to invade Iraq.” “‘I do not believe this is a rush to war,’ Biden said a few days before the vote. ‘I believe it is a march to peace and security.'” “The Iraq war has generally been seen as one of the worst US foreign policy blunders in decades. It fueled the spread of terrorism and destabilized the Middle East and parts of north Africa.” [The Guardian]

FOR Death Penalty

“Joe Biden pushed crime legislation in 1992 on the theme that it was aggressive in going after criminals. Directing his comments toward critics of the bill as too weak on crime, Biden specifically boasted of how frequently the bill would result in pursuing the death penalty. Biden, then a senator from Delaware, characterized his bill during a May 14, 1992, speech on the Senate floor as legislation that would ‘do everything but hang people for jaywalking.'” [Business Insider]

FOR War On Drugs

“In 1989, at the height of punitive anti-drug and mass incarceration politics, Biden, then a senator, went on national television to criticize a plan from President George H.W. Bush to escalate the war on drugs. The plan, Biden said, didn’t go far enough.” Joe Biden claimed George H. Bush’s war on drugs was “not tough enough, bold enough, or imaginative enough.” “Bush’s plan, Biden added, ‘doesn’t include enough police officers to catch the violent thugs, not enough prosecutors to convict them, not enough judges to sentence them, and not enough prison cells to put them away for a long time’ — a direct call for more incarceration.” [Vox]

FOR Mass Incarceration

In the 1980s and ’90s “Biden did not just support the war on drugs and mass incarceration; he wrote many of the laws that helped build a punitive criminal justice system. That included measures that enacted more incarceration, more prisons, and tougher prison sentences for drug offenses, particularly crack cocaine.” [Vox]

FOR Civil Asset Forfeiture

“Comprehensive Control Act: This 1984 law, spearheaded by Biden and Sen. Strom Thurmond (R-SC), expanded drug trafficking penalties and federal “civil asset forfeiture,” which allows police to seize and absorb someone’s property — whether cash, cars, guns, or something else — without proving the person is guilty of a crime. Under the federal Equitable Sharing program, local and state police get up to 80 percent of the value of what they seize as funds for their departments, which critics say creates a for-profit incentive to take people’s stuff.” [Vox]

AGAINST Marijuana Legalization

In 2019 Joe Biden said “more study is needed to determine whether marijuana is ‘a gateway drug,’ making him the only one of the leading Democratic presidential primary candidates to oppose legalization on the federal level.” [USA Today]

AGAINST Undocumented Immigration

“Joe Biden once spoke about jailing employers who hire “illegals,” said sanctuary cities shouldn’t be allowed to violate federal law, and argued a fence was needed stop “tons” of drugs coming into the country from “corrupt Mexico.”” “Then-Sen. Biden’s past comments, which he made in the run-up to and during the 2008 presidential race.”

“His past comments on a border barrier and sanctuary cities are similar to positions Trump has taken as President.” [CNN]

FOR Border Fence

“Speaking to a South Carolina rotary club in November 2006, Biden touted his support for the Secure Fence Act — a bill that authorized 700 miles of double-layered fence on the border through more than a billion dollars in appropriations.”

“”Folks, I voted for a fence, I voted, unlike most Democrats — and some of you won’t like it — I voted for 700 miles of fence,” Biden told the group. “But, let me tell you, we can build a fence 40 stories high — unless you change the dynamic in Mexico and — and you will not like this, and — punish American employers who knowingly violate the law when, in fact, they hire illegals.” [CNN]

AGAINST Granting Driver’s Licenses to Undocumented Immigrants

“During the 2008 presidential election, Biden also opposed granting driver’s licenses to undocumented immigrants.” [CNN]

AGAINST Sanctuary Cities

“Speaking at a September 2007 debate at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire, Biden said he would not allow so-called sanctuary cities to ignore federal law.” [CNN]

FOR NAFTA

Joe Biden voted for NAFTA. “The 1993 pact reduced barriers with Mexico and Canada, increasing trade and economic growth in all three countries. But it also led to an exodus of U.S. manufacturing jobs to Mexico and hurt wages for U.S. workers who held on to their jobs. Throughout the 2016 presidential campaign, Trump pilloried Nafta as a “disaster” and “the worst trade deal ever,” a message his top advisers believe was pivotal in helping him carry critical Rust Belt states once considered Democratic strongholds.” [Bloomberg]

FOR Trans-Pacific Partnership

“Toward the end of his vice presidency, Joe Biden was a prime player in the administration’s bid to win support for the Trans-Pacific Partnership”

“Trade was one of the most divisive, definitive issues in the 2016 Democratic-primary campaign—and in the general election. Both Trump and Senator Bernie Sanders of Vermont tapped into decades of simmering rage over gutted manufacturing towns, declaring their opposition to trade agreements such as NAFTA and TPP that they say are bad for the American worker.” [The Atlantic]

FOR Pharmaceutical Companies

In 2002 “Joe Biden of Delaware voted to table Wellstone’s amendment, and it was defeated 56-39” that would have prevented pharmaceutical companies from price gauging for prescription drugs. [The Intercept]

FOR Wall Street Bailout

In 2008 Joe Biden voted for the Wall Street Bailout. “One of the biggest and most elaborate falsehoods ever sold to the American people. We were told that the taxpayer was stepping in – only temporarily, mind you – to prop up the economy and save the world from financial catastrophe. What we actually ended up doing was the exact opposite: committing American taxpayers to permanent, blind support of an ungovernable, unregulatable, hyperconcentrated new financial system that exacerbates the greed and inequality that caused the crash, and forces Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs and Citigroup to increase risk rather than reduce it.” [RollingStone]

FOR Making Bankruptcy Harder

“In the early 2000s, Biden co-sponsored legislation that would make it harder for people to qualify for bankruptcy protection. The financial industry, a major donor to Biden’s campaigns, was eager to tighten the rules on Chapter 7, the most common path for households to wipe out their debts.” [Politifact]

FOR Repeal of Glass-Steagall (Led to Bank Bailouts)

“Delaware’s financial institutions got another big boost in 1999, when Biden voted for the Financial Services Modernization Act, which repealed the Depression-era Glass-Steagall law barring banks from owning securities and insurance businesses.”

“The metastasis of America’s financial conglomerates proved catastrophic when those increasingly huge banks began to package subprime mortgages as securities a few years later.”

“Glass-Steagall’s repeal as a stepping stone to the financial collapse.” [Mother Jones]

“This required their bailout in 2008-2009 to avoid another depression.” [The Balance]

FOR Patriot Act And American Surveillance

“Biden not only voted for the 2001 Patriot Act, he, on many occasions, claimed credit for writing it.”

“‘And the bill John Ashcroft sent up was my bill,’ Biden continued, referring to the Patriot Act. The act broadened the surveillance capabilities of U.S. law enforcement agencies as it relates to identifying potential terrorists, and many of its provisions have been opposed by liberal Democrats and civil libertarians.” [Buzz Feed]

Joe Biden Said He Has “No Empathy” For Millennials

Joe Biden said, “the younger generation now tells me how tough things are—give me a break,” said Biden, while speaking to Patt Morrison of the Los Angeles Times to promote his new book. “No, no, I have no empathy for it, give me a break.”” [Newsweek]

AGAINST Student Debt Relief

“Private student loans were largely stripped of bankruptcy protections in 2005 in a congressional move that had the devastating impact of tripling such debt over a decade and locking in millions of Americans to years of grueling repayments.”

“One politician stood out as an especially enthusiastic champion of the credit companies who, as it happens, had given him hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign contributions – Joe Biden.”

“It is indisputable that Biden was an avid supporter of the 2005 bill as a whole and of its overall thrust of tightening up the bankruptcy code largely to the benefit of lenders at the expense of distressed families who would find it harder to file for bankruptcy.” [The Guardian]

AGAINST Green New Deal

In 2020 Joe Biden “falsely claimed that ‘there’s not a single solitary scientist that thinks'” that a “bold Green New Deal” “can work.” [Common Dreams]

FOR Oil and Gas

In 2020 when asked by a voter about his stance on building pipelines. “Biden then tells him to ‘go vote for someone else.'”

“During the candidate’s repeat visits to the state, Mr Fallon and his Bold Iowa organisation have pressed him on his positions on climate change, the Dakota Access Pipeline, and whether he supports removing or replacing older gas pipelines leaking methane, after giving apparently contradictory statements over his opposition to new construction.” [The Independent]

“Andrew Goldman, who recently hosted a fundraiser for Biden, co-founded a natural gas company.” [The Cut]

“Heather Zichal (Biden’s climate adviser) has made a million dollars off of natural gas.” [The Cut]

FOR Fracking

In 2020 Joe Biden “falsely claimed that ‘there’s not a single solitary scientist that thinks'” that a “bold Green New Deal” “can work.” [Common Dreams]

In 2020 Joe Biden’s “climate plan doesn’t call for a ban on fracking natural gas.” [The Cut]

For Profit Prisons

“One of Biden’s top fundraisers, Michael F. Neidorff, is the CEO and chair of Centene — a health insurance company that’s a major player in the prison health care market. Prisons and facilities in 16 states have contracted out their health care services to Centurion, which is owned by the $60 billion health insurance company, according to its website.” [The Intercept]

No Stance on Restoring Voting Rights to Felons

“Some candidates are still deciding and some have dropped out.” [Politico]

AGAINST Universal Basic Income

In 2018 Joe Biden said, “Those who support the idea of a universal basic income are “class clueless,” former Vice President Joe Biden said in an interview Wednesday.” “A job is about a lot more than a paycheck.” [Newsweek]

FOR Billionaires

“Forty-four billionaires and their spouses have donated to Joe Biden’s presidential campaign, according to a review of the latest federal filings, making the former vice president one of the biggest billionaire beneficiaries of the 2020 field.” [Forbes]

Biden Would Appoint Billionaires, Bank CEOs to His Cabinet, To Lead Economy

“Mike Bloomberg, who swiftly endorsed Biden after the former mayor’s campaign collapsed, would be a top possibility to head the World Bank.”

“Jamie Dimon — chairman and CEO of JPMorgan Chase, and mentioned over the years as a potential presidential candidate — would also be considered for Treasury.”

“Anne Finucane, vice chairman of Bank of America, is another possibility for Treasury.” [Axios]

Joe Biden Said Nothing Will Fundamentally Change If He Is Elected

In 2020 Joe Biden said that “nothing will fundamentally change” if he’s elected president. [Salon]

Joe Biden Lied About Getting Arrested When Visiting Nelson Mandela

“”This day, 30 years ago, Nelson Mandela walked out of prison and entered into discussions about apartheid,” Biden told voters in Columbia, S.C., on Feb. 11, in a story about his time as the Democratic senator from Delaware. “I had the great honor of meeting him. I had the great honor of being arrested with our U.N. ambassador on the streets of Soweto trying to get to see him on [Robben] Island.””

“With Sanders reaching black voters, Biden retold his lie about Mandela at a black history awards brunch in Las Vegas, and even added some Bidenesque embellishments.”

“He threw his arms around me and said, ‘I want to say thank you,'” Biden told supporters. “I said, ‘What are you thanking me for, Mr. President?’ He said: ‘You tried to see me. You got arrested trying to see me.'” [Real Clear Politics]

Joe Biden’s Plagiarism Ended His Presidential Campaign in 1988

“During an event at the Iowa State Fair, Biden mimicked entire portions of Kinnock’s speech from earlier in the year. At one moment, Biden repeated the line that he was the first “in a thousand generations” to graduate from college, gesturing to his wife in the exact same way Kinnock did, while also saying the same line about her education and lineage.”

“As Dowd reported, Biden’s staffers were defensive about the allegations of blatant plagiarism. Nevertheless, Biden dropped out of the race by the end of the month.”

“According to another 1987 article in The Times, Biden acknowledged plagiarizing a law review journal for a paper during law school, and asked school administrators not to be expelled.” [Business Insider]

AGAINST Anita Hill and #MeToo

“Hill had come to the Capitol to testify about her sexual harassment accusations against now-Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas — a hearing where, with Biden presiding, the young woman was eviscerated by a panel of 14 male senators.”

“As chair of the Judiciary Committee, Biden could well have ‘done something’ in 1991 as his colleagues verbally battered and humiliated Hill. He oversaw a rushed process, against the wishes of a number of female colleagues at the time. He allowed a panel of 14 white men to bully and demean a young black woman. Biden himself appeared consistently more sympathetic to Thomas, whom he allowed to testify twice, while his accuser testified only once.” [The Intercept]

Joe Biden Swims Naked In Front of Female Secret Service Agents

“Agents say that, whether at the vice president’s residence or at his home in Delaware, Biden has a habit of swimming in his pool nude.”

“Female Secret Service agents found his skinny dipping to be ‘offensive.'” [Politico]

Touching Women Inappropriately

“Joe Biden has a long history of touching women inappropriately.” “Flores’s experience isn’t unique. It is no secret in Washington that Biden has touched numerous women inappropriately in public.” [Vox]

Joe Biden Allegedly Raped His Former Staff Member Tara Reade

“Multiple women have said Biden touched them in ways that made them uncomfortable.”

“Reade says that in 1993, when she was in her 20s and working for Biden, another staffer asked her to bring him a gym bag at the US Capitol. When she did, she says, he pushed her up against a wall in a secluded area, began kissing her, and reached under her skirt to penetrate her with his fingers. After she pulled away, she says he responded with something along the lines of, “Come on, man, I heard you liked me.” Reade said Biden also said something that sticks with her today: “You’re nothing to me.”” [VOX] [Huffington Post] [Newsweek] [Mic]

Allegations That A Top Adviser to Joe Biden Tried to Cover-up Rape Allegations

“In early January of this year, however, Reade decided that it was time to tell her story, despite facing widespread scrutiny and backlash after speaking out with less specificity about the former vice president’s past behavior back in April.”

“The Intercept’s article noted Time’s Up decision to turn down Reade’s request for funding from the organization. The article also reported that the public relations firm that works on behalf of the Time’s Up Legal Defense Fund, SKDKnickerbocker, had Anita Dunn as its managing director. Dunn serves as a top adviser to Biden’s presidential campaign.

Reade told Newsweek that she was unaware of Dunn’s involvement in Biden’s campaign during her exchanges with Time’s Up.

Learning that was the case, she said, “felt like a betrayal. It felt very much like a betrayal. I had entrusted them with information that’s deeply personal and hard. They didn’t inform me of their ties to Biden.”” [Newsweek]

Joe Biden Accused of Corruption – Hunter Biden Paid For Access To Biden?

“Guthrie asked why Hunter Biden, who did not have previous experience in the field, would have been given the seat on board of Burisma, a natural gas company, if his father were not the vice president.” [USA Today]

“Burisma is still getting its money’s worth for the reported $50,000 per month it paid the younger Biden to sit on its board from 2014 until earlier this year.” [TIME]

“Speaking to ABC News last month, Hunter Biden admitted that Burisma would “probably not” have hired him in the first place had he not been the son of the vice president at the time.”

“A review of Hunter Biden’s career shows clearly that he, along with Joe Biden’s brother James, has been trading on their family name for decades, cashing in on the implication — and sometimes the explicit argument — that giving money to a member of Joe Biden’s family wins the favor of Joe Biden.” [The Intercept]

Joe Biden Accused of Corruption – James Biden Paid For Access To Biden?

“A mysterious FBI raid. New allegations from former executives. Questions are swirling about the business dealings of Joe Biden’s brother.”

“Holding out the promise of a large investment from the Middle East based on his political connections, James Biden introduced Americore’s founder to his older brother and helped land a bridge loan to Americore from a hedge fund, Pritchard said. But then, Pritchard said, James Biden received a six-figure personal loan out of Americore’s coffers while encouraging the firm to take on greater financial liabilities.”

“Over the course of Biden’s run, reports have trickled out about James, a sometimes business partner of Hunter’s, who has received financial support from people with an interest in influencing Joe and been repeatedly accused of trading on Joe’s clout to advance his business ventures.” [Politico]



