As President Biden enters his second month in office, Americans now have the opportunity to compare his rhetoric on the campaign trail with his actions in the Oval Office.
With his administration’s policy priorities coming into focus, much of the president’s past rhetoric already appears out of line with his governance.
Here are five pre-inauguration promises or positions that President Biden has seemingly abandoned since taking office.
Incarcerating Children at the Southern Border
Although more understated than the first, the second presidential debate between then-President Trump and Joe Biden was quickly filled with tension as each candidate traded blows, particularly on the topic of immigration, and the migrant crisis at the southern border.
“They got separated from their parents. That makes us a laughing-stock and violates every notion of who we are as a nation,” Biden scolded while referring to Trump’s handling of migrant children at the southern border.
Throughout the evening, and the campaign as a whole, Biden made his opposition to migrant children being temporarily detained crystal clear. That all changed when he took office.
On February 22nd, just over a month after his inauguration, the Biden administration reopened a camp for migrant children in Carrizo Springs, Texas, which was used most recently in 2019 by the Trump administration.
Members of the President’s own party condemned the decision, with Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez saying, “This is not okay, never has been okay, never will be okay — no matter the administration or party,” in a tweet on February 23rd.
The 66-acre facility is being reopened to temporarily hold as many as 700 migrant children, aged 13 to 17.
Deportations
Throughout the 2020 election, Biden made his fair share of immigration policy promises — most notably regarding the deportation of illegal immigrants.
“I will send to the desk immediately a bill that requires access to citizenship for 11 million undocumented folks, number one. Number two, the first hundred days of my administration, no one, no one will be deported at all. From that point on, the only deportations that will take place are commissions of felonies in the United States of America,” Biden said during a Democratic Debate in March of 2020.
However, since taking office, the Biden administration has continued deporting thousands of individuals attempting to cross the border illegally. According to United We Dream, the largest youth-led immigrant community in the county, as of February 16, 2021, the Biden administration had conducted a total of 26,248 deportations.
$2000 Checks
Throughout the 2020 election, President Biden campaigned on the promise that he would pass a Covid relief bill which sent $2,000 stimulus checks to American families.
“$600 is simply not enough when you have to choose between paying rent or putting food on the table. We need $2,000 stimulus checks.” Biden said on January 10th in a Tweet.
A week earlier, while campaigning for Jon Osoff and Raphael Warnock in Georgia, Biden promised that if the duo won their respective Senate races, it would “put an end to the block in Washington of that $2,000 stimulus check. That money will go out the door immediately.”
However, since taking office, Biden has quickly moved on from the idea, now saying families will receive — at most — $1400, depending on their income.
Press Secretary Jen Psaki attempted to defend the flip-flop, saying; “There was $600 payments, as you know, in the $900 billion package that passed in December. This is $1,400. Together, that’s $2,000. So it would be delivering on the promise he made. And it’s something that he is firmly sticking by.”
While on the campaign trail, Biden made it clear that $2000 stimulus checks were a top priority. Nowhere in that promise did he mention it would be combined with last year’s check.
$15 Minimum Wage
One of Biden’s most oft-repeated promises throughout the 2020 election was that under his administration, the federal minimum wage would be raised to $15 an hour. If passed, this would be the first time the federal government has changed the minimum wage since 2009.
“When we build back better, we will do so with higher wages — including a $15 minimum wage — better benefits and stronger collective bargaining rights that you can raise a family on. That’s how we will build back the middle class better than ever.” Biden said in a Tweet on November 16th, of 2020.
However, just six weeks into his first term, the Biden administration has already seemingly walked away from the idea.
On February 25th the Senate voted against allowing a mandatory $15 federal minimum wage requirement in their $1.9 trillion Covid-19 relief bill.
Since the senate conducted its vote, President Biden has shown little interest in using executive action to push the wage mandate through.
Middle Eastern Airstrikes
Under former-president Trump, the United states conducted a small number of airstrikes in the Middle East, including the 2020 assassination of the infamous Iranian General Quasem Solemani in Iraq, and the 2017 Airstrikes on bases in Syria following chemical attacks against rebel forces.
At the time, prominent figures from the recently elected Biden administration were quick to condemn the former-President and his actions.
“The last thing we need is another war in the middle east.” Biden said on January 5th, 2020 regarding Solemani’s assassination.
The 2017 airstrikes in Syria were met with backlash from Press secretary Jen Psaki and Vice-president Kamala Harris.
“I strongly support our men and women in uniform and believe we must hold Assad accountable for his unconscionable use of chemical weapons. But I am deeply concerned about the legal rationale for last night’s strikes,” Vice-president Kamala Harris said in a tweet.
Jen Psaki also questioned Donald Trump’s legal authority to launch the 2017 strikes in Syria: “What is the legal authority for strikes? Assad is a brutal dictator. But Syria is a sovereign country,” she said in a 2017 Tweet.
Despite Biden, Harris and Psaki’s previous rhetoric against such strikes, on February 25th, roughly a month after taking office, President Biden authorized an airstrike in Syria targeting Iranian backed militia groups.
Biden did not consult with congress before launching the strikes, resulting in a barrage of legal questions and heavy backlash from multiple democratic lawmakers.
Jacob Falach is a writer and student in Nashville, TN. You can find him on Instagram at @thatjewishconservative.
The views expressed in this piece are the author’s own and do not necessarily represent those of The Daily Wire.
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