Newt Gingrich’s Claims About Biden on Fox & Friends Were (Mostly) Lies

Newt Gingrich was one of the leaders of the Republican Party in the late 90s. Since his 1998 resignation related to multiple scandals, including an affair while his wife was fighting cancer, the former Speaker of the House has remained in the public eye through appearances on Fox News.

Newt Gingrich appeared on Fox and Friends on Monday to explain why he believes that the Republican party is still poised to win big during the midterms elections in November.

The Democrats seemed destined to suffer a bloodbath during the elections just a few months ago, when Joe Biden’s approval ratings were near historic lows due in part to historically high gas prices and record inflation levels. However, there have been signs of a turnaround as of late.

The Supreme Court’s decision to overturn Roe v Wade has energized the Democratic base and gas prices and inflation have eased somewhat. That, combined with the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act and Biden’s announcement that up to $20,000 in student loans per borrower will be forgiven, has buoyed Democratic hopes that they may hold onto control of Congress after the midterms.

Gingrich, however, is still confident that Republicans will retake both houses of Congress, pointing out a variety of issues or perceived issues the Biden administration has caused or failed to address. He also criticized Biden’s controversial speech in Philadelphia, calling it “hateful.”

“The point of campaigns is to drive home facts. It's a fact that President Biden went to Philadelphia and gave a hateful speech in a city which has the highest murder rate in its history, a city with the highest armed robbery rate, and the highest car and carjacking rate. 70% of Philadelphians say crime and safety is our biggest issue. The Democratic [Senate] nominee, Fetterman, voted to release 25 murderers from prison. When that sinks in, I think we'll win the Senate race. The president's problem is he has no answer on inflation, no answer for the 20 million families who are behind on their electricity bills because prices keep going up, no answer for an open border policy which has led to over 100,000 deaths last year from overdose. More than twice as many Americans died last year from a drug overdose as died in the Vietnam War. And Biden has no answer at all. So I think as we get into the fall campaign, Republicans will do very well. I think Kevin McCarthy's plan will lay out a terrific range of positive future actions. And I think, in fact, if the Democrats had all these plans, why didn't they do them? They didn't do them. And the country is a mess.”

Going over Gingrich’s claims one by one seems appropriate.

Philadelphia Crime

It is true that homicide rates have been rising in Philadelphia, and that 2021 was its highest on record, with 2022 on track to exceed that. However, that trend started under the Trump presidency, with 2020 seeing 499 homicides in the city, a 40.1% increase from 2019 when the city experienced 356 homicides. The 2019 number was an increase of 28.5% from 2016, the year before Trump took office.

While the increase in violent crime in Philadelphia is a concern for the citizens of that city, it is not a trend that started with the Biden administration. It also is not a result of leadership changing to Democratic in the city, as Philadelphia has not had a Republican mayor since 1952.

As for his claim that John Fetterman voted to release 25 murderers from prison, that claim is harder to pinpoint. As Lt. Governor, Fetterman oversaw the state’s parole board and has undoubtedly voted for some inmates convicted of second-degree murder to be released on parole. Fetterman is an advocate for eliminating the mandatory life sentence for second-degree murder, which would leave sentencing up to the judge.

Inflation

Inflation indeed remains a serious problem for the American people. However, it has been slowing recently. In July, inflation was up 8.5% from last year, but prices were unchanged from the month prior. If that trend continues, it may be less of a detriment to the Democrats than Gingrich believes. August’s inflation rate has not yet been released.

Electric Bills

Gingrich is close to spot-on with this one. According to the National Energy Assistance Directors Association, 1 in 6 Americans, roughly 20 million families, are behind on their utility bills. And electricity prices are up 15% compared to last year. While gas prices are falling, energy prices, in general, remain high, and that will certainly be on the minds of some voters when they cast their votes in November.

Open Borders

Gingrich’s assertion that the United States has an open border policy under the Biden administration is patently false. While it is true that deportations have dropped under the Biden administration compared to Trump and even the Obama administration, detentions have not. The number of migrants detained by Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) has decreased, and that number gets a lot of attention in the media, but the total number of detainees, including from the Customs Border Protection (CBP) agency, has remained relatively stable.

Counting both ICE and CBP detainees, there are a total of 24,127 migrant detainees as of August 15. That is the most since June 6, 2020, when 24,713 migrants were detained by either ICE or the CBP.

In addition, ICE funding has increased under the Biden administration, jumping to $8.3 billion. And while total funding for the CBP decreased slightly, funding for the US Border Patrol specifically (which falls under the CBP) increased, jumping to $5.1 billion. Biden also did not rescind funds previously appropriated for Trump’s border wall.

Overdose Statistics

Gingrich is not lying when he says over 100,000 people died from overdoses in the United States last year. An estimated 107,622 people died of overdoses in 2021, according to the CDC. However, that is again not a trend that started under the Biden administration. In 2016, there were an estimated 63,600 deaths in the United States, a number that was already 15% higher than the year before. By 2020, Trump’s last year in office, 93,655 deaths were attributed to overdose.

Drug overdoses and the opioid epidemic in the United States is a serious problem that needs to be solved. However, it is not a trend that started under the Biden administration and so far, neither Republicans nor Democrats have proven capable of addressing the issue.

As for Gingrich’s claim that more than double the number of Americans died from an overdose last year as during the entire Vietnam war, he is wrong about that, though only slightly. According to the National Archives, 58,220 Americans died in the Vietnam war. Double that is 116,440, or 8,818 more than the number of Americans who died from overdoses in 2021.