Biden campaign releases Thanksgiving talking points for responding to ‘crazy MAGA nonsense’ on the same day he begs ‘stop the rancor’

The Biden campaign released a not-so-festive list of talking points Thursday aimed at helping his supporters navigate “nonsense” political talk around the Thanksgiving table, the same day the 81-year-old president pleaded with Americans to “stop the rancor” over political differences. 

The list, which the Biden campaign called, “Your handy guide for responding to crazy MAGA nonsense this Thanksgiving,” was shared on X and included questionable claims about inflation, job creation and former President Donald Trump’s position on a federal abortion ban.

“The economy was better during Trump!” reads the first item on the list, alluding to a possible statement a supporter of the 2024 Republican presidential front-runner might bring up at the dinner table. 

To counter that claim, the Biden campaign suggests supporters respond by saying, “Wrong. Inflation is the lowest it’s been in two years, the economy is growing, and unemployment has been under 4% for the longest stretch on record. Just look at your Thanksgiving costs compared to last year – gas prices: cheaper. Turkey: cheaper. Eggs: cheaper. Joe Biden has created nearly 14 million jobs and the economy is on the rise.”

Under Biden, inflation reached a four-decade high of 9.1% in June 2022.

The latest consumer price index figures show that price increases cooled to 3.2% in October, but still remain higher than any month during the Trump administration. 

Likewise, gas prices spiked to a record-high national average of $5.01 per gallon in June 2022 and have since dropped to about $3.27 per gallon as of Thursday, according to AAA, but still remain 88 cents higher than when Biden took office in January 2021. 

On food prices, an American Farm Bureau Federation report found the “classic Thanksgiving feast for 10” in 2023 to be priced at $61.17, “a 4.5% decline from historically high prices last year,” with a decrease in turkey prices accounting for most of that price reduction.

But AFBF data also show that Thanksgiving prices have shot up 30% since 2020, with the classic meal priced at $46.90 during the first year of the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Republican National Committee also pointed out it was “the second-most expensive Thanksgiving in the survey’s 38-year history.”

The Biden campaign’s job creation claim also appears to credit the incumbent for jobs recovered after the unprecedented layoffs that took place during the economic shutdown at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. 

A House Budget Committee report released in June notes that about 72% of all job gains since 2021 were jobs being recovered from the pandemic, not new job creation. 

“In fact, when looking at today’s economy compared to pre-pandemic levels, employment is up only by 3.7 million. On the other hand, prior to the pandemic, job creation under President Trump was 6.7 million — 3 million more jobs than the current President,” the report states. 

Data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics also indicate that Americans are taking home less money for their work due to inflation. 

Inflation-adjusted average hourly earnings were $11.41 per hour in January 2021 when Biden took office and fell more than 3% to the current rate of $11.05 this October, according to the BLS.

On abortion, Biden’s bullet points claim that “Trump endorsed a federal ban and said there should be punishment for women who have an abortion.” 

The former president actually raised the eyebrows of conservatives in September when he blasted his GOP primary opponent, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis, for signing a six-week ban on the procedure into state law. 

Trump called the move a “terrible mistake” and refused to say whether he would support a federal ban on abortion during an interview on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

He noted that “from a legal standpoint, I think it’s probably better” that abortion restrictions be handled at the state level.

The guide for handling “crazy MAGA nonsense” was released the same day the president and first lady Jill Biden spoke via telephone to NBC News’ Al Roker before the Thanksgiving Day parade in Manhattan and called on Americans to “stop the rancor.”

“On this Thanksgiving, Al, we have to come together,” the president said. “We can have different political views, but we have one view. The one view is that we’re the finest, greatest nation in the world. We should focus on that.”

“We should focus on dealing with our problems and being together and stop the rancor. We have to bring the nation together and treat each other with a little bit of decency, and I think that’s where the vast majority of the American people are.”