In President Biden’s most recent unforced error, he tweeted that “the U.S. power grid is expected to be powered by 81% clean energy by 2023.” Well, obviously, since we’re already more than halfway through 2023, the President’s claim is untrustworthy, if not erroneous. And, indeed, the White House sought to correct the President’s statement, claiming that “2030, not 2023, is the White House target date for 81% of US electricity to be produced by clean energy, as POTUS previously posted.”
But here’s the larger question: When, if ever, should the American people take the word of a U.S. President – whether the President in question is Biden or Trump, Obama, Bush, or any of their predecessors or successors? Ever since the founding of the Republic, American presidents have, at times, spoken falsely, in public settings, about substantive matters – sometimes by accident, sometimes on purpose. If the President is speaking about a matter known to him personally, and only to him, such as the words spoken to him in a private, unrecorded conversation, then maybe we’re stuck with accepting or rejecting the President’s version of what happened. But if he’s quoting statistics, we shouldn’t have to rely on his memory or on how well he reads from a teleprompter. Give us the source of the data!
President Biden obviously is not the guy who figured out how to measure which power sources for the U.S. power grid contributed what percentage of “clean energy.” And since the public cannot rely on this president – or any president – to necessarily level with the American people, then We the People, or The Media – collectively – should insist that presidential statements of supposed fact be presented along with the source of the data or information, like footnotes in a book or scholarly article.