Did President Obama Issue Clemency to 18,000 People?

A claim by Joe Biden is exaggerated by a factor of almost 10.

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On Monday night, Democratic nominee Joe Biden appeared on NBC for a live town hall discussion from Miami, where he took questions from anchor Lester Holt and a small audience of undecided voters.

During a segment on criminal justice reform, Holt brought up President Trump’s criticism of the Obama administration’s work on the matter. 

Holt told Biden: “He points out in a criminal justice reform bill. You and Barack Obama served at a time when you had both houses of Congress and still couldn’t get some of these things done.”

In response, Biden claimed that the Obama administration granted clemency to 18,000 people. “We let 18,000 people got [sic] clemency. He got two or three where he’s talking about,” said Biden. 

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  1. Avatar photo
    Victor Clairmont

    Wel I mean, he did say Covid killed 200 million people so, I don’t think numbers are Biden’s thing these days.

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  2. Joe1776

    What does granting clemency to a few have to do with passing legislation when you have the house and senate?

    This doesn't even address the question.

    Certainly they could have modified the federal criminal code to be less draconian or systemically racist if that is what they are claiming.

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    1. LostVoter

      While I agree with the premise of your argument, history has showed us that having the house and the senate does not guarantee passing whatever you want. One of the (many) downfalls (benefits?) of only having a 2 party system, is that there are extreme differences even inside of the parties on HOW to get things done. For example, even if the Senate and POTUS goes blue this round, it'll only take 1 or 2 defections from inside the party to prevent some of the more progressive policies from going to the president's desk.

      The far right or far left stop laws from passing, they don't get laws passed.

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  3. Avatar photo
    Dante Longfellow

    Isn't the simple response that Biden meant 18-hundred instead of 18-thousand? A mistake, sure.

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    1. LostVoter

      Agreed. I think exaggerated is the wrong word, it assumes negative intent. It's valid to correct him, but it was most likely an error and not an egregious lie.

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      CynthiaW

      What's an order of magnitude among friends?

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      1. Avatar photo
        Carl M

        As a scientist friend of mine is fond of saying: "What's the difference between a million and a billion? Oh, about a billion." That said, yeah, that's very likely what Biden meant.

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