A video posted on Instagram purportedly shows a crowd in silence after Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden tells the crowd at a rally, “If you elect me your taxes are going to be raised, not cut.”

 

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How is this ever a good thing??

A post shared by Parker Brown (@parkerbrownusa) on Sep 17, 2020 at 12:51pm PDT

Verdict: False

The video has been deceptively edited to take Biden’s remarks out of context. Biden’s remarks were directed towards people in the crowd who said they had benefited from the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act signed into law by President Donald Trump. The close-ups and silence have been inserted.

Fact Check:

The roughly 15-second video shared on Instagram begins with Biden talking into a microphone at a rally saying, “If you elect me your taxes are going to be raised, not cut…if you benefited from that.” It then pans to close-up shots of rally attendees sitting quietly in what appears to be either confusion or stunned silence.

“How is this ever a good thing?” the caption reads. (RELATED: Will Joe Biden’s Tax Plan Raise The Income Tax Rate For Families Making $75,000 From 12% to 25%?) 

The Daily Caller News Foundation watched footage from Biden’s Feb. 27 campaign rally in Conway, South Carolina, and found that the video clip on Instagram was deceptively edited. When listening to the entirety of Biden’s quote, it is clear the clip has been taken out of context.

At one point, Biden asks the crowd, “How many of you did really well with that $1.9 trillion tax cut?” prompting at least one person off-camera to raise their hand. “Well that’s good… but guess what?” asks Biden. “If you elect me your taxes are going to be raised, not cut… if you benefited from that.”

The full video of the event shows that he continues by saying, “But here’s the deal, look folks, we don’t have to, we don’t have to, hurt anybody to put this economy back on track.” At no point does the camera pan to silent audience members with blank expressions on their faces following Biden’s comments on his tax plan. The close-ups of the crowd and silence have been inserted into the clip. Biden then goes on to speak about health care, the full video shows.

While some lower and middle class families benefited from the 2017 tax cuts implemented under the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, high-income individuals and corporations saw the most tax savings, according to an analysis by Investopedia. Biden’s comment about raising the taxes of those who benefited from the plan would, therefore, seemingly be targeted only at those high-income individuals and corporations, which is in line with Biden’s known tax policy proposals.

“As President, Biden will require corporations and the wealthiest Americans to finally pay their fair share,” reads a section of Biden’s campaign website. “He won’t ask a single person making under $400,000 per year to pay a penny more in taxes, and will in fact enact more than one-dozen middle class tax cuts that will finally give working families the financial support they deserve.”

Under Biden’s tax plan, it is predicted that even taxpayers making less than $400,000 would see slight increases in taxes, with those making between $52,00 and $93,000 seeing an average increase of $260, per a March analysis by the Tax Policy Center.

This is not the first time Biden has been the target of a deceptively edited video. Check Your Fact recently debunked a deceptively edited video clip that falsely claimed to show Biden messing up the Pledge of Allegiance.

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