Even before U.S. President Joe Biden stepped to the rostrum for his State of the Union address on Feb. 7, 2023, speculation swirled about what he would say.
Then, as the 73-minute speech carried on, social media lit up with rumors about the legitimacy of certain comments.
For instance, after Biden postulated that his administration had decreased the federal deficit by $1.7 trillion — what he claimed to be "the largest deficit reduction in American history" — House Speaker Kevin McCarthy tweeted what he apparently believed to be a different truth: that, under Biden's watch, the deficit has actually increased by billions of dollars.
That was just one of several online rumors about the speech that deserved Snopes' attention. More are below.
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