The GOP Wants You to Believe Biden Was President in 2020 – Here’s What Happened

If you asked Americans which year felt like the nation’s toughest in recent history, many would likely point to the period between January 2020 and January 2021.

The COVID-19 pandemic, mass lockdowns, a deep recession, racial unrest, and the unprecedented attack on the U.S. Capitol all unfolded during that time. Nearly every major crisis of that year occurred under then-President Donald Trump’s watch.

Yet, as the 2024 campaign cycle heats up, Trump and his Republican allies are pushing a very different version of history – one in which Joe Biden was somehow responsible for America’s darkest modern year.

Trump’s latest social media post on Saturday night highlighted this ongoing attempt to reshape the narrative. “THE BIDEN FBI PLACED 274 AGENTS INTO THE CROWD ON JANUARY 6,” Trump wrote, implying that Biden’s administration orchestrated or influenced the Capitol riot. “If this is so, which it is, a lot of very good people will be owed big apologies,” he added.

But that claim falls apart immediately under scrutiny – not just because it’s baseless, but because Biden wasn’t even president at the time. The riot on Jan. 6, 2021, occurred two weeks before Biden’s inauguration. The FBI at the time was led by Trump’s own appointee, Christopher Wray.

Even Trump’s former aide, Kash Patel, confirmed that FBI agents were dispatched after the riot began, not before. Still, Trump’s statement reflects a broader trend among Republicans of reframing 2020’s major events as if they occurred under Biden’s leadership.

When confronted with such inaccuracies, Trump’s allies often scramble to reinterpret his words, claiming that he meant the FBI was “already under Biden’s influence” or part of a “deep state.” But these explanations don’t hold up to facts – the Trump administration controlled the executive branch in 2020 and early 2021.

Analysts say Trump’s motivation is clear: he wants to shift the blame for one of the most tumultuous years in American history away from himself and onto Biden. Doing so allows him to rewrite the narrative, portraying himself as a victim rather than a leader responsible for the chaos of that period.

The rewriting doesn’t stop at January 6. Several Republicans have echoed similar distortions, attributing the outcomes of 2020 policies, data, and events to Biden – despite the timeline clearly showing Trump was in office.

Take the 2020 U.S. Census, for example. Sen. Jim Banks of Indiana recently claimed, “The 2020 Census was a fraud. The Biden admin used a shady ‘privacy’ formula that scrambled the data and miscounted 14 states.” He ignored the fact that the census took place during Trump’s presidency. While the Biden administration did finalize and publish the report in 2021, all major methodological decisions had been made under Trump.

Similarly, Vice President JD Vance and Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis have accused the Biden administration of manipulating census results to benefit Democrats. Vance alleged, “They have tried to rig the game for Democrats and against Republicans,” despite no evidence of tampering.

Republicans have extended the same narrative gymnastics to other 2020 crises. During a CNN appearance, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent claimed, “The Democratic Party blew out the deficit in 2020,” disregarding that Trump had veto power over all spending bills and Republicans held the Senate majority that year.

Transportation Secretary Sean Duffy also misrepresented the pandemic timeline, saying, “During COVID, when people weren’t flying, that was a perfect time to fix these FAA problems.” The steepest drop in air travel due to COVID happened under Trump’s administration, not Biden’s.

Some GOP lawmakers have gone even further, blaming Biden for events that occurred months before he took office. Rep. Lauren Boebert of Colorado accused Biden of causing pandemic-era school closures, saying, “Hey Joe, YOU CLOSED THEM!” even though those shutdowns were largely decided by state and local officials in 2020 – during Trump’s presidency.

Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene of Georgia once blamed the Biden administration for fentanyl deaths recorded in July 2020, another impossibility given Biden wasn’t president yet.

Trump himself continues to employ this revisionist strategy. In 2023, he claimed that “the White House pushed to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story” before the 2020 election – again forgetting that it was his own White House at the time. Then-RNC Chair Ronna McDaniel made a similar claim, alleging that “the Biden White House” influenced social media companies “before the 2020 election.”

Perhaps the most repeated example of this rhetorical sleight of hand is the conservative retelling of the Black Lives Matter protests of 2020. GOP Rep. Mike Collins of Georgia criticized what he called the “Biden administration’s handling” of those protests, saying they “allowed rioters to burn police stations and take over cities.” He called it the “summer of love,” suggesting Biden had failed to maintain order – though, in reality, the protests and unrest took place months before Biden’s inauguration.

This pattern of rewriting history began even before Trump left office. In 2020, his campaign ran ads warning, “This is Joe Biden’s America,” juxtaposed with footage of civil unrest that occurred during Trump’s own presidency. At the time, Trump positioned himself as the only one capable of restoring order – despite the fact that the disorder was happening under his leadership.

Five years later, the same approach persists. Trump and his allies continue to blur timelines, shift blame, and confuse the public about who was truly in charge during one of America’s most turbulent years.

The central question critics keep asking – “Who was president in 2020?” – has become a viral refrain on social media. The answer, of course, is simple: Donald Trump. But in the alternate history that he and his allies are selling, the answer has conveniently changed.