President Joe Biden made two stops in North Carolina on Thursday. The first was in Charlotte when he met privately with the grieving families of the four officers who were killed in an ambush in east Charlotte on Monday.

Deputy US Marshal Thomas Weeks Jr., CMPD Officer Joshua Eyer, and North Carolina Adult Corrections workers Sam Poloche and William “Aiden” Elliott were killed, and five other officers were injured by Terry Clark Hughes, Jr. Hughes, who had a long rap sheet, was also killed by police. 

The visit lasted for about two hours before Biden took off for an invitation-only campaign stop at the Wilmington Convention Center in Wilmington at 5 pm.

He announced that $3 billion from his Investing in America agenda would be used to go toward identifying and replacing lead service lines that would help prevent exposure to lead in drinking water throughout the country. 

North Carolina is slated to get $76 million toward replacing 300,000 lead pipes, including 300 in Wilmington. 

In addition, the Eastern Band of Cherokee Indians, in the western part of the state, will also receive funds to conduct service line inventories and prepare preliminary engineering reports for five public water systems on their land.

Biden commented that Democrat Gov. Roy Cooper had earlier designated $2 billion from the American Rescue Plan for 800 clean water projects across the state. 

“Folks, this is about safety, but it’s also about basic fairness,” he said. “Nationally, we’re directing nearly half of the funding to disadvantaged communities. We’re upgrading all water mains and treatment plants, some of them are as old as 100 years old.”

Biden said he is “sick and tired of trickle-down economics” and that his vision for the economy is to grow it “from the middle out and the bottom up, not just the top down.”

He also threw out claims that he created a record 15 million jobs since he took office in 2021, including 460,000 in North Carolina; manufacturing is “booming” with 800,000 new manufacturing jobs; unemployment is down in North Carolina from 5.6% to 3.5%, lower than any year under the Trump Administration and the lowest in 25 years. 

Biden failed to mention that the country was at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic when he took office, which caused employers to lay off workers or cause some businesses to shut down permanently due to COVID restrictions. He also said that wages are rising nationwide, including in North Carolina, where he said they are up 3% while neglecting at the same time to mention inflation that is keeping its grip on the country. 

Biden also incorrectly stated that Walmart just announced that they are returning to pre-pandemic prices on all their products. In March, Walmart president and CEO Doug McMillon said they would lower prices on select items like rotisserie chicken, eggs, apples, deli snacks, and French bread.

Biden also said he was lowering the price of insulin, eliminating thousands of junk fees, and that his administration cut the federal deficit by making the “very wealthy big corporations begin to pay their fair share.”

He also took jabs at every Republican, including North Carolina Republican US Sen. Ted Budd, for voting against the American Rescue Plan.

“Your Senator Ted Budd called the infrastructure law fatally flawed,” he said. “A liberal Trojan horse for a socialist agenda. I don’t know about you, but I don’t think ensuring kids can drink clean water to avoid brain damage is a socialist agenda.”

He also took shots at former President Donald Trump. 

“You may recall that my predecessor promised infrastructure week every single week for four years,” Biden said. “He didn’t build a damn thing, nothing. My predecessor, the guy running this time racked up more federal debt than every previous president in history.”

But key economic indicators were stronger under Trump. Case in point, in July 2019, the US gross domestic product (GDP) grew at an annual rate of 2.1 percent in the second quarter of the year – significantly higher than the 1.8 percent most experts had predicted.

Compare that to the present day under Biden. Last week, it was reported that America’s economy grew at its slowest pace in nearly two years as inflation rose far more than Wall Street expected. The Bureau of Economic Analysis report of the latest Gross Domestic Product (GDP) reading showed the economy grew at an annualized pace of just 1.6% for the first quarter of this year, missing the expected mark of 2.5%. The news sent the stock market tumbling, with worries of stagflation, which is characterized by a decrease in economic growth (stagnation), an increase in inflation, and an increase in unemployment.

The personal consumption expenditures index also rose faster than expected in March. 

Core prices, excluding food and energy, climbed 0.3% from the previous month and 2.8% of the prior year. 

“I’ve never been more optimistic about our country’s future,” said Biden as he ended his campaign speech in Wilmington.