President Joe Biden became frustrated during an exchange with White House correspondent Jacqui Heinrich at a press conference.
Heinrich questioned Biden about his executive order regarding student loan relief, which the Supreme Court ultimately struck down.
On Friday (June 30), the High Court announced a 6-3 ruling stating that Biden’s secretary of education cancellation of over $430 billion in student loan debt is not allowed under federal law.
After Biden delivered his remarks on the ruling, Heinrich asked the President why he had given millions of borrowers “false hope,” referencing Biden’s previous comments in which he doubted his authority to enact the order without the bill’s passage in Congress
In February 2021, Biden said he didn’t “think” he had “the authority to do it by signing [with] the pen.”
In Friday’s ruling, the Supreme Court agreed with Biden’s earlier doubts, also referencing comments Rep. Nancy Pelosi (D-CA.) made in July 2021 while she was still House Speaker.
At that time, Pelosi said, “People think that the President of the United States has the power for debt forgiveness. He does not.”
However, despite these earlier doubts, in response to Heinrich’s questions, Biden snapped, “I didn’t give any false hope.”
Instead, he clarified that his previous comments were pertaining to “whether or not [he] would do even more than was requested,” adding that he “thought it was appropriate and was able to be done and would get done.”
Biden repeated his remarks, “I didn’t give false hope,” insisting that it was Republicans who had “snatched away the hope” given to borrowers, explaining that was “real, real hope.”
