Have Biden's policies helped spark Iran-backed terrorism? Since the Oct. 7 Hamas attack on Israel, Republicans have suggested that Biden administration policies toward Iran somehow financed the assault. Originally, Republicans focused on the release of $6 billion in Iranian funds that had been held by South Korea — released in a deal to win the freedom of six American detainees — but that money had not yet been received by Iran. After the attack, the administration said it had prevented Iran from tapping the money. So now there is a new talking point — that Iran has earned far more money from oil sales under President Biden than it did under President Trump, and that, in turn, has funded terrorism. Here are two recent examples: - "Iran only had $4 billion in the foreign exchange when they took office. They now have $70 billion. Iran only produced 400,000 barrels of oil a day when they — when Biden took office. They now produce 3 million. They're getting billions of dollars to fund terrorism around the world." — Rep. Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.)
- "U.S. law puts tough oil sanctions on Iran. Biden came in, immediately stopped enforcing them. Today, Iran is selling 2 million barrels a day of oil." — Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Tex.)
We dug deep into the numbers and spoke to experts about what's been happening with the sanctions under Biden. There are several problematic elements to these statements. The numbers are off, especially McCarthy's, and they exaggerate the extent to which Iran had managed to boost its oil sales and foreign exchange reserves. Click the link below to read our report and learn the Pinocchio rating. Enjoy this newsletter? Forward it to someone else who'd like it! If this email was forwarded to you, sign up here. Did you hear something fact-checkable? Send it here; we'll check it out. We're always looking for fact-check suggestions. You can reach us via email, Twitter (@GlennKesslerWP and @AdriUsero) or Facebook. We're also on TikTok. Read about our process and rating scale here, and sign up for the newsletter here. About the cats: It's a Friday and sometimes our fact checks deal with heavy or depressing subjects. So we hope to bring a smile to your face. Scroll down to read other Iran-related fact checks | 
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