Biden claims he's 'never once spoken' to Powell as president, but they met in Oval Office in 2022

• President Joe Biden said Thursday that he has "never once spoken" to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell since becoming president.
• But the two men, joined by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, met in the Oval Office on May 31, 2022 to discuss inflation, photos and videos from the meeting show.
• The president's inaccurate claim came during his remarks at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C. on Thursday, the day after the Fed announced it would cut interest rates by 50 basis points.

President Joe Biden on Thursday said he had "never once spoken" to Federal Reserve Chair Jerome Powell while he was president.

But the pair, joined by Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, met in the Oval Office on May 31, 2022 to discuss inflation, photos and videos from the meeting show.

The president made the inaccurate claim during remarks at the Economic Club of Washington, D.C., the day after the Fed announced a decision to cut interest rates by 50 basis points.

Touting his own respect for the independence of the central bank, Biden said "By the way, I've never once spoken to the chairman of the Fed since I became president."

Asked about the apparently inaccurate recollection by a reporter at Thursday's White House press briefing, Council of Economic Advisors Chair Jared Bernstein said Biden had been referring only to discussions about interest rates.

"The president was saying that he has not spoken to Chair Powell about interest rates," said Bernstein. "He did not pressure Powell and has never done so."

But the error undercut Biden's critique of Republican former President Donald Trump, who has threatened to challenge the independence of the Federal Reserve if he is elected to a second term.

"Unlike my predecessor, I respect the Federal