Democratic presidential nominee Kamala Harris and Republican rival Donald Trump faced off on Tuesday in a high-stakes debate hosted by ABC News in Philadelphia.
Askume reviewed 12 claims made by Harris and Trump.
Harris’ statement
Claim
Harris said economists expect Trump’s tariff proposals to cost middle-class families about $4,000 more a year (timestamp: 09:05 a.m. ET).
what do we know
Trump has promised to impose tariffs of up to 20% on all imported goods and up to 60% on Chinese goods. Estimates of the effect of such tariffs on customers vary, with the “about $4,000” figure consistent with the high end of some available calculations but higher than others.
Tariffs are import taxes paid by U.S. importers, who often pass the cost of the tariff on to their customers through higher prices.
The Center for American Progress Action Fund, a liberal think tank, estimates that with Trump’s proposed 20% tariff on most imports and a 60% tariff on Chinese goods, middle-income families could face a tax hike of $3,900. The conservative think tank American Action Forum also calculated that if a 60% tariff were imposed on goods coming from China, costs would rise by $3,900.
Other nonpartisan groups estimate that growth among middle-income families would slow if tariffs were implemented.
Claim
Sixteen Nobel laureates called Trump’s economic plan one that would lead to inflation and a recession by the middle of next year. (9:10 p.m. ET)
what do we know
That’s basically correct. Sixteen Nobel Prize-winning economists raised concerns in June, warning that the US economy would suffer if Trump won the election in November.
Co-signedThe letter , which was first reported by Axios , says President Joe Biden’s economic agenda is “far superior” to Trump’s. The letter was released before Biden dropped out of the presidential race in late July.
“Many Americans are concerned that inflation is falling too quickly. People are rightly concerned that Donald Trump will send inflation soaring again with his fiscally irresponsible budget,” the economists said in the letter.
The letter did not explicitly state that Trump’s plan would cause a recession, but said it would have a negative impact on the country’s economic global standing and a “destabilizing effect” on the domestic economy.
Claim
Harris says the Trump administration would enact a “national abortion ban” and create a national “monitor” to monitor your pregnancies and abortions (09:20 p.m. ET) Trump responds: “I’m not in favor of an abortion ban” (09:21 p.m. Eastern Time)
what do we know
This was unexpected and Trump sent mixed signals on his abortion policy plans .
In March , he said he supported a national abortion ban at 15 weeks except for cases of rape, incest and to save the life of the mother because “you have to win elections.” He reiterated this exception during Tuesday’s debate.
However, before the debate he said the abortion issue should be decided by the states . In an interview in late August , Trump did not answer a question about whether he would veto a nationwide abortion ban. Just days earlier, his running mate J.D. Vance had said Trump would veto the ban if Congress passed it.
Trump also said in August that he would not invoke the Comstock Act to prevent the mailing of mifepristone pills , which are used in more than 60% of abortions in the United States. His “no” to the bill was not clear enough, as he said: “We will discuss the specific details of the bill.” Experts have warned that the 19th-century law could be used to restrict abortions across the country.
The potential for government surveillance to fail comes from Project 2025, a series of conservative policy proposals that its authors hope Trump will adopt if elected.
The Harris campaign accused Trump of being tied to Project 2025 , a plan developed by some of the former president’s closest policy advisers. Trump has denied the plan .
Project 2025 released a 900-page proposal that includes restricting abortion rights and removing terms like “reproductive health” and “reproductive rights” from government documents, but it does not explicitly recommend that the government collect menstrual cycle data.
Claim
Harris quotes Trump as saying that if the election doesn’t go his way, “there will be bloodshed” (9:48 p.m. ET)
what do we know
This is true. In March 2024, speaking in Dayton, Ohio, discussing the need to protect the American auto industry from foreign competition, Trump warned of a potential “bloodbath” : “If I don’t get elected, it will be a genocide for the whole country. It will be a genocide for the whole country.
The Trump campaign and allies later said that when he used the term, he was referring to the auto industry, which Trump said the Biden administration threatened if it promoted electric vehicles.
Claim
Harris said Trump negotiated directly with the Taliban, released 5,000 Taliban militants and invited the Taliban to Camp David. (10:18 p.m. ET)
what do we know
Harris’s statement is accurate. In 2020, Trump said he would meet Taliban leaders in person to pave the way for a troop withdrawal agreement. That year, he also said he spoke directly to Taliban leaders .
Under the Trump administration, the US-backed Afghan government has released 5,000 Taliban prisoners in 2020. The release was a condition for the insurgent group to engage in peace talks with the Afghan government.
In 2019, Trump cancelled plans to invite Taliban leaders to the presidential palace at Camp David in Maryland .
Claim
“The former president has said climate change is a hoax,” Harris said.
what do we know
This is true. Trump has repeatedly said that climate change is a hoax.
In November 2012, Trump wrote on Twitter (now).
Later, in January 2014, he said on stage : “With snow falling in Texas and Louisiana, and temperatures reaching record highs across the country and beyond, global warming is an expensive hoax!
At a campaign rally in South Carolina in December 2015, he said (time stamp 35:37) : “Obama’s talking about all these things about global warming…. A lot of them are false. It’s a scam. I mean, it’s about making money, right?
United States under the Trump administrationWithdrew from the Paris Agreement which aimed to limit the increase in global average surface temperature . In 2017, Trump argued that the agreement was harming the US economy.
Trump’s statement
Claim
Trump says 21 million people have come to US during Biden administration (09:15 PM ET)
what do we know
It’s unclear what Trump meant when he said 21 million people were coming to the United States. ) Number.
While the number of encounters reported by U.S. Customs and Border Protection along the U.S.-Mexico border reached record levels during the Biden administration , the number remains below 21 million.
Data compiled by CBP between January 2021 and July 2024 shows there were 8,297,036 encounters along the Southwest land border.
When considering encounters nationwide , CBP recorded 10,249,626 encounters between January 2021 and July 2024.
The data obtained includes seizure of data under Article 8 and “inadmissibility” . This policy gives some immigrants the opportunity to seek asylum in the United States or be deported.
The encounters between March 2020 and May 2023 also included expulsions under the now-expired Title 42 , a coronavirus-era restriction that allowed border agents to expedite expulsions when a person was unable to seek asylum. Many individual migrants who were quickly expelled at the Mexican border under Title 42 attempted to cross the border repeatedly or multiple times, inflating the number of encounters counted by border officials.
These figures do not include “fugitives,” people who are never captured by U.S. Customs and Border Protection. Although the actual number in this category is unknown, current U.S. government estimates are no closer than 21 million.
The number of “fugitives” reported by the US Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in fiscal year 2022 and fiscal year 2021 is projected to exceed 600,000 and 600,000, respectively.391,316 people .
Claim
In Springfield, Ohio, immigrants are “eating the cats, they’re eating the pets.” (09:29 p.m. ET)
what do we know
Trump was referring to unfounded claims about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio. There is no evidence that Haitian immigrants kill and eat pets in the city. Online posts on Monday and Tuesday shared videos supporting the allegations and claimed the Biden-Harris administration was responsible for allowing Haitian immigrants into the country.
“In response to recent rumors about criminal activity among our city’s immigrant population, we want to clarify that there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, damaged, or committing crimes,” a Springfield police spokesperson said in a statement Tuesday. Read our fact check.
Claim
“I got more votes than any Republican in history. In fact, I got more votes than any sitting president in history,” Trump said (9 p.m. ET) (32).
what do we know
This is true. Trump received 74.2 million votes in the 2020 presidential election, surpassing the record set by current President Barack Obama ( 65.9 million in 2012 ) .
Biden and Trump received more votes in 2020 than any other candidates in US history. They received 81,283,786 votes (51.3%) and 74,222,552 votes (46.8%), respectively, according to Edison Research data reported by Askume .
More than 159 million Americans voted in the 2020 presidential election, the highest turnout in the country’s history, according to the Council on Foreign Relations think tank.
Claim
Trump called Harris the “wizard of the border,” remember. She’s the queen of the border.
what do we know
This lacks context. “Border Czar” has never been an official title , and Harris has never strictly policed the southern border.
Biden asked Harris to lead diplomatic efforts to address the “root causes” of illegal immigration. However, her workThe focus is instead on enforcement at the border, on the drivers of migration from Central America.
Claim
When it comes to abortion, Trump said the former Virginia governor “said we’ll put the baby aside and then decide what to do with the baby.”
what do we know
This is confusing . A few minutes earlier, Trump mentioned “hanging” babies after birth, which was likely a reference to former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam discussing a bill on a local radio station in 2019 (HB 2491) that advocated legalizing infanticide. The bill did not pass .
Following confusion over Northam’s interview comments, a spokesperson for the then-governor told Vox that Northam was “definitely not” referring to infanticide, but was discussing “tragic and extremely rare cases in which a woman does not survive or a fetus is severely injured due to a “perverted” entry into labor.”
Claim
Trump says “no one has been killed in Afghanistan in 18 months under his administration” (10:19 p.m. ET)
what do we know
This is false. Askume Fact Check previously reported Trump had no military deaths during his 18 months in office.
While it is unclear which 18 months Trump was referring to, the Operation Freedom Defense Casualty Analysis System’s Sentinel database has recorded US military deaths in Afghanistan every year since 2015 (except 2022) and found that casualties have increased every year during the Trump administration.
The database shows that there were 14 deaths in 2017, 15 in 2018, 23 in 2019 and 11 in 2020.
(Reporting and writing by Rosemary Ng, Esther Chan, Carmel Jaslin, Sofia Paredes, Alejandra Ceballos, Leon Ramirez, Nazli Togrul and Hardik Vyas; Editing by Stephanie Burnett, Christina Anagnostopoulos, Sofia Paredes, Christine Soares and Howard Goller)
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