Fact-checking claims made by Harris, Trump during first presidential debate
PHILADELPHIA (AZFamily) — Kamala Harris and Donald Trump went head-to-head on the debate stage in Philadelphia on Tuesday night, in what may be their only debate before the election.
Arizona’s Family fact-checked both candidates’ claims Tuesday night as part of our commitment to keep politicians accountable before, during, and after the election cycle.
You can watch the entire debate hosted by ABC News in the player below:
Claim: Donald Trump
Fact-Check: Mostly True
Reporting from PolitiFact shows that Iran’s foreign currency reserves fell from $128 billion in 2015 to $15 billion in 2019.
Data from the Central Bank of Iran shows a significant GDP decline in the Middle Eastern country after U.S. sanctions were reinstated by the Trump administration. Crude oil production also plummeted around the same time, according to OPEC data analyzed by the BBC.
Claim: Kamala Harris
Fact-Check:✅ True
According to a fact check by PolitiFact in 2021, a February 2020 agreement between the Taliban and the Trump administration called for the release of 5,000 Taliban members who were in Afghan prisons.
Afghanistan’s government has said that the 5,000 Taliban prisoners were released. A Congressional Research Service report said the release was completed in September 2020.
In 2019, then-President Trump called for peace talks with the Taliban at Camp David and then abruptly called them off. Trump reportedly called off the talks because the Taliban had killed a U.S. soldier a few days before the meeting.
Camp David has long hosted foreign dignitaries for diplomatic events with the most notable one being the 1978 Camp David Accords where then-President Jimmy Carter held negotiations between the presidents of Egypt and Israel that ended with a peace treaty between the two countries.
Trump was planning on the meeting at Camp David just days before the anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Claim: Donald Trump
Fact-Check: ❌ False
The former president has previously repeated this claim, that an overwhelming majority of legal scholars wanted to overturn Roe v. Wade. Some scholars wished that Roe had been written differently, and based on different, and in their words, stronger constitutional arguments.
“There was a cottage industry of legal scholars kind of rewriting Roe – ‘what Roe should’ve said’ – that isn’t saying Roe should’ve been overturned. Those are very different things,” Mary Ziegler, a law professor at the University of California explained to CNN.
Multiple amicus briefs were filed on behalf of legal scholars urging the Supreme Court to uphold the ruling, according to SCOTUS Blog. You can read them here.
Claim: Donald Trump
Fact-Check: ❌ False
Joe Biden was not charged.
In February 2024, Special Counsel Robert Hura long-awaited report on President Joe Biden’s handling of classified documents. It found no criminal charges were warranted, and Biden was not charged. However, there was “evidence that Biden ‘willfully’ retained and disclosed highly classified materials while as a private citizen”, according to page 5 of Justice Department report.
The report also detailed that “Mr. Biden’s memory was significantly limited.”
Claim: Kamala Harris
Fact-Check: ⚠️ Needs Context
While it is true Trump said in an Ohio rally on March 16, 2024: “If I don’t get elected, it’s gonna be a bloodbath for the whole, that’s going to be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country, that’ll be the least of it.”
Responding to the quote being used by the campaign for then-candidate Joe Biden, Trump said in a post on Truth Social, the term ‘bloodbath’ in his rally was used to talk about imports.
Trump’s post said people “pretended to be shocked at my use of the word BLOODBATH, even though they fully understood that I was simply referring to imports allowed by Crooked Joe Biden, which are killing the automobile industry.”
Claim: Donald Trump
Fact-Check: ❌ False
Vice President Kamala Harris was never declared the “border czar.” No such position exists. Instead, Harris was assigned to address the root causes of issues in other countries driving people to make the journey to the United States border.
“Biden asked Harris to lead diplomatic efforts to reduce poverty, violence and corruption in Central America’s Northern Triangle countries of Guatemala, Honduras and El Salvador, as well as engage with Mexico on the issue.
It was similar to the job Biden had when he was vice president.”
Reuters, July 30, 2024
In fact-checking the Republican National Convention, PolitiFact spoke to Michelle Mittelstadt with the nonpartisan think tank Migration Policy Institute. She said Biden asked Harris “to be the chief diplomatic officer with Central American countries” and address the root causes that make people leave their home countries. Managing the border “has always been” the Homeland Security secretary’s role, Mittelstadt said.
Claim: Kamala Harris
Fact-Check: ⚠️ Needs Context
The quote that has been tossed around for years alleging Trump said there were “very fine people on both sides” comes from a 2017 news conference held at Trump Tower in New York City when then-President Trump was asked about the violent protests in Charlottesville, Va.
Here is the transcript of that exchange:
Reporter: “The neo-Nazis started this. They showed up in Charlottesville to protest --”
Trump: “Excuse me, excuse me. They didn’t put themselves -- and you had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides. You had people in that group. Excuse me, excuse me. I saw the same pictures as you did. You had people in that group that were there to protest the taking down of, to them, a very, very important statue and the renaming of a park from Robert E. Lee to another name.”
Full transcript from White House Archives: https://trumpwhitehouse.archives.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-infrastructure/
Claim: Kamala Harris
Fact-Check: ✅ True
In a social media post from 2022, Former President Donald Trump called for the termination of the Constitution to overturn the 2020 election and reinstate him to power in a continuation of his election denialism and pushing of fringe conspiracy theories.
“Do you throw the Presidential Election Results of 2020 OUT and declare the RIGHTFUL WINNER, or do you have a NEW ELECTION? A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution,” Trump wrote in a post on the social network Truth Social and accused “Big Tech” of working closely with Democrats. “Our great ‘Founders’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!”
CNN reported on the story on December 4, 2022.
Claim: Donald Trump
Fact-Check: ❌ False
According to reporting by CBS News, officials in Springfield, Ohio have not received credible reports of Haitian migrants abducting and eating pets. One recent viral video on X and TikTok claims that cats, ducks, and geese have been eaten by migrants, despite no confirmation from the local authorities.
“In response to recent rumors alleging criminal activity by the immigrant population in our city, we wish to clarify that there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community,” Karen Graves, strategic engagement manager for Springfield, told CBS News.
The claim has also been debunked by the Springfield News-Sun, the local newspaper in the area.
Claim: Donald Trump
Fact-Check: Mostly False
Annual FBI data from 2020 to 2022 shows a decline in violent crime across the country. Claims of an increase in violent crime have been repeated before, including during an Arizona rally in August. Additionally, preliminary data from 2023 shows a continuing decline after a spike during the COVID-19 pandemic, per the Associated Press.
In addition, analysis by the Pew Research Center shows that violent and property crime rates have plummeted since the 1990s, regardless of the original data source.
Claim: Kamala Harris
Fact-Check: ⚠️ Misleading
In an interview with Time, Former President Trump was asked with the overturning of Roe v. Wade, if states should monitor women’s pregnancies or prosecute women who get an abortion in violation of state law. He replied “they might” but said it was up to each state to decide.
Trump made clear in the Time interview that states would make their own decisions. “The states are going to say. It’s irrelevant whether I’m comfortable or not. It’s totally irrelevant, because the states are going to make those decisions. And by the way, Texas is going to be different than Ohio. And Ohio is going to be different than Michigan. I see what’s happening.”
Claim: Donald Trump
Fact-Check: ❌ False
There is no evidence Tim Walz said this.
As Governor of Minnesota, Walz enshrined the right to abortion and other reproductive health care. The Associated Press reports that among the restrictions eliminated were a 24-hour waiting period and parental consent requirement. State law does not restrict abortion based on the pregnancy stage.
“Partial-birth abortion” is a non-medical term for a procedure known as dilation and extraction, or D&X, which is already federally prohibited.
It was signed into law in late 2003. Additionally, any doctor who performs the procedure, “and thereby kills a human fetus shall be fined under this title or imprisoned not more than 2 years, or both.”
Claim: Kamala Harris
Fact-Check: ✅ True
According to a CBS News report in June 2024, sixteen of the world’s most notable economists – all Nobel Prize winners – warned that Former President Trump’s plan could stoke inflation if he wins the election and goes forward with his economic plans.
Trump’s policies could prove to be inflationary, other economists also warned, such as his proposal to create a 10% across-the-board tariff on all imports to deporting immigrants. The tariff plan would add $1,700 in annual costs for the typical U.S. household, essentially acting as an inflationary tax, according to experts at the Peterson Institute for International Economics.
Claim: Donald Trump
Fact-Check: ⚠️ Needs Context
According to analysis by Investopedia, the highest yearly inflation rate happened when Jimmy Carter was president, between 1977 and 1981, averaging 9.9% year-over-year.
The inflation rate under the Biden administration between January 2021 and December 2023 was 5.7% year-over-year, but at one point, soared 9.1% year-over-year. As inflation has slowed in recent months, the average has decreased.
Claim: Kamala Harris
Fact Check: ⚠️ Needs Context
The Harris campaign confirmed to PolitiFact that when Harris mentioned this during her acceptance speech at the Democratic National Convention was referring to Trump’s tariff proposals when she mentioned “a national sales tax.”
Although tariffs are levied separately from taxes, a majority of economists say much of their impact is passed along to consumers. This makes them analogous to a tax. But because a minority of consumer spending goes toward imports, the tariffs would not hit all purchases equally.
There’s wide agreement that the tariff would affect consumers. “Trump’s proposal would be very harmful to household budgets,” said Daniel Mitchell, an independent libertarian economist.
Claim: Donald Trump
Fact Check:❌ False
According to PolitiFact, about 103,700 noncitizens were arrested by immigration officials from fiscal year 2021 to fiscal year 2024. That number is far lower than millions.
“Millions would mean one-in-eight was someone released from a jail or a mental institution, a claim too ridiculous to dignify,” border security expert Adam Isacson told the website.
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