USA TODAY
Presidential debate fact check: Keeping an eye on claims from Trump, Harris
Joedy McCreary, Andre Byik, Brad Sylvester, Chris Mueller and BrieAnna J. Frank, USA TODAY
Updated Tue, September 10, 2024 at 10:46 PM EDT·17 min read
397
Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump take the stage tonight in Philadelphia for their first presidential debate of the Nov. 5 election season.
Follow this space as the USA TODAY Fact-Check Team investigates claims from the nominees and adds context on the top issues for voters this year.
We'll be watching for statements that exaggerate, mislead, misrepresent or otherwise stray from reality. Our team uses primary documents, trustworthy nonpartisan sources, data and other research tools to assess the accuracy of claims. And you won't have to take our word for it, since we'll always link our sources as we go.
More from the Fact-Check Team: How we pick and research claims | Email newsletter | Facebook page
Donald Trump claim: Harris wouldn’t meet with Netanyahu when he addressed Congress
“She wouldn’t even meet with Netanyahu when he went to Congress to make a very important speech. She refused to be there because she was at a sorority party of hers.”
This is misleading. It’s true that Harris, in her capacity as vice president, didn’t preside over Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s July 24 address to Congress in order to attend a previously scheduled campaign event, USA TODAY reported.
That event was the Zeta Phi Beta sorority’s national convention in Indianapolis, the Indianapolis Star reported. The sorority is among the country’s oldest historically Black Greek-lettered organizations.
Harris did, however, meet with Netanyahu at the White House the following day, as numerous news outlets reported. The vice president “reiterated her longstanding and unwavering commitment to the security of the State of Israel and the people of Israel” during the meeting, according to a White House news release.
-BrieAnna Frank
Kamala Harris claim: Trump said there will be a ‘bloodbath’ if he loses the presidential election
"Donald Trump the candidate has said in this election there will be a bloodbath if the outcome of this election is not to his liking"
Harris is misrepresenting what Trump said, as Trump himself pointed out moments later. Harris is referring to a comment Trump made at a rally he held in Vandalia, Ohio, in March.
While speaking at the event about the auto industry, Trump said it would be a “bloodbath” for the industry if he were to lose the election.
“We’re going to put a 100% tariff on every single car that comes across the line, and you’re not going to be able to sell those guys if I get elected,” Trump said during the speech. “Now, if I don’t get elected, it’s going to be a bloodbath for the whole – that’s gonna be the least of it. It’s going to be a bloodbath for the country. That’ll be the least of it.”
The full context of the comment shows he was warning about a metaphorical bloodbath for the auto industry, not promising violence if he doesn’t win the election.
“If you actually watch and listen to the section, he was talking about the auto industry and tariffs,” Steven Cheung, a spokesman for Trump’s campaign, told the Washington Post. “Biden’s policies will create an economic bloodbath for the auto industry and autoworkers.”
-Brad Sylvester
Kamala Harris claim: Trump told Putin to ‘do whatever the hell he wants’
“It is well known that he said of Putin, that he can do whatever the hell he wants and go into Ukraine.”
This is technically accurate but an oversimplification by Harris, who made a similar claim during her speech last month at the Democratic National Convention.
It’s a reference to a remark Trump made during a Feb. 10 campaign rally in South Carolina, where he suggested he might not aid NATO members attacked by Russia if they weren’t contributing enough money to the alliance, as USA TODAY previously reported.
“One of the presidents of a big country stood up and said, ‘Well sir, if we don’t pay and we’re attacked by Russia, will you protect us?’" Trump said. “I said, ‘You didn’t pay? You’re delinquent?’ He said, ‘Yes, let’s say that happened.’ No, I would not protect you.”
He added, “In fact I would encourage them to do whatever the hell they want.”
At the time, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said Trump's comments could endanger lives and undermine the security of NATO members, including the U.S.
-Chris Mueller
Donald Trump claim: Department of Justice played role in his four criminal prosecutions
“Every one of those cases was started by them against their political opponent.”
Trump has long sought to paint President Joe Biden and his administration as orchestrating his prosecutions.
But under the Constitution, the administration did not have authority over the state of New York’s prosecution of Trump, who was convicted on 34 felony charges of falsifying business records related to a hush money payment to an adult film actress ahead of the 2016 election.
Nor does it have that power in the former president’s case in Georgia, where he and others have pleaded not guilty to charges of trying to steal the 2020 election. That case is on hold while an appeals court reviews a ruling that allows Fulton County District Attorney Fani Willis to remain on it.
“When you’re dealing with state prosecutions, it’s district attorneys elected by the voters of their jurisdiction,” said Allan Lichtman, a professor of history at American University. “That has nothing to do with the federal government.”
Additionally, when the Justice Department had the authority to pursue a case against Trump over the hush money circumstances, it chose not to do so.
The federal classified documents case against Trump was dismissed in July with U.S. District Judge Aileen Cannon saying Justice Department special prosecutor Jack Smith – appointed in November 2022 in part to add a layer of separation between the investigation and the administration – was improperly appointed. Smith in August filed a new indictment in Trump’s federal election interference case to address the Supreme Court’s July decision that Trump had broad immunity from charges related to official acts as president.
Trump is due to be sentenced in New York on Nov. 26 – three weeks after the election.
– Joedy McCreary
Donald Trump claim: Crime has soared under Biden and Harris
“Crime here is up and through the roof.”
Trump’s claim conflicts with the latest available data.
Earlier this year, the FBI released preliminary data that showed sharp declines in violent crime in the first three months of 2024 compared to a year earlier, continuing a trend ongoing since a pandemic surge. Murder and rape were both down 26%, robbery was down 18% and aggravated assault fell by 13%, the Associated Press reported. But some experts have cautioned that the data is still preliminary and likely overstates the drop.
Many cities in the U.S. have reported declines in homicides from 2023 to 2024, Axios reported in April. Similarly, the number of murders in the first three months of 2024 fell by nearly 20% in 204 cities analyzed by AH Datalytics, a criminal justice consulting firm.
The most recent FBI data, which dates to 2022, shows the country’s violent crime rate at 370 per 100,000 people, the third-lowest rate in the last 50 years, behind only 2014 and 2019, according to PolitiFact. The FBI hasn’t released the final 2023 violent crime figures, which come out each October.
-Chris Mueller
Kamala Harris claim: Project 2025 calls for abortion monitor to track pregnancies, miscarriages
“In his Project 2025 there would be a national abortion monitor that would be monitoring your pregnancies, your miscarriages.”
This significantly overstates the nature of the monitoring called for in Project 2025.
The playbook does support anti-abortion policies, and it laments the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention abortion surveillance and reporting systems, calling them “woefully inadequate.”
It calls for the Department of Health and Human Services to use every available tool “to ensure that every state reports exactly how many abortions take place within its borders, at what gestational age of the child, for what reason, the mother’s state of residence, and by what method.” But that's not the same as "monitoring your pregnancies." It appears to be calling for states to regularly report cumulative totals, not specific instances.
It says reliable statistical data about abortion, abortion survivors and abortion-related maternal deaths “are essential to timely, reliable public health and policy analysis.”
Harris also repeats a common overreach by calling Project 2025 Trump's plan. Trump allies worked on the plan, but Trump has repeatedly said he does not support all elements of the plan and wasn't directly involved in creating it.
-Andre Byik
Donald Trump claim: Tim Walz supports abortion in the ninth month
“Her vice-presidential pick says abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine.”
There is no evidence Walz ever said this.
He said in 2022 that he supported “maintaining the timelines outlined by current law,” which was around 24 weeks for elective abortions in the state, according to the Minnesota Reformer.
Walz has taken steps to protect abortion rights in the state. He signed a bill enshrining the right to abortion and other reproductive healthcare into Minnesota state statutes in January 2023, seven months after the Supreme Court overturned Roe v. Wade. Months later, Walz signed a bill that protected people traveling to Minnesota for abortion care, as well as the professionals providing that care, from legal repercussions from other states.
But none of those measures backed abortion anywhere near the ninth month of pregnancy.
Only 1% of all abortions occur at or after 21 weeks of pregnancy, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
-BrieAnna Frank
Trump claim: The economy and stock market improved under the Trump administration despite the COVID-19 pandemic
“We handed them a stock market and economy that was higher than it was before the pandemic.”
Trump is right about the stock market, but the economy as a whole was worse off when he left office than it was before the pandemic.
The Dow Jones Industrial Average (a popular stock market index) was up by about 8% (about 2,300 points) from February 2020 (the month before the COVID-19 pandemic was declared) to January 2021, when Trump left office.
But the overall economy was still reeling from the impact of the pandemic. U.S. GDP was down from where it was prior to the COVID-19 pandemic, and the unemployment rate had spiked as millions of Americans had lost their jobs. The unemployment rate was at 3.5% in February 2020 compared to 6.4% when Trump left office in January 2021, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
-Brad Sylvester
Kamala Harris claim: Trump left one of highest trade deficits in US history
“The Trump administration resulted in a trade deficit, one of the highest we’ve ever seen in the history of America.”
This is accurate.
The country’s trade deficit reached its highest level since 2008 under Trump, who had promised to reduce it during his 2016 campaign. In 2020, the combined U.S. goods and services trade deficit increased to $679 billion, up from $481 billion in 2016, before Trump took office, Politico reported. A trade deficit happens when a country imports more than it exports.
However, the U.S. trade deficit has been higher before, including in 2006, when it reached $764 billion under former President George W. Bush. In 2007, it dropped to $711 billion, remained about the same in 2008, then fell sharply to $395 billion in 2009 as a result of the recession, according to Factcheck.org, which cited data from the U.S. Census Bureau.
-Chris Mueller
Kamala Harris claim: Trump tariffs would cost families $4,000 per year
“Economists have said that that Trump sales tax would actually result, for middle-class families, in about $4,000 more a year.”
Harris also brought up this number during her speech at the Democratic National Convention in reference to Trump’s proposed tariff of between 10% and 20% on imported goods. Her estimate is at the high end of the economic estimates.
While Trump has described it as a way to raise revenue, economists say it would mostly be passed along to consumers, effectively making it a tax. But they disagree on the additional cost families would face.
A study by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center found that tariff, and one of 60% on Chinese goods that Trump has also proposed, would lower the average post-tax incomes of American households by about $1,800. Another think tank, The Peterson Institute for International Economics, says the larger tariff would cost households more than $2,600 per year.
But a projection from the conservative American Action Forum falls closer to the figure Harris cited, saying the 20% tariff and 60% tariff on Chinese goods would amount to a tax increase of $3,900 for a middle-class family.
– Joedy McCreary
Donald Trump claim: Immigrants in the country illegally have highest rate of ‘criminality’
“(Immigrants in the country illegally are) destroying our country. They’re dangerous. They’re at the highest level of criminality, and we have to get them out.”
Immigrants are 60% less likely to be incarcerated than the broader U.S.-born population in recent years, according to a 2023 National Bureau of Economic Research paper.
The paper, co-authored by Stanford University researcher Ran Abramitzky, used U.S. Census data and focused on immigrants present in the Census regardless of their legal status and on men between the ages of 18 and 40, according to a news release about the study.
Alex Nowrasteh, vice president for economic and social policy studies at the Cato Institute, in a Feb. 24 report, examined homicide conviction rates between those who entered the country illegally and native-born Americans in Texas. Nowrasteh found that those entering illegally had a lower homicide conviction rate (2.4 per 100,000) than native-born Americans (2.8 per 100,000) in 2015.
-Andre Byik
Donald Trump claim: Inflation was at 21% under Biden
“We have inflation like very few people have ever seen, probably the worst in our nation’s history. We were at 21%.”
This is wrong, according to consumer price index data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
The highest year-over-year inflation rate during Biden’s presidency was 9.1% in June 2022. The rate as of July 2024 was 2.9%.
By contrast, the highest rate during Trump’s presidency was 2.9%, which happened in both June and July 2018. The lowest rate was 0.1% in May 2020, amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
-BrieAnna Frank
How we pick and research fact checks
Ever wonder how fact-checkers do their work? We've got you covered.
Check out our process explainer to see how we pick claims, research them and edit them. This includes a rundown of how we cover live events like tonight’s debate.
And if you've ever wondered who fact-checks the fact-checkers, you might want to read this op-ed explaining our emphasis on transparency. Becaus the answer is you! We use the format and approach precisely so that everyone has the ability to check our work.
-Eric Litke
https://www.yahoo.com/news/presidential-debate-fact-check-keeping-224430364.html
Trumptard tears - soooooooo delicious.
