Former president Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris will meet face to face for the first time in aA long-awaited debate On Tuesday night, the two presidential candidates described the state of the country in very different terms. Trump typically paints a bleak picture focused on issues like immigration and high inflation, while Harris focuses on optimism about the future and promises that “we’re not going back.”
The first debate of the 2024 elections in June, in which the president Joe Biden The disastrous performance of ‘s ultimatelyforced him to abandon the race — featured multiple false and misleading claims from both candidates, and Tuesday’s showdown is likely to feature much of the same.
Below are some of the previous false and misleading claims as Trump and Harris meet for debate.
Abortion remains a major problem
The Supreme Court’s unprecedented ruling that overturned Roe vs. WadeMore than two years ago has made abortion a key issue in the 2024 elections. As a result of the ruling, abortionNow it is forbidden In 14 Republican-controlled states, the practice is banned at all stages of pregnancy, with limited exceptions. In three other states, it is banned after the first six weeks — before many people even know they are pregnant.
Trump often tries to portray Democrats as radical on abortion. He has falsely claimed on multiple occasions, including thedebate in Junethat some states allow women to have an abortion after their baby is born. This is not true. Infanticide is criminalized in all states andNo state has passed a law which allows a baby to be killed after birth.
During her acceptance speech for the Democratic presidential nomination, Harris said Trump would “enact a national abortion ban with or without Congress .” Trump said in an Aug. 22 appearance on “Fox & Friends”: “I would never do it. There will be no federal ban. This is now back in the states where it belongs.” However, as recently as March he suggested he would support a national abortion ban.Around 15 weeks of pregnancy.
Blame for Afghanistan withdrawal
Trump has repeatedly tried to link Harris to theDisastrous US withdrawal from Afghanistanwhich saw the Taliban take control of the country again before the last US troops left Kabul airport.in August 2021.
Most assessments have concluded that Trump and Biden share blame for the disastrous end to America’s longest war. The U.S. government’s main watchdog for the warpoints to Trump’s 2020 deal with the Taliban to withdraw all US military forces and contractors is seen as “the single most important factor” in the collapse of US-allied Afghan security forces and the Taliban takeover.
Biden’s April 2021 announcement The second most important factor was that he would proceed with the withdrawal launched by Trump, the watchdog said. Harris has said she was thelast person in the room when Biden made his decision, but neither the reviews of the control agencies nor aMore than 18 months of research House Republicans have identified any instance in which the vice president had a significant impact on decision-making.
A suicide attack at Kabul airport during the withdrawal killed 13 soldiers and more than 170 Afghans.
Different views on the economy
Voters rank the economy and inflation as top concerns heading into the election, and both Trump and Harris argue that they are better for the nation’s pocketbook.
Democrats, including Harris, have said Trump’s proposal to impose a 10% to 20% tariff on all imports (and up to 60% on imports from China) would cost the average household $3,900 a year. Most economists expect it would raise prices for many goods. The $3,900 figure comes from the Center for American Progress, a progressive advocacy group. But Trump has said revenue from tariffs could be used to cut other taxes, lowering the overall cost of the policy.
One of Harris’s main policy proposals would provide $25,000 in down payment assistance to certain first-time homebuyers and tax incentives to starter home builders. Experts say these promises could end up having contradictory effects, as down payment assistance would almost certainly increase demand when estimates of the U.S. housing shortage already range from $100 million to $150 million.3 million to 7 million houses.
Trump consistently touts the economy under his administration as the best in U.S. history, highlighting the high levels of inflation under Biden.
But it’s incorrect to claim that the economy was at its best under Trump. First, the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a massive recession during his presidency. Stripping out the problems caused by the pandemic, economic growth averaged 2.67% during Trump’s first three years. That’s a pretty solid number, but nowhere near Bill Clinton’s 4% average from 1993 to 2001, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.
And while inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022 after rising steadily in the first 17 months of Biden’s presidency from a low of 0.1% in May 2020, it is now trending downward.The most recent data shows that by July it had fallen to 2.9%, with year-on-year inflation at its lowest level in more than three years.
Energy, inflation and a sea change in fracking
Trump has long promised to “drill, drill, drill” to boost oil production and reduce inflation. But U.S. oil productionreached an all-time high under the Biden administration and inflation is already coming down. In addition,gasoline prices areIn decline across the United StatesThe average cost of regular gasoline was $3.27 on Monday, down significantly from a high of $5.01 in June 2022, according to the American Automobile Association.
Trump recently claimed that all coal-fired power plants will be forced to close in the next few years because of a rule issued in April by the Environmental Protection Agency. But that is false. Coal-fired power plants will be forced to capture 90% of smokestack emissions by 2032 or they will close. The plants that are already closing are doing so largely for economic reasons: They cannot compete with natural gas, solar and wind power.
Harris’ shifting views on fracking have come under scrutiny in recent weeks. The vice president said at a Democratic presidential town hall in 2019, during her brief 2020 presidential campaign,that she opposed fracking. But her current campaign made it clear that sheno longer supported a ban on the practice.
During her first interview since announcing her 2024 bid, Harris said she made her position against banning fracking “clear on the 2020 debate stage.”They faced each other with then-Vice President Mike Pence. A review of the debate revealed that she said: “ Joe Biden “It won’t end fracking.”
Violent crime rates under Trump and Biden-Harris
Democrats have pointed to high rates of violent crime under the Trump administration, as the former president, whoHe was convicted on 34 charges In a plan to illegally influence the 2016 election, he calls for law and order, claiming that violent crime has flourished during the Biden administration.
Violent crime declined for most of Trump’s presidency,according to FBI data which uses information provided by law enforcement. However, it increased in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been trending downward since 2020 across the United States, approaching pre-pandemic levels in 2022.FBI preliminary data for 2023 shows that violent crime overall fell another 6% that year.
The most recent report from the Department of JusticeNational Crime Victimization SurveyOn the other hand, violent crimes reported and not reported to police were found to have increased from 2021 to 2022 by 42.4% for people aged 12 and older. Unlike the FBI statistics, which cover victims of all ages, the surveyuses self-reported data and does not include murders.
Attacks on border security continue
Trump is expected to attack Harris again on border security. He said in apress conference last month that 20 million people, perhaps more, have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border during the current administration, but that figure is uncorroborated at best.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 7.1 million arrests for illegal crossings from Mexico between January 2021 and June 2024. These are arrests, not people. With asylum restrictions imposed during the pandemic, many people crossed more than once until they were successful because there were no legal consequences for being turned away. Therefore, the number of people is lower than the number of arrests.
If the number of times migrants were apprehended at official land crossings, as well as migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who were admitted into the country under presidential authority, is included, the number of encounters rises to 8.7 million. CBP does not publish its estimates of people who evaded capture.
Claims that illegal immigration has led to an increase in violent crime are also unfounded. In recent months, there have been a number of high-profile and heinous crimes involving people in the United States illegally in the news, but there is nothing to support the claim that this is a widespread practice. FBI statistics do not separate crimes based on the immigration status of the perpetrator, and there is no evidence of an increase in crimes committed by immigrants, either along the US-Mexico border or in cities with the largest influx of immigrants, such as New York.
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