Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris confronted off in their first presidential debate, and difficult one another over their plans for the nation and the financial system. The 90-minute debate was hosted by ABC Information on the Nationwide Structure Middle in Philadelphia.
CBS Information’ Confirmed staff is conducting the fact-checks of the feedback Harris and Trump made about one another and about their very own data and plans.
False: Trump claims “thousands and thousands and thousands and thousands of individuals” are “pouring into our nation month-to-month”
Trump: “[W]hen you have a look at what she’s performed to our nation, and whenever you have a look at these thousands and thousands (and) thousands and thousands of individuals which might be pouring into our nation month-to-month, the place it is, I imagine 21 million individuals, not the 15 that folks that say. And I feel it is loads greater than the 21. That is larger than New York state. Pouring in. And simply have a look at what they’re doing to our nation.”
Particulars: Encounters of migrants by Customs and Border Safety on the U.S.-Mexico border have reached report ranges previously 4 years, beneath the Biden administration. However the quantity is not near the figures cited by Trump, and never everybody who has crossed the border beneath Mr. Biden has been allowed to remain.
CBP has recorded over 8 million encounters with migrants on the southern border since Mr. Biden took workplace in 2021, federal figures present. Encounters embody migrants who cross into the nation illegally between authorized entry factors and people processed at these official crossings, generally known as ports of entry. Encounters don’t characterize distinctive people, since some migrants cross the border illegally a number of occasions.
CBP has by no means recorded “thousands and thousands” of migrant encounters in a month. The best month-to-month migrant encounter tally was recorded in December 2023, when CBP processed over 300,000 migrants.
Along with these processed by CBP, there are migrants who efficiently cross the southern border illegally with out being caught. Border Patrol estimates that 1.7 million migrants have evaded apprehension because the begin of fiscal 12 months 2021.
Simply because migrants had been processed by CBP doesn’t imply they had been allowed to remain. Many have been launched into the U.S. with notices to seem in immigration court docket. However the U.S. has additionally turned away or deported over 4 million migrants because the begin of fiscal 12 months 2021, in keeping with Division of Homeland Safety information.
By Camilo Montoya Galvez
Partially true, wants context: Harris claims Trump would enact $4,000 “gross sales tax”
Harris: “Economists have stated that Trump gross sales tax would really end result — for center class households — in about $4,000 extra a 12 months due to his insurance policies and his concepts about what must be — [on] the backs of center class individuals paying for tax cuts for billionaires.”
Particulars: Harris is citing an estimate of potential prices if Trump had been to implement tariffs on imported items. Trump has advocated for a tariff of not less than 10% on most imports and a tariff of not less than 60% on Chinese language imports.
Nonetheless, estimates of the potential prices and the probably scale of the tariffs fluctuate. An evaluation from the Middle for American Progress Motion, a progressive coverage institute, estimated {that a} 20% tariff on most imports, mixed with a 60% tax on Chinese language items, would quantity to a tax improve of round $3,900 yearly for middle-income households.
The Tax Coverage Middle, a nonpartisan assume tank, estimated {that a} 10% worldwide tariff and a 60% tariff on Chinese language items would decrease common after-tax incomes by about $1,800 in 2025.
Economists instructed CBS Information that on a regular basis shoppers would bear the brunt of upper import tariffs by means of elevated costs on items, successfully performing as a tax. In an interview with The New York Occasions, Robert Lighthizer, who served as Trump’s chief commerce negotiator and nonetheless advises his marketing campaign on commerce points, stated the burden on American households might be offset by tax cuts.
By Emma Li
False: Trump claims “they’d the very best inflation maybe within the historical past of our nation”
Particulars: Underneath President Biden, year-over-year inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022. That was the very best month-to-month determine in about 40 years, however not the very best ever. The Seventies and early Nineteen Eighties noticed inflation charges between 12% and 14%, in keeping with Federal Reserve information. Inflation has since cooled significantly. The figures for July 2024 present year-to-year inflation is about 2.9%.
By Laura Doan
False: Trump claims Haitian immigrants are “consuming the canine” and pets in Springfield, Ohio
Trump: “In Springfield, they’re consuming the canine — the folks that got here in — they’re consuming the cats. They’re consuming — they’re consuming the pets of the folks that stay there. And that is what’s occurring in our nation, and it is a disgrace.”
Particulars: Officers in Springfield, Ohio, say they haven’t acquired any credible studies of Haitian immigrants abducting and consuming pets, regardless of viral claims on social media which were amplified this week by Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance and others.
A metropolis spokesperson instructed CBS Information there have been “no credible studies or particular claims” of pets being harmed by immigrants. Clark County Park District officers instructed CBS Information there was “no proof or studies” of individuals consuming pets or wildlife.
By Layla Ferris, Rhona Tarrant
Inconclusive: Harris claims Trump “will signal a nationwide abortion ban”
Harris: “If Donald Trump had been to be reelected, he’ll signal a nationwide abortion ban.”
Particulars: Whereas Trump has not flat-out endorsed a nationwide abortion ban, he floated the thought of a 15- or 16-week nationwide ban in March when he nonetheless had rivals within the Republican main, suggesting it was one thing beneath dialogue that he would help.
Nonetheless, Trump has additionally repeatedly stated that the difficulty belongs with the states, and when he was requested instantly a couple of ban in an Aug. 22 interview with “Fox and Associates,” he replied, “I might by no means. There is not going to be a federal ban. That is now again within the states the place it belongs.”
Throughout his first time period, Trump endorsed Home laws banning abortion nationwide after 20 weeks.
By Libby Cathey
False: Trump claims Walz says “execution after start” of infants “is okay.”
Trump: “[H]er vice presidential decide says abortion within the ninth month is completely positive. He additionally says execution after start — it is execution, now not abortion as a result of the newborn is born, — is okay. And that is not okay with me. Therefore the vote.”
Particulars: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, has not stated that execution of an toddler after start is “okay.”
In 2023, Walz signed into legislation a invoice that included an replace to Minnesota state legislation relating to medical take care of infants born alive on account of an abortion, in keeping with the Minnesota Star Tribune. The up to date state statute requires that “all cheap measures in step with good medical apply…shall be taken by the accountable medical personnel to take care of the toddler who’s born alive,” in keeping with the Star Tribune. The legislation says that an toddler born alive is absolutely acknowledged as a human particular person and “accorded fast safety beneath the legislation.”
It isn’t authorized in any state to execute an toddler after start.
By Steve Reilly
Deceptive: Trump claims Harris would finish fracking in Pennsylvania “on Day One”
Trump: “If she received the election, fracking in Pennsylvania will finish on Day One.”
Particulars: As California legal professional basic, Harris filed a lawsuit difficult a federal evaluation and approval for fracking off the coast of California. She additionally stated “there isn’t any query I am in favor of banning fracking,” when requested throughout a 2019 city corridor if she would decide to implementing a federal ban.
Nonetheless, as a presidential candidate in 2024, Harris has stated her administration wouldn’t ban fracking. “As vp, I didn’t ban fracking. As president, I cannot ban fracking,” Harris stated in a latest interview with CNN.
When requested why she modified her thoughts on the difficulty, Harris stated, “What I’ve seen is that we are able to — we are able to develop, and we are able to improve a thriving clear vitality financial system with out banning fracking.”
By Emma Li and Laura Doan
False: Trump claims Harris is busing in and paying individuals to attend her rallies
Trump: “Individuals do not go to her rallies, there isn’t any motive to go. And the folks that do go, she’s busing them in and paying them to be there after which displaying them in a special gentle.”
Particulars: An August 2024 Fb put up was circulated on the social media web sites Reality Social by Trump and X by Kevin Sorbo. The put up depicts a supposed Craigslist advert asking for paid actors to hold indicators with “Anti-Trump” messages.
The put up is a doctored picture of one other fabricated 2019 put up of a Craigslist advert displaying to ask for paid actors carrying “Professional Trump” indicators at a rally in Phoenix.
By Jui Sarwate
Deceptive: Trump claims he has “nothing to do with Undertaking 2025”
Trump: “I’ve nothing to do — as you realize and as she is aware of higher than anybody — I’ve nothing to do with Undertaking 2025. That is on the market, I have not learn it. I do not wish to learn it purposefully. I am not going to learn it.”
Particulars: Trump has tried to place distance between himself and the controversial Undertaking 2025, a multi-pronged initiative overseen by the conservative Heritage Basis that features a detailed blueprint for the following Republican president to usher in a sweeping overhaul of the manager department.
Democrats have seized on Undertaking 2025 and sought to tie the transition mission to Trump, warning that its coverage proposals are what Individuals can count on in the event that they elect him in November.
Rhetoric apart, a key information level from the coverage perspective is clear. Former Trump administration officers have contributed to Undertaking 2025, and CBS Information recognized not less than 270 proposals within the revealed blueprint that match Trump’s previous insurance policies and marketing campaign guarantees as he runs once more for the White Home.
By Hunter Woodall and Laura Doan
Deceptive: Harris claims “we have now created over 800,000 new manufacturing jobs whereas I’ve been vp.”
Particulars: August information from the Bureau of Labor Statistics confirmed that since President Biden took workplace in January 2021, the united statesadded round 739,000 manufacturing jobs.
On Aug. 21, the Labor Division issued a preliminary revision of its information that estimated that the variety of manufacturing jobs created over the 12 months ending in March was probably 115,000 decrease than the unique estimate. The ultimate calculation must be issued in early 2025. If that revision holds up, it might put the whole variety of manufacturing jobs created in the course of the Biden-Harris administration nearer to 624,000.
It’s also value noting that many of those beneficial properties adopted heavy job losses in 2020 at first of the COVID-19 pandemic. The variety of manufacturing jobs within the U.S. has largely been rising since 2010, in keeping with the Bureau of Labor Statistics, excluding 2020.
By Laura Doan and Julia Ingram
True: Trump “obtained extra votes than any sitting president.” However challenger Joe Biden received extra.
Trump: “I obtained extra votes than any Republican in historical past, by far. In truth, I obtained extra votes than any president- sitting president, in historical past, by far.”
Particulars: Trump acquired 74,223,975 fashionable votes within the 2020 presidential election, in keeping with official election outcomes revealed by the Federal Election Fee, the very best variety of votes for a Republican candidate — or a sitting president, data present.
However Mr. Biden acquired 81,283,501 votes, the most ever solid for a U.S. presidential candidate — and over 7 million greater than Trump.
Within the Electoral School, Mr. Biden received the 2020 presidential election with 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232, a end result that was licensed by Congress.
In 2016, Trump received the Electoral School with 304 votes to Hillary Clinton’s 227, however he misplaced the favored vote by almost 2.9 million votes, profitable 62,979,879, whereas Clinton received 65,844,954.
By Laura Doan
False: Trump claims “crime on this nation is thru the roof”
Trump: “They’ve destroyed the material of our nation. Hundreds of thousands of individuals let in. And everywhere in the world, crime is down, everywhere in the world, besides right here. Crime right here is up and thru the roof, regardless of their fraudulent statements that they made. Crime on this nation is thru the roof. And we have now a brand new type of crime, it is referred to as migrant crime. And it is occurring at ranges that no person thought attainable.”
Particulars: FBI information from legislation enforcement businesses nationwide, together with cities with crime will increase in the course of the Trump presidency, present charges of violent crime offenses — murder, rape, theft and aggravated assault —decreased yearly within the first two years of the Biden administration.
The crime drop has occurred in cities giant and small, in keeping with the FBI’s preliminary information for 2023, with the most important drop occurring amongst these with populations of 1 million or extra, a lot of which have acquired immigrants who entered the nation in the course of the Biden administration.
By Matt Clark
Melissa Quinn and
contributed to this report.
