Trump, Kamala Harris Presidential debate fact-checked

Most of those take place before 24 weeks, according to Pew data cited by NPR.

HARRIS: “Nowhere in America is a woman carrying a pregnancy to term and asking for an abortion. That isn’t happening; it’s insulting to the women of America.”

Trump has distanced himself from Project 2025

HARRIS: “What you’re going to hear tonight is a detailed and dangerous plan called Project 2025 that the former president intends on implementing if he were elected again.”

THE FACTS: Trump has said he doesn’t know about Project 2025, a controversial blueprint for another Republican presidential administration.

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The plan was written up by many of his former aides and allies, but Trump has never said he’ll implement the roughly 900-page guide if he’s elected again. On the contrary, he has said it’s not related to his campaign.

Trump repeats false claims immigrants that noncitizens are being sought to vote

TRUMP: “A lot of these illegal immigrants coming in, they’re trying to get them to vote. They can’t even speak English. They don’t even know what country they’re in practically and these people are trying to get them to vote, and that’s why they’re allowing them to come into our country.”

THE FACTS: In recent months, Trump and other Republicans have been repeating the baseless claim that Democrats want migrants to come into the country illegally so they will vote.

There’s no evidence for this, nor is there any evidence that noncitizens illegally vote in significant numbers in this country.

Voting by people who are not US citizens already is illegal in federal elections.

Trump’s comments suggest that not speaking English is somehow prohibitive for voting in the US — and that’s also not the case.

Trump misrepresents crime statistics

TRUMP, criticising the Biden administration: “Crime is through the roof.”

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THE FACTS: In fact, FBI data has shown a downward trend in violent crime since a coronavirus pandemic spike. Violent crime surged during the pandemic, with homicides increasing nearly 30 per cent between in 2020 over the previous year — the largest one-year jump since the FBI began keeping records

Violent crime was down 6 per cent in the last three months of 2023 compared with the same period the year before, according to FBI data released in March. Murders were down 13 per cent. New FBI statistics released in June show the overall violent crime rate declined 15 per cent in the first three months of 2024 compared to the same period last year.

Jobs created under the Biden administration

TRUMP: “Just like their number of 818,000 jobs that they said they created turned out to be a fraud.”

THE FACTS: This is a mischaracterisation of the government’s process of counting jobs. Every year the Labor Department issues a revision of the number of jobs added in a 12-month period from April through March in the previous year. The adjustment is made because the government’s initial job counts are based on surveys of businesses. The revision is then based on actual job counts from unemployment insurance files that are compiled later. The revision is compiled by career government employees with little involvement by politically appointed officials.

Trump falsely touts his economy

TRUMP: “I created one of the greatest economies in the history of our country. … They’ve destroyed the economy.”

THE FACTS: This is an exaggeration. The economy grew much faster under Presidents Bill Clinton and Ronald Reagan than it did under Trump. The broadest measure of economic growth, gross domestic product, rose 4 per cent a year for four straight years under Clinton. The fastest growth under Trump was 3 per cent in 2018. The economy shrank 2.2 per cent in 2020, at the end of Trump’s presidency. And a higher proportion of American adults had jobs under Clinton than under Trump. During the Biden-Harris administration, the economy expanded 5.8 per cent in 2021, though much of that reflected a bounce-back from COVID.

Inflation has trekked down

TRUMP: “They had the highest inflation perhaps in the history of our country, because I’ve never seen a worse period of time.”

THE FACTS: While praising the strength of the economy under his presidency, Donald Trump misstated the inflation rate under Biden. Inflation peaked at 9.1 per cent in June 2022 . It’s now seeing a downward trend. The most recent data shows that as of July it had fallen to 2.9 per cent. Other historical periods have seen higher inflation, which hit more than 14 per cent in 1980, according to the Federal Reserve.

AP

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