FOCUS ON THE FACTS: A look at the false and misleading claims in the first Trump-Harris debate

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris will meet for the first time Tuesday night in a highly anticipated debate. The two presidential candidates describe the state of the country in very different terms. Trump often paints a bleak picture centered on issues like immigration and high inflation, while Harris focuses on optimism for the future, promising that “we’re not going to go back.”

The first debate of the 2024 election in June — in which President Joe Biden’s disastrous performance ultimately forced him to drop out of the race — featured numerous false and misleading statements from both candidates, and Tuesday’s matchup is likely to include many of the same.

Here’s a look at some of the false and misleading statements previously made as Trump and Harris meet to debate.

Abortion remains a major problem

The Supreme Court’s unprecedented decision overturning Roe v. Wade more than two years ago has made abortion a key issue in the 2024 election. As a result of that decision, abortion is now banned at all stages of pregnancy, with few exceptions, in 14 Republican-controlled states. It is banned after the first six weeks or so—before many women know they are pregnant—in three other states.

Trump often tries to paint Democrats as radicals on the issue of abortion. He has repeatedly claimed, including during the June debate, that some states allow women to abort after their babies are born. This is not true. Infanticide is criminalized in every state, and no state has passed a law allowing abortion after birth.

During her acceptance speech for the Democratic presidential nomination, Harris said that Trump would “enact a national abortion ban, with or without Congress.” Trump said during an appearance on “Fox & Friends” on August 22, “I would never do it. There will be no federal ban. That ban is now back in the states where it needs to be enforced.” However, as recently as March, he suggested that he would support a national ban on abortion starting at 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Responsibility for the withdrawal from Afghanistan

Trump has repeatedly tried to link Harris to the disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which saw the Taliban regain control of the country before the last U.S. troops even left Kabul airport in August 2021.

Most assessments have concluded that both Trump and Biden were responsible for the disastrous end to the longest war in U.S. history. The U.S. government’s top watchdog on the war points to Trump’s 2020 deal with the Taliban to withdraw all U.S. forces and military contractors as “the single most significant factor” in the collapse of U.S.-allied Afghan security forces and the Taliban’s takeover.

Biden’s announcement in April 2021 that he would proceed with the withdrawal initiated by Trump was the second most important factor, the watchdog said. Harris said she was the last person in the room when Biden made his decision, but neither the watchdog’s reviews nor a more than 18-month investigation by House Republicans have identified any instances where the vice president had a significant impact on the decision-making.

A suicide bombing at Kabul airport during the withdrawal killed 13 military personnel and more than 170 Afghans.

Divergent views on the economy

Voters rank the economy and inflation as their top concerns heading into the election, with both Trump and Harris saying they are better for the country’s pocketbook.

Democrats, including Harris, have argued that Trump’s proposal to impose tariffs of 10% to 20% on all imports — and up to 60% on imports from China — would cost the average family $3,900 a year. Most economists expect that would lead to higher prices on many products. The $3,900 figure comes from the Center for American Progress, a progressive advocacy group. However, Trump has said that revenue from the tariffs could be used to cut other taxes, reducing the overall cost of the policy.

One of Harris’s key proposals would provide $25,000 in down payment assistance to some first-time homebuyers and tax incentives to prime homebuilders. Experts say those promises could end up backfiring, because down payment assistance would almost certainly increase demand at a time when estimates of the U.S. housing shortage already range from 3 million to 7 million homes.

Trump consistently touts the economy under his administration as the best in the country’s history, pointing to high levels of inflation under Biden.

But it’s not true to claim that the economy was at its best under Trump. First, the COVID-19 pandemic triggered a massive recession during his presidency. Excluding the problems caused by the pandemic, economic growth averaged 2.67% during Trump’s first three years. That’s pretty solid, but a far cry from the 4% average under Bill Clinton from 1993 to 2001, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis.

While inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022 after rising steadily during the first 17 months of Biden’s presidency, from a low of 0.1% in May 2020, it is now on a downward trend. The most recent data shows that in July, it had fallen to 2.9%, with year-on-year inflation at its lowest level in more than three years.

Energy, inflation and the about-face on hydraulic fracturing

Trump has long promised to “drill, baby, drill” to increase oil production and lower inflation. But U.S. oil production has hit a record high under the Biden administration, and inflation is already falling. Additionally, gasoline prices are falling across the U.S. The average cost of regular gasoline was $3.27 on Monday, down significantly from a peak of $5.01 in June 2022, according to the American Automobile Association.

Trump recently claimed that all coal plants would be forced to close in the next few years because of a rule issued in April by the Environmental Protection Agency. But that’s not true. Coal plants will be required to capture 90% of their smokestack emissions by 2032 or close. The plants that are already closing are doing so largely for economic reasons: They can’t compete with natural gas, solar, and wind.

Harris’s 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 short-lived 2020 presidential campaign, that she opposed fracking. But her current campaign has made clear that she no longer supports banning the practice.

In her first interview since announcing her 2024 candidacy, Harris said she made her position on not banning fracking clear “at the debate in 2020” when she faced off against then-Vice President Mike Pence. A review of the debate revealed she said, “Joe Biden is not going to end fracking.”

Violent crime rates under Trump and Biden-Harris

Democrats have highlighted high rates of violent crime under Trump as the former president — who was convicted on 34 counts in a scheme to illegally influence the 2016 election — calls for law and order, saying violent crime has flourished during the Biden administration.

Violent crime declined throughout most of Trump’s presidency, according to FBI data that uses information provided by law enforcement. However, it increased in 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It has been on a downward trend since 2020 across the United States, approaching pre-pandemic levels in 2022. Preliminary FBI data for 2023 shows that violent crime overall declined by another 6% that year.

On the other hand, the Justice Department’s latest National Crime Victimization Survey found that violent crimes, whether reported to police or not, increased 42.4% between 2021 and 2022 among people aged 12 and older. Unlike the FBI’s statistics, which cover victims of all ages, the survey uses self-reported data and does not include murders.

Continued attacks on border security

Trump is expected to attack Harris again on border security. He claimed at a news conference last month that 20 million people, perhaps more, have crossed the U.S.-Mexico border during the current administration. But that figure is unfounded 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. Because of asylum restrictions during the pandemic, many people crossed the border more than once before reaching the border because they faced no legal consequences if turned away. So the number of people is lower than the number of arrests.

Including the number of times migrants were stopped at official border crossings, as well as migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who were admitted under presidential authority, the number of encounters rises to 8.7 million. CBP does not release estimates of people who evaded capture.

Claims that illegal immigration has caused a spike in violent crime are also unfounded. A number of heinous and high-profile crimes involving people in the United States illegally have made headlines in recent months, but there is no evidence that this phenomenon is widespread. FBI statistics do not distinguish crimes by the immigration status of the perpetrator, and there is no evidence that there has been a spike in crimes committed by migrants, either along the U.S.-Mexico border or in cities with the largest influx of migrants, such as New York.

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