FACT FOCUS: A Look At False & Misleading Claims As Trump And Harris Meet For Their 1st Debate

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

first debate of 2024 election in June — at which President Joe Biden ’s disastrous performance ultimately forced him from race — featured multiple false and misleing claims from both candidates and it’s likely that Tuesday’s match-up will include much of same.

Here’s a look at some previous false and misleing claims as Trump and Harris meet to debate.

Abortion remains a top issue

unprecedented Supreme Court ruling that overturned Roe v. We more than two years ago has me abortion a key issue in 2024 election. As a result of ruling, abortion is now banned at all stages of pregnancy, with limited exceptions, in 14 Republican-controlled states. It’s barred after about first six weeks, which is before many know y are pregnant, in three or states.

Trump often tries to portray Democrats as rical on abortion. He has falsely claimed on multiple occasions, including  debate in June, that some states allow women to get an abortion after ir baby is born. This is in not true. Infanticide is criminalized in every state, and no state has passed a law that allows killing a baby after birth.

During her speech accepting Democratic nomination for president, Harris said Trump would “enact a nationwide abortion ban with or without Congress .” Trump said in an Aug. 22 appearance on ”Fox & Friends": “I would never. re will not be a federal ban. This is now back in states where it belongs.” However, as recently as March he suggested he’d support a national ban on abortion around 15 weeks of pregnancy.

Blame for Afghanistan withdrawal

Trump has repeatedly tried to link Harris to  disastrous U.S. withdrawal from Afghanistan, which saw Taliban take over country again before last American troops even flew out of Kabul airport in August 2021.

Most assessments have concluded that Trump and Biden share blame for disastrous end to America’s longest war. main U.S. government watchdog for war points to Trump’s 2020 deal with Taliban to withdraw all U.S. forces and military contractors as “ single most important factor” in collapse of U.S.-allied Afghan security forces and Taliban takeover.

Biden’s April 2021 announcement that he would proceed with withdrawal set in motion by Trump was second-biggest factor, watchdog said. Harris has said she was  last person in room when Biden me his decision, but neir watchdog reviews nor a more than 18-month investigation by House Republicans have identified any instance where vice president h a significant impact on decision-making.

A suicide bombing at Kabul's airport during withdrawal killed 13 service members and more than 170 Afghans.

Differing views on economy

Voters rank economy and inflation as major concerns going into election, with both Trump and Harris making a case for how y’re better for country’s wallet.

Democrats, including Harris, have claimed that Trump’s proposal to impose a tariff of 10% to 20% on all imports — and up to 60% on imports from China — would cost average family $3,900 a year. Most economists do expect it would raise prices on many goods. $3,900 figure comes from Center for American Progress, a progressive vocacy group. However, Trump has said tariff revenue could be used to cut or taxes, which would reduce overall cost of policy.

One of Harris’ major policy proposals would provide $25,000 in down payment assistance to certain first-time homebuyers and tax incentives to builders of starter homes. Experts say se promises could end up working at cross-purposes, as help with down payment assistance would almost certainly increase demand when estimates of U.S. housing shortage alrey range from 3 million to 7 million homes.

Trump consistently touts economy under his ministration as best in country’s history, highlighting high levels of inflation under Biden.

But it’s inaccurate to claim that economy was at its best under Trump. First, COVID-19 pandemic triggered a massive recession during his presidency. If issues caused by pandemic are removed, economic growth averaged 2.67% during Trump’s first three years. That’s pretty solid, but nowhere near 4% average under Bill Clinton from 1993 to 2001, according to Bureau of Economic Analysis.

And while inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022 after rising steily in first 17 months of Biden’s presidency from a low of 0.1% in May 2020, it’s now seeing a downward trend.  most recent data shows that as of July it h fallen to 2.9%, with year-over-year inflation at its lowest level in more than three years.

Energy, inflation and a flip-flop on fracking

Trump has long promised to “drill, baby, drill,” in order to ramp up oil production and bring down inflation. But oil production in U.S. hit an all-time high under Biden’s ministration and inflation is alrey on way down. Moreover, gas prices are declining across U.S. average cost of regular gas was $3.27 on Monday, down significantly from a high of $5.01 in June 2022, according to American Automobile Association.

Trump recently claimed that all coal-fired power plants will be forced to close in next few years due to a rule issued in April by Environmental Protection Agency. But that’s false. Coal-fired power plants will be forced to capture 90% of smokestack emissions by 2032 or shut down. Plants alrey closing are doing so largely because of economic reasons — y cannot compete with natural gas, solar and wind.

Harris’ shifting views on fracking have been put under microscope in recent weeks. 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 clarified that she no longer supports a ban on practice.

During her first sit-down interview since she announced her 2024 candidacy, Harris said she me her position to not ban fracking “clear on debate stage in 2020” when she faced off with n-Vice President Mike Pence. A review of debate found she said, “ Joe Biden will not end fracking."

Violent crime rates under Trump and Biden-Harris

Democrats have pointed to high violent crime rates under Trump as former president — who was convicted on 34 charges in a scheme to illegally influence 2016 election — calls for law and order, claiming that violent crime has flourished during Biden ministration.

Violent crime decreased throughout most of Trump’s presidency, according to FBI data that uses information provided by law enforcement agencies. However, it spiked in 2020 due to COVID-19 pandemic. It has trended downward since 2020 across U.S., nearing pre-pandemic levels in 2022. Preliminary FBI data for 2023 shows that violent crime overall was down anor 6% that year.

Department of Justice’s most recent National Crime Victimization Survey, on or hand, found that violent crime both reported and not reported to police rose from 2021 to 2022 by 42.4% for people age 12 or older. Unlike FBI statistics, which cover victims of all ages, survey uses self-reported data and does not include murders.

Continued attacks on border security

Trump is expected to once again attack Harris on border security. He claimed in a press conference last month that 20 million people, perhaps more, have come across U.S.-Mexico border during current ministration. But that number is unsubstantiated at best.

U.S. Customs and Border Protection reported 7.1 million arrests for illegal crossings from Mexico from January 2021 through June 2024. That's arrests, not people. Under pandemic-era asylum restrictions, many people crossed more than once until y succeeded because re were no legal consequences for getting turned back. So number of people is lower than number of arrests.

Including number of times migrants were stopped at official land crossings, as well as migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela who were mitted to country under presidential authority, number of encounters rises to 8.7 million. CBP does not publish its estimates of people who eluded capture.

Allegations that illegal immigration has caused a spike in violent crime are also unfounded. A number of heinous and high-profile crimes involving people in U.S. illegally have been in news in recent months, but re is nothing to support claim that it is widespre. FBI statistics do not separate out crimes by immigration status of assailant, and re is no evidence of a spike in crime perpetrated by migrants, eir along U.S.-Mexico border or in cities seeing greatest influx of migrants, like New York.