CNN
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Each President Joe Biden and former President Donald Trump made false and deceptive claims throughout CNN’s presidential debate on Thursday – however Trump did so excess of Biden, similar to of their debates in 2020.
Trump made greater than 30 false claims at the Thursday debate. They included quite a few claims that CNN and others have already debunked through the present presidential marketing campaign or prior.
Trump’s repeat falsehoods included his assertions that some Democratic-led states allow babies to be executed after birth, that every legal scholar and everybody in general wanted Roe v. Wade overturned, that there have been no terror attacks during his presidency, that Iran didn’t fund terror groups during his presidency, that the US has provided more aid to Ukraine than Europe has, that Biden for years referred to Black people as “super predators,” that Biden is planning to quadruple people’s taxes, that then-House Speaker Nancy Pelosi turned down 10,000 National Guard troops for the US Capitol on January 6, 2021, that Americans don’t pay the cost of his tariffs on China and other countries, that Europe accepts no American cars, that he is the president who got the Veterans Choice program through Congress, and that fraud marred the results of the 2020 election.
Trump additionally added some new false claims, akin to his assertions that the US at the moment has its greatest finances deficit and its greatest commerce deficit with China. Each information really occurred below Trump.
Biden made not less than 9 false or deceptive claims within the debate. He used false numbers whereas describing two of his key Medicare insurance policies, falsely claimed that no US troops had been killed on his watch, repeated his usual misleading figure about billionaires’ tax charges, baselessly claimed that Trump desires to get rid of Social Safety, falsely stated that the unemployment price was 15% when he took workplace, inaccurately stated that the Border Patrol union had endorsed him earlier than clarifying that he was speaking about brokers’ assist for the border invoice he had backed, and exaggerated Trump’s 2020 feedback about the potential for treating Covid-19 by injecting disinfectant.
Here’s a detailed reality test from CNN’s reporting crew.
Trump on abortion coverage after Roe v. Wade
Former President Donald Trump repeated his frequent declare that “all people” wished Roe v. Wade overturned and the facility to set abortion coverage returned to particular person states.
Info First: Trump’s declare is fake. Ballot after ballot has proven that the majority People – two-thirds or almost two-thirds of respondents in a number of polls – want Roe would have been preserved.
For instance, a CNN poll conducted by SSRS in April 2024 discovered 65% of adults opposed the Supreme Court docket’s determination to overturn Roe. That’s almost equivalent to the results of a CNN poll conducted by SSRS in July 2022, the month after the choice. Equally, a Marquette Law School poll in February 2024 discovered 67% of adults opposed the choice that overturned Roe.
A NBC News poll in June 2023 discovered 61% opposition amongst registered voters to the choice that overturned Roe. A Gallup poll in May 2023 discovered 61% of adults known as the choice a nasty factor.
Many authorized students had additionally wished Roe preserved, as several of them told CNN when Trump made an analogous declare and stated, “all authorized students, each side, wished and, actually, demanded be ended: Roe v. Wade” in April.
“Any declare that each one authorized students wished Roe overturned is mind-numbingly false,” Rutgers Legislation College professor Kimberly Mutcherson, a authorized scholar who supported the preservation of Roe, stated in April.
“Donald Trump’s declare is flatly incorrect,” one other authorized scholar who didn’t need Roe overturned, Maya Manian, an American College regulation professor and college director of the college’s Well being Legislation and Coverage Program, stated in April.
Trump’s declare is “clearly not” true, stated Mary Ziegler, a regulation professor on the College of California, Davis, who’s an knowledgeable on the historical past of the US abortion debate. Ziegler, who additionally didn’t need Roe overturned, stated in an April interview: “Most authorized students most likely observe most People, who didn’t want to overturn Roe. … It wasn’t as if authorized students have been someway outliers.”
It’s true that some authorized students who assist abortion rights wished that Roe had been written otherwise; the late liberal Supreme Court docket Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg was one of them. However Ziegler famous that though “there was a cottage trade of authorized students form of rewriting Roe – ‘what Roe ought to’ve stated’ — that isn’t saying Roe ought to’ve been overturned. These are very various things.”
You’ll be able to learn extra here.
From CNN’s Daniel Dale
Trump on Democrats killing infants “after delivery”
Former President Donald Trump repeated his frequent declare that Democrats will kill infants within the “eighth month, the ninth month of being pregnant, and even after delivery.” Trump pointed to the previous Virginia governor’s assist of a invoice that may loosen restrictions on late-term abortions for instance.
Trump additionally stated later within the debate that some “Democrat-run” states enable infants to be killed after delivery.
Info First: Trump’s declare about Democrats killing infants after delivery is nonsense; that’s infanticide and unlawful in all 50 states. A really small proportion of abortions occur at or after 21 weeks of being pregnant.
In response to information revealed by the US Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention, simply 0.9% of reported abortions in 2020 occurred at 21 weeks or later. (Many of these abortions happen due to critical well being dangers or deadly fetal anomalies.) Against this, 80.9% of reported abortions in 2020 have been carried out earlier than 10 weeks, 93.1% earlier than 14 weeks and 95.8% earlier than 16 weeks.
Former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, a Democrat, voiced assist for a state measure that may considerably loosen restrictions on late-term abortions when the fetus was not viable. Northam was not speaking about infanticide.
There are some instances during which mother and father decide to decide on palliative take care of infants who’re born with lethal situations that give them simply minutes, hours or days to dwell. That’s merely not the identical as killing a child.
From CNN’s Daniel Dale and Jen Christensen
Trump on his earlier feedback about US navy members killed in motion
Trump denied that he had used the phrases “suckers” or “losers” to explain members of the US navy who had been killed in motion, after Biden pointed to the remarks to criticize his predecessor’s report for veterans.
Biden touted his go to to a World Struggle I cemetery, the place he stated Trump “refused to go” and informed a four-star basic it’s as a result of “they’re a bunch of losers and suckers.”
Trump claimed the comment was “made up” by Biden.
Info First: The Atlantic journal, citing 4 unnamed sources with “firsthand data,” reported in 2020 that on the day Trump canceled a go to to a navy cemetery in France the place US troops who have been killed in World Struggle I are buried, he had informed members of his senior employees, “Why ought to I’m going to that cemetery? It’s crammed with losers.” The journal additionally reported that in one other dialog on the identical journey, Trump had referred to marines who had been killed within the area as “suckers.”
John Kelly, who served as Trump’s White Home chief of employees and secretary of Homeland Safety, has stated on the report that in 2018 Trump did use the phrases “suckers” and “losers” to discuss with servicemembers who have been killed in motion. Kelly informed CNN anchor Jim Sciutto for Sciutto’s 2024 guide that Trump would say: “Why do you folks all say that these guys who get wounded or killed are heroes? They’re suckers for going within the first place, they usually’re losers.”
There isn’t any public recording of Trump making such remarks, so we are able to’t definitively name Trump’s denial false. However the account of Trump’s feedback doesn’t solely relaxation on unnamed sources from the article in The Atlantic.
From CNN’s Daniel Dale and Kaanita Iyer
Biden on his report as commander-in-chief
President Joe Biden claimed that he’s the one president this decade “that doesn’t have any … troops dying wherever on the planet, like he did,” referring to former President Donald Trump.
“Fact is, I’m the one president this century, that doesn’t have any, this decade, that doesn’t have any troops dying wherever on the planet, like he did,” Biden stated.
Info First: Biden is improper. US service members have died overseas throughout his presidency, together with 13 troops killed in a suicide bombing through the US withdrawal from Afghanistan.
13 US service members — together with 11 Marines, one Military particular operations soldier, and one Navy corpsman — have been killed in the suicide bombing on the Hamid Karzai Worldwide Airport in Kabul. Three US troopers have been additionally killed this year at a small US outpost in Jordan in a one-way drone assault launched by Iran-backed militants. And two US Navy SEALs died in January off the coast of Somalia whereas conducting a night-time seizure of deadly assist being transported from Iran to Yemen.
Different US service members have additionally died overseas in coaching incidents, together with five US troopers who died in a helicopter crash within the jap Mediterranean Sea in November 2023 throughout a routine refueling mission, and eight US airmen who died in a CV-22 Osprey crash in November 2023 off the coast of Yakushima Island, Japan.
From CNN’s Haley Britzky
Trump on politicians utilizing the time period “tremendous predators”
Former President Donald Trump claimed that President Joe Biden known as Black folks “tremendous predators” for a decade within the Nineties.
“What he’s achieved to the Black inhabitants is horrible, together with the truth that for 10 years he known as them ‘tremendous predators’ – within the Nineties – we are able to’t overlook that,” Trump stated.
Info First: Trump’s declare is fake. Biden by no means publicly deployed the phrase “tremendous predators” or endorsed the criminological principle behind it (which held that there was a brand new breed of extremely and remorselessly violent younger offenders). Biden did, nonetheless, discuss with “predators on our streets” who have been “past the pale” whereas selling the 1994 crime invoice.
As reported by CNN’s KFILE in 2019, Biden stated in a 1993 Senate ground speech in assist of the crime invoice that “we’ve got predators on our streets that society has actually, partly due to its neglect, created.” And he urged the federal government to deal with the folks he stated have been in peril of changing into “the predators 15 years from now” if their lives weren’t modified – “the cadre of younger folks, tens of 1000’s of them, born out of wedlock, with out mother and father, with out supervision, with none construction, with none conscience creating as a result of they actually … haven’t been socialized, they actually haven’t had a chance.”
However Biden didn’t communicate of “tremendous predators.”
4 years later, in a 1997 listening to, he famous that the overwhelming majority of youth legal instances concerned nonviolent offenses and stated, “After we speak concerning the juvenile justice system, we’ve got to keep in mind that many of the youth concerned within the system will not be the so-called tremendous predators.”
It was Trump’s opponent within the 2016 presidential election, Hillary Clinton, who affirmatively used the phrase “tremendous predators” as she argued in assist of the 1994 crime invoice (in 1996). She stated in 2016 that she shouldn’t have used that language.
Trump wrote in a 2000 guide that he supported more durable sentencing and avenue policing and warned of “wolf packs” of younger criminals roaming the streets – and he cited a since-discredited statistical evaluation that was linked to the “tremendous predator” principle.
From CNN’s Holmes Lybrand and Daniel Dale
Trump falsely claims Iran “had no cash for Hamas” throughout his presidency
Former President Donald Trump claimed that when he was president, Iran “had no cash for Hamas” and no cash “for terror.”
“Do you wanna know why? As a result of Iran was broke with me. I wouldn’t let anyone do enterprise with them. They ran out of cash. They have been broke,” he stated. “That they had no cash for Hamas, that they had no cash for something. No cash for terror. That’s why you had no terror, in any respect, throughout my administration. This place, the entire world is blowing up below him.”
Info First: Trump’s declare that Iran had “no cash for Hamas” and “no cash for terror” throughout his presidency is fake. Iran’s funding for such teams did decline within the second half of his presidency, largely as a result of his sanctions on the nation had a serious adverse influence on the Iranian economic system, however the funding by no means stopped fully, as 4 consultants informed CNN earlier this month.
Trump’s personal administration stated in 2020 that Iran was persevering with to fund terror teams together with Hezbollah. The Trump administration started imposing sanctions on Iran in late 2018, pursuing a marketing campaign referred to as “most stress.” However Trump-appointed Secretary of State Mike Pompeo stated himself in 2020 that Iran was persevering with to fund terror teams. “So that you proceed to have, despite the Iranian management demanding that extra money be given to them, they’re utilizing the sources that they must proceed funding Hezbollah in Lebanon and threatening the state of Israel, funding Iraqi terrorist Shia teams, all of the issues that they’ve achieved traditionally – persevering with to construct out their capabilities even whereas the folks within their very own nation are struggling,” Pompeo stated in a Could 2020 interview, in keeping with a transcript posted on the State Division’s web site.
Trump may have pretty stated that his sanctions on Iran had made life harder for terror teams (although it’s unclear how a lot their operations have been affected). As a substitute, he continued his years-old apply of exaggerating even professional achievements.
You’ll be able to learn a extra detailed reality test from earlier in June here.
From CNN’s Daniel Dale
Biden on drug costs
President Joe Biden touted two measures that his administration and congressional Democrats have enacted to cut back drug costs.
“We introduced down the value of prescribed drugs, which is a serious situation for many individuals, to $15 for a insulin shot versus $400. No senior has to pay greater than $200 for any drug … starting subsequent 12 months,” Biden stated.
Info First: Biden is improper. He incorrectly described two key provisions of the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act that purpose to cut back prescription drug prices for Medicare beneficiaries.
Below the regulation, Medicare enrollees don’t pay greater than $35 a month for every insulin prescription.
The regulation additionally positioned a cap on Medicare’s Half D drug plans in order that seniors and other people with disabilities received’t pay greater than $2,000 a 12 months in out-of-pocket prices for drugs purchased on the pharmacy, beginning in 2025. Biden corrected himself later within the debate to make use of the $2,000 determine when speaking concerning the cap on these out-of-pocket prices.
From CNN’s Tami Luhby
In footage: Biden and Trump face off in CNN presidential debate
Biden on border crossings dropping throughout his administration
President Joe Biden stated border crossings dropped 40%, arguing that the numbers are higher than when Trump left workplace.
“What I’ve achieved since I modified the regulation, what’s occurred? I’ve modified it in a approach that now you’re in scenario the place there are 40% fewer folks coming throughout the border illegally,” Biden stated.
Info First: That is deceptive.
The variety of each day encounters on the US southern border dropped 40% following President Joe Biden’s govt motion limiting asylum entry earlier this month. Whereas there’s been a latest drop in border crossings, the variety of folks crossing the US-Mexico border was usually decrease through the Trump administration.
From CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez
Biden on assist from the Border Patrol union
President Joe Biden stated the Border Patrol union endorsed him, after which appeared to make clear and stated the group “endorsed (his) place.”
Info First: That is deceptive. The Nationwide Border Patrol Council, the union that represents Border Patrol brokers, backed a bipartisan border deal reached by senators that included a number of the hardest safety measures in latest reminiscence, however didn’t endorse Biden. The deal failed within the Senate.
In a post on X, the union swiftly responded to the president Thursday: “To be clear, we by no means have and by no means will endorse Biden.”
From CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez
Trump on the Nationwide Guard in Minneapolis
Former President Donald Trump stated that he deployed the Nationwide Guard to Minneapolis in 2020 through the unrest that adopted the homicide of George Floyd by a Minneapolis police officer.
“After they ripped down Portland, after they ripped down many different cities. You go to Minnesota, Minneapolis, what they’ve achieved there with the fires all around the metropolis – if I didn’t carry within the Nationwide Guard, that metropolis would have been destroyed.”
Info First: That is false. Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz, not Trump, deployed the Minnesota Nationwide Guard through the 2020 unrest; Walz first activated the Guard greater than seven hours earlier than Trump publicly threatened to deploy the Guard himself. Walz’s workplace informed CNN in 2020 that the governor activated the Guard in response to requests from officers in Minneapolis and St. Paul – cities additionally run by Democrats.
From CNN’s Holmes Lybrand and Daniel Dale
Trump on the European Union’s commerce practices
Former President Donald Trump, complaining concerning the European Union’s commerce practices, claimed that the EU doesn’t settle for US merchandise, together with American automobiles. “They don’t need something that we’ve got,” Trump stated Thursday. “However we’re presupposed to take their automobiles, their meals, their every thing, their agriculture.”
Info First: It’s not true that the European Union received’t take American merchandise, together with American automobiles, although some US exports do face EU commerce obstacles and although US automakers have typically had a tough time gaining reputation with European shoppers.
The US exported about $368 billion in goods to the European Union in 2023 (whereas importing about $576 billion from the EU that 12 months), federal figures present. In response to a December 2023 report from the European Vehicle Producers’ Affiliation, the EU is the second-largest marketplace for US car exports — importing 271,476 US automobiles in 2022, valued at almost 9 billion euro. (A few of these are automobiles made by European automakers at plants in the US.) The EU’s Eurostat statistical office says that automobile imports from the US hit a brand new peak in 2020, Trump’s final full 12 months in workplace, at a price of about 11 billion euro.
From CNN’s Daniel Dale and Ella Nilsen
Biden on Black unemployment
President Joe Biden tried to distinction himself from his predecessor on the economic system, significantly on the unemployment price amongst Black People, which he claimed has been the bottom throughout his presidency.
“Black unemployment is the bottom stage it’s been in an extended, very long time,” Biden stated.
Info First: That is false. Black unemployment just isn’t the bottom it’s been in a very long time.
The Black or African American unemployment price was 6.1% in Could 2024, increased than a report set below the administration when it fell to an adjusted low of 4.8% in April 2023. The earlier report was set lower than 4 years prior through the Trump administration, when it fell to a seasonally adjusted 5.3% in August 2019.
From CNN’s Daniel Dale and Kaanita Iyer
Trump on job development throughout Biden’s presidency
Former President Donald Trump stated of President Biden, “The one jobs he created have been for unlawful immigrants and ‘bounce-back jobs,’ a bounce-back from the Covid.”
Info First: Trump’s claims that the job development throughout Biden’s presidency has been all “bounce-back” positive aspects the place folks went again to their previous jobs just isn’t absolutely right.
Nearly 22 million jobs were lost below Trump in March and April 2020 when the worldwide economic system cratered on account of the pandemic. Following substantial aid and restoration measures, the US began regaining jobs instantly, including greater than 12 million jobs from Could 2020 via December 2020, in keeping with Bureau of Labor Statistics data.
The restoration continued after Biden took workplace, with the US reaching and surpassing its pre-pandemic (February 2020) employment totals in June 2022.
The job positive aspects didn’t cease there. Since June 2022, the US has added almost 6.2 million extra jobs in what’s turn into the fifth-longest period of employment expansion on report. In whole below Biden, 15.6 million jobs have been added.
Nevertheless it’s not fully truthful nor correct to say the roles gained have been all “bounce-back” or have been folks merely returning to their former positions.
The pandemic drastically reshaped the employment panorama. For one, a good portion of the labor pressure didn’t return resulting from early retirements, deaths, long Covid or caregiving obligations.
Moreover, due to shifts in client spending patterns in addition to health-and-safety implications, public-facing industries couldn’t absolutely reopen or restaff instantly. A few of these employees discovered jobs in different industries or used the chance to start out their very own companies.
When the pandemic was extra below management and in-person actions may absolutely resume, these industries confronted employee shortages.
The pandemic restoration included what’s been known as the Great Resignation or the Great Reshuffling, the place folks – for quite a lot of causes – switched jobs or careers.
From CNN’s Alicia Wallace
Trump on the Paris local weather accord
Former President Donald Trump claimed that the Paris local weather accord would have price the US $1 trillion, that it was the one nation that needed to pay, and that China, India and Russia weren’t paying. Trump known as the accord “a rip-off of the US.”
Info First: Trump’s declare that the US would alone have needed to pay $1 trillion as a part of the Paris local weather accord is wildly inflated.
As a part of the Paris settlement, in 2009, the US and different developed nations, together with Western European international locations, dedicated to collectively contribute $100 billion per year by 2020 to assist poorer, creating international locations, predominantly within the World South, adapt to the impacts of local weather change like sea stage rise and worsening warmth. Developed nations met their collective goal two years late in 2022, however the determine has by no means been as excessive as Trump was suggesting – and the US has definitely by no means paid $1 trillion in worldwide local weather finance.
Below the Obama administration, the US paid $1 billion of a $3 billion dedication it initially made in 2014. After Trump pulled the nation out of the Paris accord, the US paid nothing to the worldwide finance aim. And whereas President Joe Biden pledged $11.4 billion annually from the US, this stage of funding hasn’t materialized. That’s as a result of Congress, liable for appropriating the nation’s finances, has allotted solely a fraction of that – roughly $1 billion in 2022.
Trump is right that international locations together with China, India and Russia have up to now not contributed to worldwide local weather finance. Nonetheless, China’s place as the most important international emitter means many international locations are pressuring it to contribute to worldwide local weather finance via a proper course of.
From CNN’s Ella Nilsen
Trump on Biden and a Ukrainian prosecutor
Former President Donald Trump introduced up an anti-Biden lie about Ukraine that has been a mainstay of each the 2020 and 2024 presidential cycles, plus Trump’s 2019 impeachment.
Trump slammed Biden for supposedly “telling the Ukrainian folks” to “change the prosecutor, in any other case, you’re not getting $1 billion,” referring to Biden’s efforts to take away Ukraine’s high prosecutor in 2016. Trump additionally claimed the Ukrainian prosecutor’s ouster was associated to Biden’s “son,” referencing Hunter Biden, who on the time was on the board for a distinguished Ukrainian power firm.
“If I ever stated that, that’s quid professional quo,” Trump quipped.
Info First: Trump’s claims are false.
Since 2019, Trump and his Republican allies have falsely accused Joe Biden of abusing his powers whereas serving as vice chairman to get a high Ukrainian prosecutor fired, supposedly as a result of the prosecutor’s probe into the Ukrainian power large Burisma Holdings threatened his son, Hunter Biden.
This declare was by no means true and has been repeatedly debunked. Nonetheless, it is among the most-cited speaking factors utilized by Republicans in opposition to Joe Biden throughout any dialogue about his ties to Ukraine.
In actuality, Joe Biden’s actions towards the prosecutor have been per bipartisan US coverage, and was in lockstep with what America’s European allies have been pushing for on the time. They sought to take away the prosecutor as a result of he wasn’t doing sufficient to crack down on corruption in Ukraine – together with at Burisma.
The Obama administration, career US diplomats, US allies, the Worldwide Financial Fund and Ukrainian anti-corruption activists, and even Senate Republicans, amongst others, all made clear that they have been displeased with the efficiency of Viktor Shokin, who turned Ukraine’s prosecutor basic in 2015.
It is not clear how aggressively Shokin was investigating Burisma or its oligarch proprietor – or if there was even an energetic investigation – on the time that Joe Biden efficiently pushed for Shokin’s firing in 2016.
Through the 2020 presidential marketing campaign, Senate Republicans led a probe to seek out proof on whether or not Biden abused his place to assist his household financially, however got here up empty. Because the 2024 marketing campaign approached, Home Republicans put these false claims on the heart of their now-flatlined impeachment inquiry into Biden.
From CNN’s Marshall Cohen
Trump on tariffs
Former President Trump claimed that his proposal to impose a ten% tariff on all items coming into the US wouldn’t increase costs on People and as a substitute price different international locations.
“It’s simply going to price international locations which were ripping us off for years, like China, and lots of others,” Trump stated.
Info first: That is false. Study after study together with one from the federal government’s bipartisan US International Trade Commission(USITC), have proven that American shoppers and industries bear nearly your entire price of US tariffs, together with these duties beforehand imposed by Trump.
When the US places a tariff on an imported good, the price of the tariff comes straight out of the checking account of an American importer when the foreign-made product arrives at a US port. It’s attainable that some international producers lowered their costs to remain aggressive within the US market after Trump raised tariffs – however not sufficient to maintain the price paid by American importers the identical as earlier than.
As of June 12, American importers have paid greater than $240 billion for tariffs that Trump imposed – and President Joe Biden largely left in place – on imported photo voltaic panels, metal, aluminum, and Chinese language-made items, in keeping with US Customs and Border Protection. The USITC found that US importers, on common between 2018 and 2021, ended up paying almost the complete price of the tariffs as a result of import costs elevated on the similar price because the tariffs. For every 1% enhance within the tariff price, the value paid by the American importer additionally went up 1%.
As soon as an importing firm pays the tariff, it could determine to eat the price or go all or a few of it to the client of its items – whether or not that’s a retailer or a client. For instance, American shoe vendor Deer Stags, which imports most of its product line from China, determined to perform a little little bit of each.
It was more durable to get prospects to pay extra for present kinds that Deer Stags had carried for a very long time, firm president Rick Muskat told CNN.So the corporate ended up consuming the price of the tariffs positioned on some older kinds and charging extra for some new gadgets.
Economists generally agree that tariffs drive up costs . The Peterson Institute for International Economics not too long ago estimated that Trump’s proposed 10% across-the-board tariff, collectively along with his proposal to impose a 60% tariff on all imports from China, would price the standard middle-income family not less than $1,700 a 12 months. And JP Morgan economists estimated in 2019 that the tariffs Trump imposed on about $300 billion of Chinese language-made items would price the typical American family $1,000 a 12 months.
From CNN’s Katie Lobosco
Trump on his legal instances
Former President Donald Trump repeated his frequent claims that President Joe Biden and his Justice Division have been behind Trump’s 4 indictments, together with the Manhattan hush cash case during which Trump was convicted on 34 felony counts of falsifying enterprise information.
“He indicted me as a result of I used to be his opponent,” Trump stated of Biden.
Of the Manhattan conviction, Trump stated: “That was a case that was began and moved. They moved a high-ranking official at DOJ into the Manhattan DA’s workplace to start out that case.”
Info First: There isn’t any proof supporting both of Trump’s claims.
Grand juries made up of extraordinary residents – in New York, Georgia, Florida and Washington, DC – authorized the indictments in every of Trump’s legal instances. There isn’t any foundation for the declare that Biden ordered Trump to be criminally charged or face civil trials.
There’s additionally no proof that Biden or the federal Justice Division had any position in launching or working Manhattan District Lawyer Alvin Bragg’s prosecution – and Bragg, a Democrat, is a domestically elected official who doesn’t report back to the federal authorities. The indictment within the case was authorized by a grand jury of extraordinary residents.
Trump’s two federal indictments have been introduced by a particular counsel, Jack Smith. Smith was appointed in November 2022 by Lawyer Basic Merrick Garland, a Biden appointee, however that isn’t proof that Biden was concerned within the prosecution effort, a lot much less that Biden personally ordered the indictments. Garland has said that he would resign if Biden ever requested him to behave in opposition to Trump however that he was certain that may by no means occur.
As he did through the debate, Trump has repeatedly invoked a lawyer on Bragg’s crew, Matthew Colangelo, whereas making claims concerning the Justice Division’s involvement within the New York case. Colangelo left the Justice Division in 2022 to join the district attorney’s office as senior counsel to Bragg. However there isn’t any proof that Biden had something to do with Colangelo’s employment determination. Colangelo and Bragg had been colleagues earlier than Bragg was elected Manhattan district legal professional in 2021.
Earlier than Colangelo labored on the Justice Division, he and Bragg labored on the similar time within the workplace of New York’s state legal professional basic, the place Colangelo investigated Trump’s charity and monetary practices and was involved in bringing various lawsuits in opposition to the Trump administration.
Trump on different international locations doing enterprise with Iran throughout his presidency
Former President Donald Trump claimed that China, amongst different international locations, “handed” on doing enterprise with Iran throughout his presidency after he vowed that the US wouldn’t do enterprise with any nation that does so.
“Iran was broke. Anyone that did enterprise with Iran, together with China, they couldn’t do enterprise with the US. All of them handed,” Trump stated.
Info First: This can be a false declare.
China’s oil imports from Iran did briefly plummet below Trump in 2019, the 12 months his administration made a concerted effort to discourage such purchases, however they by no means stopped – after which they rose sharply once more whereas Trump was nonetheless president.
“The declare is unfaithful as a result of Chinese language crude imports from Iran haven’t stopped in any respect,” Matt Smith, lead oil analyst for the Americas at Kpler, a market intelligence agency, informed CNN in November.
China’s official statistics recorded no purchases of Iranian crude in Trump’s final partial month in workplace, January 2021, and none in most of Biden’s first 12 months in workplace. However that doesn’t imply China’s imports ceased; trade consultants say it’s extensively recognized that China has used quite a lot of ways to masks its continued imports from Iran.
Smith stated Iranian crude is usually listed in Chinese language information as being from Malaysia; ships could journey from Iran with their transponders switched off after which flip them on when they’re close to Malaysia, Smith stated, or they could switch the Iranian oil to different ships.
Ali Vaez, Iran mission director on the Worldwide Disaster Group, stated in a November e-mail: “China considerably diminished its imports from Iran from round 800,000 barrels per day in 2018 to 100,000 in late 2019. However by the point Trump left workplace, they have been again to upwards to 600(000)-700,000 barrels.”
Vaez’s feedback have been corroborated by Kpler information Smith offered to CNN. Kpler discovered that China imported about 511,000 barrels per day of Iranian crude in December 2020, Trump’s final full month in workplace. The low level below Trump was March 2020, when international oil demand crashed due to Covid-19. Even then, China imported about 87,000 barrels per day, Kpler discovered. (Since information on Iranian oil exports is predicated on cargo monitoring by numerous firms and teams, different entities could have completely different information.)
From CNN’s Daniel Dale and Kaanita Iyer
Trump on the influence of immigration on Medicare and Social Safety
Former President Donald Trump stated not less than twice through the debate that President Joe Biden will destroy Social Safety and Medicare by placing migrants getting into the US on the advantages.
“These tens of millions and tens of millions of individuals coming in, they’re making an attempt to place them on Social Safety. He’ll wipe out Social Safety. He’ll wipe out Medicare,” Trump stated.
Info First: Trump is improper. In actual fact, the other is true, significantly within the close to time period, a number of consultants say. Many undocumented immigrants work, which suggests they pay much-needed payroll taxes, and this bolsters the Social Safety and Medicare belief funds and extends their solvency. Immigrantswho are working legally sometimes received’t acquire advantages for a few years. As for many who are undocumented, some are working below pretend Social Safety numbers, so they’re paying payroll taxes however don’t qualify to gather advantages.
The Social Safety Administration seemed on the results of unauthorized immigration on the Social Safety belief funds. It discovered that in 2010, earnings by unauthorized employees contributed roughly $12 billion on internet to the entitlement program’s money circulation. The company has not up to date the evaluation since, however this 12 months’s Social Safety trustees report famous that growing common annual whole internet immigration by 100,000 persons improves the entitlement program’s solvency.
“We estimate that future years will expertise a continuation of this constructive influence on the belief funds,” stated the report on unauthorized immigration.
In the meantime, unauthorized immigrants contributed greater than $35 billion on internet to Medicare’s belief fund between 2000 and 2011, extending the lifetime of the belief fund by a 12 months, in keeping with a research revealed within the Journal of Basic Inside Medication.
“Immigrants are typically youthful and employed, which will increase the variety of employees paying into the system,” stated Gary Engelhardt, a Syracuse College economics professor. “Additionally, they’ve extra youngsters, which helps increase the longer term workforce that can pay payroll taxes.”
“Immigrants are good for Social Safety,” he stated.
Nonetheless, undocumented immigrants who achieve authorized standing that features eligibility for future Social Safety and Medicare advantages may finally be a drain to the system, in keeping with Jason Richwine, a resident scholar on the Heart for Immigration Research, which advocates for decrease immigration.
“Unlawful immigration unambiguously advantages the Social Safety and Medicare belief funds, however amnesty (legalization) would reverse these positive aspects and add further prices,” Richwine wrote in a report final 12 months.
From CNN’s Tami Luhby
Trump on the 2020 election
Former President Donald Trump reiterated election lies, claiming that he didn’t settle for the outcomes of the 2020 election due to voter fraud.
“I might’ve a lot quite accepted these, however the fraud and every thing else was ridiculous,” Trump stated.
Info First: Trump’s election claims stay false.
The 2020 election was not rigged or stolen, Trump misplaced truthful and sq. to Biden by an Electoral Faculty margin of 306 to 232, his opponents didn’t cheat, and there’s no proof of any fraud even near widespread sufficient to have modified the end result in any state.
From CNN’s Daniel Dale and Kaanita Iyer
Trump on his personal feedback after 2017 Charlottesville march
President Joe Biden denounced Donald Trump for saying in August 2017 that “very fantastic folks” have been among the many members in a hateful “Unite the Proper” occasion days prior in Charlottesville, Virginia. The occasion was organized by White nationalists after the town determined to take away a statue of Accomplice basic Robert E. Lee from a park. The members included neo-Nazis, one of whom murdered a counter-protester, and distinguished public racists.
However Trump claimed that Biden’s recall of his comment was “made up” and a “nonsense story.”
Info First: Trump’s declare that Biden’s description of his feedback is a “nonsense story” is itself false. Biden pretty characterised Trump’s feedback concerning the occasions in Charlottesville.
The declare that Trump’s “fantastic folks” remark is a “hoax” and “nonsense story” is predicated on the incorrect premise that there have been peaceable non-racists attending an aggressively hateful marchthat was held in Charlottesville the evening earlier than the principle daytime protest that featured prominent White nationalists as advertised speakers.
And supporters of the “hoax” declare have famous that, when Trump informed reporters days later that “you additionally had folks that have been very fantastic folks, on each side,” he had additionally stated “I’m not speaking concerning the neo-Nazis and the white nationalists, as a result of they need to be condemned completely” – and had specified that he was speaking about different unnamed folks he claimed had been on the nighttime march “protesting very quietly the taking down of the statue of Robert E. Lee.”
However there has never been evidence that such a benign group was current on the march. The march – which testimony in a 2021 civil trial confirmed was organized by White nationalists – was a bigoted gathering at which members chanted Nazi and White nationalist slogans targeting Jews and others, and displayed Nazi symbols, whereas carrying Tiki torches.
CNN correspondent Elle Reeve, who has extensively reported on the Charlottesville gathering, famous that the torch march was organized quietly in White nationalist “alt-right” on-line areas and meant to be a shock occasion that was recognized upfront solely to a choose group of like-minded folks.
So, it’s not clear how individuals who weren’t supportive of White nationalism might need come to be a part of the gang or why such folks would have remained there if that they had someway stumbled in. And Trump has by no means recognized any non-racists who participated.
From CNN’s Daniel Dale and Chandelis Duster
Trump on the US’ commerce deficit with China
Former President Donald Trump claimed that the US at the moment has its largest commerce deficit with China.
Info First: That is false. Even if you happen to solely depend commerce in items and ignore the companies commerce – during which the US historically runs a surplus with China – the deficit with China fell to about $279 billion in 2023, the bottom since 2010.
In 2018, below Trump, the products deficit with China hit a brand new report of about $418 billion earlier than falling again below $400 billion in subsequent years.
From CNN’s Katie Lobosco
Trump on terror assaults throughout his administration
In discussing the Center East and Hamas’ October 7 assault on Israel, former President Donald Trump claimed that there was “no terror in any respect throughout my administration.”
Info First: Trump’s declare is fake, and it stays false even when he was referring particularly to assaults by Islamic extremists. There have been numerous terrorist assaults through the Trump presidency. In actual fact, in his State of the Union deal with in 2018, Trump blamed immigration insurance policies for “two terrorist assaults in New York” in “latest weeks.”
Trump’s personal Justice Division alleged {that a} mass homicide in New York Metropolis in 2017, which killed eight folks and injured others, was a terrorist assault carried out in assist of ISIS; Trump repeatedly lamented this assault throughout his presidency. Trump’s Justice Division additionally alleged {that a} 2019 assault by an extremist member of Saudi Arabia’s navy, which killed three US servicemembers and injured others at a navy base in Florida, “was motivated by jihadist ideology” and was carried out by a longtime “affiliate” of al Qaeda.
As well as, there have been quite a lot of different terrorist assaults throughout Trump’s presidency. Notably, Trump’s Justice Division stated it was a “home terrorist assault” when considered one of Trump’s supporters mailed improvised explosive units to CNN, distinguished Democratic officers and different folks in 2018. In 2019, a White supremacist pleaded responsible to a number of costs in New York, together with first-degree homicide in furtherance of an act of terrorism, for killing a Black man in March 2017 to attempt to begin a race battle. And Trump’s Justice Division described a 2019 taking pictures bloodbath at a Walmart in Texas as an act of home terrorism; the gunman who killed 23 folks was concentrating on Latinos.
From CNN’s Holmes Lybrand and Daniel Dale
Trump on his tax cuts
Former President Donald Trump as soon as once more claimed that the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act was the most important tax lower ever.
“I gave you the most important tax lower in historical past,” Trump stated.
Info First: Trump is wrong. Analyses have discovered that the act was not the most important in historical past both in proportion of gross home product or inflation-adjusted {dollars}.
The act made quite a few everlasting and short-term adjustments to the tax code, together with lowering each company and particular person revenue tax charges.
In a report launched earlier this month, the Congressional Budget Office seemed on the dimension of previous tax cuts enacted between 1981 and 2023. It discovered that two different tax lower payments have been greater – former President Ronald Reagan’s 1981 package deal and laws signed by former President Barack Obama that prolonged earlier tax cuts enacted throughout former President George W. Bush’s administration.
The CBO measured the sizes of tax cuts by wanting on the income results of the payments as a proportion of gross home product – in different phrases, how a lot federal income the invoice cuts as a portion of the economic system – over 5 years. Reagan’s 1981 tax lower and Obama’s 2012 tax lower extension have been 3.5% and 1.7% of GDP, respectively.
Trump’s 2017 tax lower, against this, was estimated to be about 1% of GDP.
The Committee for a Accountable Federal Finances present in 2017 that the framework for the tax cuts can be the fourth largest since 1940 in inflation-adjusted {dollars} and the eighth largest since 1918 as a proportion of gross home product.
From CNN’s Tami Luhby
Trump on his personal feedback on January 6
In response to a query about his actions – and inaction – on January 6, 2021, whereas his supporters stormed the US Capitol, Donald Trump defended the incendiary speech he delivered earlier than the assault.
“I stated, ‘Peacefully and patriotically,’” Trump stated.
Info First: That is extremely deceptive. He did say these phrases throughout his speech on the Ellipse on January 6, however he additionally informed his supporters that they “wouldn’t have a rustic anymore” in the event that they didn’t march to the US Capitol and “battle like hell” in opposition to a “rigged” election.
CNN has previously fact-checked this self-serving citation from Trump about his January 6 speech.
Throughout his speech, Trump stated, “I do know that everybody right here will quickly be marching over to the Capitol constructing to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.”
However on the controversy stage Thursday evening, Trump omitted the truth that later in his January 6 speech, he informed his supporters to “stroll down Pennsylvania Avenue” to offer GOP lawmakers the “boldness that they should take again our nation.” He additionally informed the gang on the Ellipse, “In case you don’t battle like hell, you’re not going to have a rustic anymore” and inspired Republican lawmakers to cease preventing like a boxer “along with his arms tied behind his again.”
Final 12 months, a civil courtroom in Colorado, and the Colorado Supreme Court docket, carefully examined Trump’s speech as a part of a lawsuit that attempted to disqualify him from workplace below the 14th Modification’s “insurrectionist ban.”
The Colorado trial choose concluded that “whereas Trump’s Ellipse speech did point out ‘peaceable’ conduct in his command to march to the Capitol, the general tenor was that to save lots of the democracy and the nation the attendees wanted to battle.”
From CNN’s Marshall Cohen
Trump falsely claims the Supreme Court docket “authorized” the abortion tablet
Donald Trump falsely claimed the US Supreme Court docket “authorized” the abortion tablet.
Info First: Trump’s declare concerning the abortion drug is fake. The Supreme Court docket didn’t rule on the deserves of the case and approve mifepristone, one of many capsules utilized in a drugs abortion. It despatched the case again to the decrease courts for extra proceedings.
The courtroom earlier this month rejected a lawsuit that challenged the US Meals and Drug Administration’s method to regulating mifepristone.
The courtroom didn’t “approve” the drug, as Trump claimed; as a substitute it dominated that the medical doctors and the anti-abortion teams that had challenged entry to the drug didn’t have the standing to sue. The reasoning of the courtroom on this determination, students say, may encourage different mifepristone challenges sooner or later.
Medicine abortion is now the most common method of abortion in the US, in keeping with the Guttmacher Institute. Practically two-thirds of all abortions within the formal US well being care system – about 63% – have been treatment abortions in 2023.
From CNN’s Jen Christensen
Trump on Pelosi and January 6
Former President Donald Trump as soon as once more tried guilty former Home Speaker Nancy Pelosi for the January 6, 2021, assault on the US Capitol, saying that the California Democrat had turned down his supply of 10,000 Nationwide Guard troops to guard the Capitol that day and that she had been taped by her personal daughter acknowledging what occurred was her duty.
“Nancy Pelosi, if you happen to simply watched the information from two days in the past, on tape to her daughter, who’s a documentary filmmaker … however she’s saying, ‘Oh, no, it’s my duty, I used to be liable for this,’ as a result of I supplied her 10,000 troopers, or Nationwide Guard, and she or he turned them down,” Trump stated.
Info First: Trump’s claims about Pelosi’s position in Capitol safety and within the deployment of the Nationwide Guard are false. The speaker of the Home just isn’t in control of Capitol safety; that’s overseen by the Capitol Police Board, a physique that includes the sergeants at arms of the Home and the Senate. And the Home speaker doesn’t have energy over the District of Columbia Nationwide Guard, which is under the command of the president. Whereas there isn’t any proof Pelosi ever acquired a Trump supply of 10,000 troopers on January 6, she wouldn’t even have had the facility to show down such a proposal even when she had acquired one.
Trump additionally overstated what Pelosi stated in a video recorded by her filmmaker daughter Alexandra Pelosi on January 6 and later obtained by House Republicans, who posted a 42-second snippet on social media earlier this month. Pelosi was proven expressing frustration on the insufficient safety on the Capitol, and she or he stated at one level, “I take duty for not having them simply put together for extra.” However the brief video doesn’t present her absolving Trump of duty or admitting she was the individual in control of Capitol safety.
After Trump started referring to this clip earlier in June, Pelosi spokesperson Aaron Bennett stated in an e-mail to CNN: “Quite a few unbiased fact-checkers have confirmed repeatedly that Speaker Pelosi didn’t plan her personal assassination on January sixth. Cherry-picked, out-of-context clips don’t change the truth that the Speaker of the Home just isn’t in control of the safety of the Capitol Advanced — on January sixth or another day of the week.”
In actual fact, one other a part of the video seems to undermine Trump’s frequent claims that Pelosi was the one that turned down a Nationwide Guard presence upfront of January 6. She stated, “Why weren’t the Nationwide Guard there to start with?”
The Home choose committee that investigated the assault on the Capitol found “no evidence” Trump gave any precise order for 10,000 Guard troops to anybody. Christopher Miller, Trump’s appearing protection secretary on the time of the assault on the Capitol, testified to the committee that Trump had, in a telephone name on January 5, 2021, briefly and informally floated the concept of getting 10,000 troops current on January 6 however didn’t situation any directive to that impact. Miller stated, “I interpreted it as a little bit of presidential banter or President Trump banter that you simply all are aware of, and on no account, form, or type did I interpret that as an order or route.”
From CNN’s Daniel Dale
Trump on migrants and crime
Former President Donald Trump claimed that migrants have been getting into the US and killing ladies, saying that “these killers are coming into our nation, and they’re raping and killing ladies.”
Info First: This wants context. Preliminary statistics present that crime within the US dropped considerably in 2023 and in the first quarter of 2024, with a steep drop in murders and different violent offenses, at the same time as the number of people crossing the southern border spiked. Whereas some undocumented immigrants have been charged with high-profile crimes through the Biden presidency, some undocumented immigrants committed critical crimes below Trump and former presidents as nicely. And research has generally found no connection between immigration levels and crime – and has generally discovered that undocumented immigrants commit crimes at lower rates than people born in the US.
Charis Kubrin, co-author of the 2023 guide “Immigration and Crime: Taking Stock” and professor of criminology, regulation and society on the College of California, Irvine, told CNN’s Catherine Shoichet early this year:
“Throughout quite a lot of research that use completely different years of information that concentrate on completely different areas of the US — with some exceptions, there’s some nuance there. I don’t need to deny the nuance — generally, on common, we don’t discover a connection between immigration and crime, as is so typically claimed. The commonest discovering throughout all these completely different sorts of research is that immigration to an space is both not related to crime in that space or is negatively related to crime in that space. Which means extra immigration equals much less crime. It’s uncommon to seek out research that present crime following will increase in immigration or with bigger proportion of the inhabitants which are immigrants.”
Kubrin’s co-author, Graham Ousey, professor of sociology and criminology on the Faculty of William & Mary, added: “A lot of individuals whenever you say that can then say, ‘Oh, nicely, however what about undocumented immigration?’ And there’s much less analysis on that matter. However that physique of analysis is rising, and it just about reaches the identical conclusion.”
From CNN’s Priscilla Alvarez and Daniel Dale
Trump on the US share of NATO funding
Throughout a dispute over who would do a greater job countering Russia’s battle in Ukraine, former President Donald Trump criticized the North Atlantic Treaty Group and the way it’s funded by its members, claiming he had realized after taking workplace that “nearly 100% of the cash was paid by us.”
Info First: Trump’s declare is fake.
Official NATO figures show that in 2016, the final 12 months earlier than Trump took workplace, US protection spending made up about 71% of whole protection spending by NATO members – a big majority however not “nearly 100%.” And Trump’s declare is much more inaccurate if he was speaking concerning the direct contributions to NATO that cowl the alliance’s organizational bills and are set based mostly on every nation’s nationwide revenue; the US was liable for about 22% of those contributions in 2016.
The US share of whole NATO navy spending fell to about 65% in 2023. And the US is now responsible for about 16% of direct contributions to NATO, the identical as Germany. Erwan Lagadec, an knowledgeable on NATO as a analysis professor at George Washington College’s Elliott College of Worldwide Affairs and director of its Transatlantic Program, stated the US share was diminished from 22% “to placate Trump” and is a “sweetheart deal” provided that the US makes up more than half of the alliance’s total GDP.
From CNN’s Daniel Dale and Marshall Cohen
Trump on the price of meals
Former President Donald Trump claimed that President Joe Biden triggered inflation and that it’s “killing” People, who “can’t purchase groceries anymore” as a result of the price of meals has “doubled and tripled and quadrupled.”
Info First: Trump’s claims of meals costs doubling, tripling and quadrupling will not be fully factual and will use some context.
Inflation’s rapid ascent, which started in early 2021, was the results of a confluence of factors, together with results from the Covid-19 pandemic akin to snarled supply chains and geopolitical fallout (particularly Russia’s invasion of Ukraine) that triggered meals and power worth shocks. Heightened consumer demand boosted partly by fiscal stimulus from each the Trump and Biden administrations additionally led to increased costs, as did the post-pandemic imbalance within the labor market.
Inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022, hitting a 41-year excessive, and has slowed since (the Client Worth Index was at 3.3% as of May 2024). Nonetheless, it stays elevated from historic ranges. Three-plus years of pervasive and extended inflation has weighed considerably on Americans, particularly lower-income households making an attempt to afford the requirements (meals, shelter and transportation).
Meals costs, particularly grocery costs, did outpace total inflation. Nonetheless, they didn’t rise to the extent that Trump claims. Annual meals and grocery inflation peaked at 11.4% and 13.5% in August 2022, respectively. By means of the 12 months ending in Could, total meals and grocery costs have been up simply 2.1% and 1%, respectively.
Sure meals classes noticed a lot better inflation: Notably, egg prices were up 70% annually in January 2023. Nonetheless, the underlying cause of that sharp increase was a extremely contagious, lethal avian flu. Meals costs are extremely risky and could be influenced by quite a lot of elements, together with illness, extreme weather events, international provide and demand, geopolitical occasions, and once-in-a-lifetime pandemics.
From CNN’s Alicia Wallace
Biden on taxing billionaires
President Joe Biden claimed that there are a thousand billionaires within the nation who’re paying an 8.2% tax price and that in the event that they have been taxed nearer to 25%, it might increase billions of {dollars} in tax income that may assist ease the nation’s debt burden and fund welfare applications.
Info First: Biden used this determine in a approach that was deceptive. As in earlier speeches, together with the State of the Union deal with in March, Biden didn’t clarify that the determine is the product of another calculation, from economists in his personal administration, that elements in unrealized capital positive aspects that aren’t handled as taxable revenue below federal regulation.
There’s nothing inherently improper with the choice calculation itself; the administration economists who got here up with it defined it intimately on the White Home web site in 2021. Biden, nonetheless, has tended to cite the figure with none context about what it’s and isn’t, leaving open the impression that he was speaking about what these billionaires pay below present regulation.
So, what do billionaires really pay below present regulation? The reply just isn’t publicly recognized, however consultants say it’s clearly greater than 8%. “Biden’s numbers are approach too low,” Howard Gleckman, senior fellow on the City-Brookings Tax Coverage Heart on the City Institute suppose tank, informed CNN in 2023. Gleckman stated that in 2019, College of California, Berkeley, economists Emmanuel Saez and Gabriel Zucman “estimated the highest 400 households paid a mean efficient tax price of about 23% in 2018. They obtained a variety of consideration on the time as a result of that price was decrease than the typical price of 24% for the underside half of the revenue distribution. Nevertheless it nonetheless was far more than 2 or 3,” numbers Biden has utilized in some earlier speeches, “and even 8%.”
In February 2024, Gleckman offered extra calculations from the Tax Coverage Heart. The middle discovered that the highest 0.1% of households paid a mean efficient federal tax price of about 30.3% in 2020, together with a mean revenue tax price of 24.3%.
From CNN’s Daniel Dale
Biden on 15% unemployment when he took workplace
In defending his report on the economic system, President Joe Biden stated that when he took workplace, “the economic system was flat on its again. Fifteen p.c unemployment. (Trump) decimated the economic system. … That’s why there was not inflation on the time. There have been no jobs.”
Info First: Biden’s declare that the US unemployment price was 15% when he took workplace is inaccurate.
In January 2021, the unemployment price was 6.4%, in keeping with Bureau of Labor Statistics information.
The unemployment price did close to 15% throughout Trump’s presidency, however that occurred throughout April 2020, when the worldwide and nationwide economic system have been crushed by the rising Covid-19 pandemic. In April 2020, the US misplaced more than 20 million jobs, leading to unemployment skyrocketing from 4.4% in March 2020 to 14.8% in April 2020.
After peaking in April 2020, the unemployment price declined considerably because the nation recovered these misplaced jobs (reaching pre-pandemic ranges in June 2022) and gained tens of millions extra. The nation’s jobless price is within the midst of a 30-month streak of being at or below 4%.
From CNN’s Alicia Wallace
Trump on Biden’s tax plans
Former President Donald Trump claimed that President Joe Biden is proposing to multiply People’ taxes by 4 occasions.
“He desires to boost all people’s taxes by 4 occasions,” Trump stated.
Info First: That is false, simply because it was when Trump made the identical declare through the 2020 election marketing campaign and in early 2024.
Biden has not proposed to quadruple People’ taxes, and there has by no means been any indication that he’s in search of to take action. The nonpartisan City-Brookings Tax Coverage Heart suppose tank, which analyzed Biden’s never-implemented finances proposals for fiscal 2024, discovered this: “His plan would increase common after-tax incomes for low-income households in 2024, go away them successfully unchanged for middle-income households, and decrease after-tax incomes considerably for the highest-income taxpayers.”
The Tax Coverage Heart discovered that Biden’s proposal would, on common, have raised taxes by about $2,300 – however that’s a few 2.3% decline in after-tax revenue, not the huge discount Trump is suggesting Biden desires. And critically, Tax Coverage Heart senior fellow Howard Gleckman famous to CNN in Could that 95% of the tax hike would have been lined by the highest-income 5% of households.
The very greatest burden below the Biden plan would have been carried by the very richest households; the Tax Coverage Heart discovered that households within the high 0.1% would have seen their after-tax incomes decline by greater than 20%. That’s “loads,” Gleckman famous, but it surely’s nonetheless nowhere close to the quadrupling Trump claims Biden is searching for. And once more, even this enhance would have been just for a tiny subset of the inhabitants. Biden has promised to not increase taxes by even a cent for anybody making below $400,000 per 12 months.
From CNN’s Daniel Dale
Trump on funding for Ukraine
Former President Donald Trump claimed that the US has given extra in assist to Ukraine than European international locations put collectively.
“The European nations collectively have spent $100 billion, or possibly greater than that, lower than us,” Trump stated.
Info First: Trump’s declare is fake. From simply earlier than Russia’s invasion in early 2022 via April 2024, European international locations contributed extra assist to Ukraine than the US, in keeping with information from the Kiel Institute for the World Financial system in Germany.
The Kiel Institute, which carefully tracks assist to Ukraine, discovered that from late January 2022 (the month previous to Russia’s invasion) via April 2024, the European Union and particular person European international locations had dedicated a complete of about $190 billion to Ukraine in navy, monetary and humanitarian help, in contrast with about $106 billion dedicated by the US. Europe additionally exceeded the US in assist that had been “allotted” to Ukraine – outlined by the institute as assist both delivered or specified for supply – at about $109 billion for Europe in contrast with about $79 billion for the US.
Moreover, Europe had dedicated extra whole navy assist to Ukraine, at about $76 billion to about $69 billion for the US. The US narrowly led on navy assist that had been allotted, at greater than $50 billion for the US to lower than $48 billion for Europe, however even that was nowhere close to the lopsided margin Trump advised.
It’s vital to notice that it’s attainable to give you completely different totals utilizing completely different methodology. And the Kiel Institute discovered that Ukraine itself was getting solely about half of the cash in a 2024 US invoice that had extensively been described as a $61 billion assist invoice for Ukraine; the institute stated the remainder of the funds have been largely going to the Protection Division.
From CNN’s Daniel Dale and Kaanita Iyer
Trump on the Veterans Alternative program
Former President Donald Trump took credit score for the Veterans Alternative well being care regulation, claiming that President Joe Biden has “gotten rid of all of the issues that I authorized.”
“Alternative, that I obtained via Congress. All the various things I authorized, they deserted,” Trump stated.
Info First: Trump’s declare is fake. The Veterans Alternative program was really signed into regulation in 2014 by his predecessor, President Barack Obama. Trump signed a regulation in 2018, the VA MISSION Act, that expanded and modified this system established below Obama, and, as Trump has stated, made the initiative everlasting.
Throughout Trump’s presidency, he falsely took credit score for the Alternative regulation greater than 150 occasions.
From CNN’s Daniel Dale
Trump on decreasing the price of insulin
Former President Donald Trump once more tried to take full credit score for decreasing the price of insulin for older People.
“I’m the one which obtained the insulin down for the seniors,” Trump stated.
Info First: Trump’s declare that he was the one who diminished the price of insulin for seniors is exaggerated. The previous president did get a $35-per-month out-of-pocket cap on insulin for some seniors via a voluntary program that Medicare prescription drug plans may select to take part in. However Biden ensured that each one 3.4 million-plus insulin customers on Medicare obtained $35-per-month insulin — via a compulsory cap that not solely covers extra folks than Trump’s voluntary cap, but additionally applies to a better variety of insulin merchandise and stays in impact at a stage of particular person drug spending at which Trump’s cap disappeared.
Trump may pretty say he performed a task in decreasing insulin prices and that Biden doesn’t deserve sole credit score. The Biden-era federal authorities has acknowledged that his necessary $35 month-to-month cap, signed into regulation in his Inflation Discount Act of 2022, “closely aligns with” the voluntary $35 month-to-month cap within the Trump-created mannequin that was introduced in 2020 and launched within the closing month of the Trump presidency in 2021.
However Biden’s coverage does greater than Trump’s did in a number of substantive methods.
The Inflation Discount Act measure applies the $35-per-month cap to each insulin person in Medicare Half D. Trump’s coverage didn’t.
Biden’s coverage imposes the mandatory $35 monthly cap on insulin taken via a pump, which is obtained via Medicare Half B. Below Trump’s program, the voluntary $35 month-to-month cap solely utilized to insulin obtained through Medicare Half D drug plans, akin to insulin that’s injected or inhaled.
The Inflation Discount Act measure requires a $35 cap on all lined insulin merchandise. Trump’s coverage solely required it on some.
Below Biden’s coverage, folks in Medicare Half D no longer have to make any payments for lined prescribed drugs, together with insulin, as soon as they attain a really excessive stage of annual drug spending referred to as the “catastrophic” stage. Below Trump’s voluntary insulin program, the $35 month-to-month cap didn’t apply to these whose spending reached the “catastrophic” threshold, although many individuals seemingly paid lower than $35 per 30 days for insulin at that time regardless.
From CNN’s Daniel Dale and Tami Luhby
Trump on funding HBCUs
Former President Donald Trump made a declare through the debate that he “funded” traditionally Black faculties and universities.
“After they see what I did for legal justice reform and for the traditionally Black faculties and universities the place I funded them and obtained all of them funded,” Trump stated.
Info First: Trump is exaggerating right here and his claims want context.
In 2019, Trump signed the FUTURE Act (Fostering Undergraduate Expertise by Unlocking Sources for Schooling), a bipartisan invoice geared toward strengthening HBCUs in addition to different minority-serving establishments by offering $255 million yearly.
“HBCUs have been underfunded for over 150 years, since inception. President Trump did signal measures into regulation that helped HBCUs tremendously (FUTURE Act and the primary two COVID 19 packages). Nonetheless, he by no means got down to do it,” Monique LeNoir, vice chairman of branding, advertising and marketing and communications for the United Negro College Fund (UNCF), informed CNN. “Congress took the lead on placing the HBCU funding in these payments and passing them. The third COVID-19 invoice, handed below President Biden, included as a lot funding for HBCUs as each of the primary two COVID-19 payments below President Trump.”
Marybeth Gasman, govt director of the Rutgers Heart for Minority Serving Establishments, echoed LeNoir, including that Congress, throughout former President Barack Obama’s administration, additionally allotted funding to HBCUs.
“HBCUs are robust and resilient establishments, and they’re that approach due to Black folks, Black leaders, Black alumni, Black college students. They face obstacles however proceed to persevere. They weren’t prone to being out of operation — that’s an enormous overstatement,” Gasman informed CNN.
The Trump administration additionally had a frayed relationship with HBCUs, and Trump’s views on funding for HBCUs have additionally not been constant. In 2017, Trump questioned the constitutional foundation for federal funding for HBCUs, saying, according to NPR, that “it advantages faculties on the idea of race.”
CNN’s Chandelis Duster and Owen Dahlkamp