Washington
CNN
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Democratic presidential candidate Vice President Kamala Harris and vice presidential candidate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz sat down with CNN anchor Dana Bash on Thursday for the first formal interview of their marketing campaign.
Bash directed a lot of the inquiries to Harris. Here’s a reality examine of a few of Harris’ responses, together with a deceptive assertion and an exaggeration.
Bash famous that Harris said, whereas operating within the Democratic presidential main in 2019, that “there’s no query I’m in favor of banning fracking.” When Bash requested if she nonetheless desires to ban fracking, Harris responded: “No, and I made that clear on the controversy stage in 2020 – that I might not ban fracking. As vp, I didn’t ban fracking. As president, I can’t ban fracking.”
When Bash once more famous that Harris stated in 2019 that she supported a ban on fracking, and requested Harris if she modified her thoughts throughout that marketing campaign (which Harris ended in December 2019), Harris stated, “In 2020, I made very clear the place I stand. We’re in 2024 and I’ve not modified that place, nor will I going ahead.”
Info First: That is deceptive. Harris didn’t make her place on fracking clear throughout her solely debate in 2020, the overall election’s vice presidential debate towards then-Vice President Mike Pence; Harris never explicitly stated a private place on fracking throughout that debate. Reasonably, she stated that Joe Biden, the pinnacle of the Democratic ticket on the time, wouldn’t ban fracking if he was elected president.
Harris stated within the 2020 vice presidential debate: “Joe Biden is not going to finish fracking”; “I’ll repeat, and the American individuals know, that Joe Biden is not going to ban fracking.”
It made sense that Harris was addressing Biden’s plans on the time provided that the president units administration coverage. However opposite to her declare on Thursday, neither of those 2020 debate feedback made clear that she personally held a special view on the topic than she had the yr prior.
The kid tax credit score and poverty
Harris touted the influence of the American Rescue Plan pandemic reduction invoice Biden signed into legislation in 2021, which included a brief enhancement of the kid tax credit score. She referred to “once we do what we did within the first yr of being in workplace to increase the kid tax credit score, in order that we minimize little one poverty in America by over 50%.”
Info First: The phrase “over,” which Harris stated very quietly, makes this declare a slight exaggeration; the American Rescue Plan’s short-term growth of the kid tax credit score helped scale back little one poverty by 46%, by one key federal measure, between 2020 and 2021. As well as, it’s necessary to notice that this steep enchancment solely lasted for the one yr the short-term enhancement was in impact. The kid poverty price then spiked in 2022, the latest yr for which public knowledge is at present accessible.
The American Rescue Plan elevated the scale of the kid tax credit score to as much as $3,600 – from $2,000 – for eligible households. The legislation additionally enabled many extra low-income mother and father to assert the credit score and distributed half of the credit score on a month-to-month foundation.
These modifications helped ship child poverty (as measured by the Supplemental Poverty Measure) to a report low 5.2% in 2021, a drop of 46% from 2020, when the speed was 9.7% based on the US Census Bureau. However in 2022, child poverty soared to 12.4%, roughly similar to the place it was previous to the pandemic in 2019. That was the biggest bounce in little one poverty for the reason that Supplemental Poverty Measure started.
Harris is now calling to revive the $3,600 credit score in addition to create a brand new $6,000 credit score for newborns.
Touting the Biden-Harris administration’s Inflation Discount Act of 2022, a significant local weather legislation for which Harris forged the tiebreaking vote within the Senate, Harris spoke of “what we’ve already finished, creating over 300,000 new clear vitality jobs.”
Info First: This wants context. Whereas it’s clear {that a} important variety of new clear vitality jobs had been created because of the Inflation Discount Act, the “300,000” determine contains jobs that corporations have promised to create however aren’t finalized. And different counts of recent clear vitality jobs have provide you with smaller figures.
The 300,000 estimate comes from a June tally by communications group Local weather Energy. It was compiled by including up the roles promised by corporations in publicly saying 585 clear vitality initiatives after the Inflation Discount Act was handed by means of Might 2024, a complete of 312,900 introduced jobs. Not all of those jobs have already been created. Local weather Energy’s topline quantity additionally doesn’t distinguish between development jobs constructing new factories and the long-term jobs at these factories – jobs constructing batteries, photo voltaic panels and electrical automobiles, amongst different issues.
As well as, E2, one other clear vitality group that tracks Inflation Discount Act-related investments and jobs, has counted over 109,000 new clean energy jobs created or introduced from August 2022 to Might 2024 – considerably decrease than the Local weather Energy quantity. A recent report from the US Division of Vitality discovered 142,000 new clear vitality jobs had been created in 2023.
Totally different entities use totally different methodologies when analyzing knowledge, so it’s tough to find out an actual determine. Regardless, there’s no query there’s an enormous quantity of clean energy investment, and a big variety of new jobs constructing EVs and renewables like wind and photo voltaic are being created by the Inflation Discount Act. The 2024 Vitality Division report confirmed clear vitality jobs made up greater than half of the overall for brand new vitality sector jobs and grew at a price twice as giant as the general US financial system.
The report additionally acknowledged how the sudden progress within the clear vitality sector from the Inflation Discount Act has made it tough to trace all the roles which might be being created.