Moderated by ABC News, the debate was held at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia.
During their first presidential debate of the 2024 election hosted by ABC News, Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump met each other for the first time.
At the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia, Trump and Harris presented their candidacies for the presidency in a high-stakes, ninety-minute debate.
ABC News Live fact-checked the Democratic and Republican candidates’ responses as they debated the nation’s most important issues, pointing out responses that were exaggerated, lacking full context, or false.
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HARRIS CLAIM: The Trump proposal would raise inflation and throw the country into a recession, according to 16 Nobel laureates.
FACT-CHECK: True
Harris correctly summarized the conclusion of the Nobel laureates regarding how inflation fared during Trump’s administration: “There is rightly a worry that Donald Trump will reignite this inflation.” The latter does indeed dub Harris’s program “vastly superior” to Trump’s, but they do not precisely predict a recession by mid-2025 in their letter to the editor. Instead, the letter said: “We believe that a second Trump term would lead to declining standards of living for the average American and a rapidly worsening trade deficit with other nations. We believe a second Trump term would have a negative impact on the U.S.’s economic standing in the world and a destabilizing effect on the U.S.’s domestic economy.”
The following are Nobel laureates in economics: Paul M. Romer, Alvin E. Roth, William F. Sharp, Robert J. Shiller, Christopher J. Milgrom, Eric S. Maskin, Daniel L. McFadden, George Akerlof, Angus Deaton, Claudia Goldin, Oliver Hart, Eric S. Maskin, and Roger B. Myerson.
HARRIS CLAIM: Trump wants to impose a “20% tax on everyday goods” that would cost families “about $4,000 more a year.”
FACT-CHECK: True, but lacking context.
Trump has floated a comprehensive “10-20%” tariff on all U.S. imports, everything from wine and food products to cars and electronics, and even up to a 60% tariff on imports from China. Vice President Harris characterized the plan as “Trump’s sales tax,” although the former president has never proposed a sales tax. Still, independent economists say the proposed import tariffs would elevate prices for American consumers.
It isn’t easy to pinpoint the financial cost on families, but some estimates range between $1,700 to about $4,000 per home year, depending on the study. Trump hasn’t proposed increasing taxes on American families.
TRUMP CLAIM: “We have inflation like very few people have ever seen,” said President Trump. Probably the worst in the history of our country.”
FACT-CHECK: Not true, but still relatively high
Although the yearly inflation rate did peak in June 2022, this was not the highest this number has been since Joe Biden’s administration began. There were other examples when the US inflation rate was much higher than 9%, such as during the years immediately after World War II and at the onset of the oil crisis and shortages toward the late 1970s and early 1980s.
Exclude a handful of instances where the United States’ inflation rate was well over 9%, including the immediate years after World War II and into the oil crisis in the late 1970s and early 1980s, it peaked at 14.5%. As of July 2024, the yearly inflation is 2.9%, marking the lowest in the past three years. Still, it has to be pointed out that Biden has fabricated the story of inheriting his predecessor’s high rate. When he came into power, inflation was 1.4%. This fact check was sourced from the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis, also known as the St. Louis Fed.
HARRIS SAID: “Trump has left us with the highest unemployment rate since the Great Depression.”
FACT-CHECK: Requires background
According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, during Trump’s presidency, the unemployment rate peaked at 14.8% in April 2020, a high not seen since the Great Depression. As the economy started rebalancing, unemployment plummeted, reaching 6.4% in January 2021- the last month of Trump’s presidency. In addition, the 6.4% unemployment rate is lower than the peak of 10%, recorded in October 2009 during the Great Recession.
If pandemic numbers are excluded, then the very low unemployment rate under Trump was somewhat higher than the weakest under Biden. Both were positive, while under Trump, the lowest percentage stands at 3.5%, and under Biden, at 3.4%, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of St. Louis and the Bureau of Labor Statistics.
HARRIS CLAIM: A law that would have secured the border was “killed” by Trump
FACT-CHECK: True
A bipartisan group of senators earlier this year proposed a $20 billion plan to increase security at the U.S.-Mexico border dramatically. In addition to funding the construction of a new wall along the border, its provisions included expanding detention facilities, ending “catch and release,” effectively slamming the border shut when illegal crossings surge, increasing the minimum wage, and adding hundreds more border patrol, ICE, and asylum personnel.
Public support came from the powerful Border Patrol union, which had previously praised Trump. However, Trump urged his party to block the plan shortly after the draft legislation became public on February 5, even though some Republicans had long championed some of the security provisions contained in the deal.
I’ll fight it all the way,” Trump told his supporters at a rally in Las Vegas on February 8. “Many senators are trying nicely to blame me for it. That’s okay, I say. Nicely blame me.” Trump publicly cited the politics of the next election as reason for his opposition: “This bill is a death wish for the Republican Party and a great gift to the Democrats.” Trump said in a social media post, “It legitimizes D.A.C.A., which the Democrats want and gets nothing in return but more D.A.C.A. The Republicans will be forced to vote on and honour these earmarks even though they go against their State’s interest.” All Republicans, including those who were involved in crafting the law, voted against it in a critical procedural Senate vote that occurred in May.
TRUMP CLAIM: Haitian immigrants to Ohio are eating pets
Fact Check: False
The city of Springfield, Ohio, said that is not the case. According to the statement given to ABC News from the city, there are “no specific claims or credible reports of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals in the immigrant community.”
A wave of online misinformation- including recent social media posts from high-profile political leaders contributed to unfounded rumours that migrants from Haiti are stealing and killing animals in the country.
There were no reports of immigrants engaging in prohibited activities such as squatting or garbage at the doorsteps of houses. The chief also added that there had not been any incidents involving immigrants intentionally blocking vehicle traffic.
House Judiciary GOP X presented Trump with AI technologies as an animal saver by showing him cuddling kittens and ducks.
One of the most widely shared photos online shows a man holding up a dead goose, but that picture was taken two months ago in Columbus, Ohio, not Springfield. The local photographer who shot that image told ABC News he was “floored” to see people using it to “push false narratives.”
The Springfield News-Sun reported that no calls about pets being stolen and eaten had been filed with the Springfield Police Department. The city even created a webpage debunking some of the rumours. According to the city’s website, the area has drawn immigrants because of its low cost of living and plentiful job opportunities. The city claims that the county has an estimated 12,000 to 15,000 immigrants, saying the county’s housing, healthcare, and educational systems are being stretched with the burgeoning population that has developed so rapidly. Still, the city also points out that many migrants are federally granted Temporary Protected Status, meaning they are lawfully present in the nation.
Harris: Trump ‘intends on adopting’ Project 2025
FACT-CHECK: Out of context
The conservative stalwarts and former Trump advisers issued a 900-page policy blueprint to help a new Republican administration transition in April 2023. Called Project 2025 and spearheaded by the well-known right-wing think tank Heritage Foundation, the new initiative laid out proposed regulations, economic management, national security, government staffing, and the reorganization of federal institutions.
According to Harris, if Trump is elected to a second term, he “plans on enacting” the “extensive and perilous” plan. However, Trump says he is not connected to Project 2025. He publicly slammed its contents as “seriously extreme” and the work of the “severe right,” taking to social media in July to write, “I have not seen it, have no idea who is in charge of it.”
“I disagree with some of the things they’re saying and some of the things they’re saying are absolutely ridiculous and abysmal,” Trump wrote in a social media post. But many of the document’s planks are matters on which Trump has taken general positions, such as building a border wall, deporting hundreds of thousands of illegal immigrants, and keeping transgender athletes out of women’s sports.
HARRIS CLAIM: Harris said, “Denver would sign a national abortion ban if he were to be reelected.”
FACT-CHECK: False
Trump has said he feels “no regrets” having appointed the judges to the Supreme Court who overturned the constitutional right to an abortion. He has also attempted to appease both camps, for instance, by promising time and time again that he would not sign any federal bill banning abortion if elected but instead leave it with the states. Another question that went unmentioned this year is if he would support the Comstock Act, a statute passed in 1873 outlawing the shipment of supplies used in abortions.
Among other things, it would ban shipping the medication mifepristone used to terminate pregnancies before their full term. The Biden administration says because the drug is used medicinally for purposes other than aborting a pregnancy and its use is too hard to trace, the rule is not enforceable. JD Vance, Trump’s running mate, and other conservatives have called for the statute to be enforced.
TRUMP CLAIM: “No one was fired because of Afghanistan.”
FACT-CHECK: True, but lacks context.
Indeed, nobody who had a direct hand in the disorderly departure of American forces from Afghanistan in 2021 has faced public scrutiny.
Especially, Trump seems to refer to the suicide bomb attack that killed thirteen US military personnel. This, after all, U.S. Central Command stated in an inquiry that the bombing was unstoppable, and members of a Marine sniper team were lying by telling their fellow service members that the suicide bomber was in their crosshairs.
These investigations, say Trump, congressional Republicans and a handful of the Gold Star families, have fallen short.
In an interview airing in August, Trump told CBS News he would not enforce the Comstock Act, even though “we will be discussing specifics of it.”
TRUMP CLAIM: Fracking should be outlawed by Kamala Harris
FACT-CHECK: Needs context
Though Harris once favoured a fracking ban, she has retracted her support. “There’s no question I’m in favour of banning fracking,” Senator Harris said to the moderator at a 2019 CNN town hall on climate change. Fracking, or “hydraulic fracturing,” is extracting oil and natural gas from subterranean rock.
But Harris said that as California’s attorney general, she supported her then-home state’s efforts to ban the practice. Later, after being selected as Biden’s 2020 running mate, she flip-flopped on fracking. During an October 2020 appearance on ABC’s The View, Harris declared that neither Biden nor she would ban hydraulic fracturing. Harris denied that fracking would be prohibited during an ABC News Presidential Debate.
TRUMP CLAIM: ‘I’d like to send you 10,000 National Guard people,’ Trump said. They refused it. Nancy Pelosi (United States Representative) refused it.
FACT-CHECK: False
The Select Committee to Investigate the January 6th Attack on the United States Capitol, in its bipartisan effort, found “no evidence” that President Trump had directed the military “to have 10,000 troops ready for January 6th.”
Acting Secretary of Defense Christopher Miller, President Trump’s second-in-command, reported that, according to the story, “there was no direct order from the President” to prepare 10,000 troops for January 6th.
The newspaper noted that Trump had “floated the idea of having 10,000 National Guardsmen deployed to protect him and his supporters from any supposed threats by left-wing counter-protesters,” rather than citing an expected number of soldiers to guard the Capitol.
HARRIS CLAIM: Trump would not face criminal charges if elected
FACTS-CHECK: By DC journalist In comments about a historic Supreme Court ruling in June, Vice President Harris said that Trump would be “immune from any misconduct” and have “no guard rails.”.
The court affirmed the elemental powers, which include the authority to sign treaties, veto legislation, select cabinet members, appoint ambassadors, serve as commander-in-chief of the armed forces, and grant pardons.) For other “official acts,” the president is entitled to “at least presumptive immunity,” the court ruled, defining such acts broadly as actions that occur outside the “outer perimeter” of their official duties but are not “manifestly or palpably beyond his authority.
Although the decision is popularly thought to have given current presidents sweeping immunity, the court nonetheless held that presidents were “not above the law” and do not enjoy “absolute” immunity but only derivative immunity and rules, which allow a limited set of circumstances under which a serving or former president may be prosecuted for criminal activity. The court held that “unofficial” acts likewise are not privileged.
Special Counsel Jack Smith has filed two active federal criminal charges against President Trump. While the Supreme Court’s ruling has significantly stalled this legal process and burdened the ability to convict Trump, it by no means prevents such cases from moving forward. If he is reelected for the second term, Trump’s Justice Department may fire the Special Counsel, thus ending those proceedings against him.
TRUMP CLAIM: Following his cancellation of the Nord Stream 2 project, Trump said that Biden “put it back on day one”.
FACT-CHECK: False
Russia could have avoided Ukraine and save Kyiv billions of euros in access fees by selling more natural gas to Western Europe through the undersea pipeline known as Nord Stream 2. It is accurate to say that Trump’s 2019 sanctions forced the pipeline’s development to halt. But at that time, the pipeline was nearly complete, with the majority of the project built under Trump’s presidency, according to a 2020 Congressional Research Service assessment.
Biden later removed sanctions against the pipeline’s builder in 2021 at Germany’s request; however, he reintroduced them the following year after Russia attacked Ukraine.
HARRIS CLAIM: The messy pullout from Afghanistan was the result of Trump’s agreement with the Taliban.
FACT-CHECK: Needs context
The top government watchdog on the war in Afghanistan pinpoints Trump’s 2020 deal with the Taliban as “the single most important factor” in why the country’s forces collapsed a year later. The same agency, however, said that Biden’s determination to stick with a precise timeline for withdrawing US forces contributed.
He reached a deal with the Taliban, in which they agreed not to attack any American soldiers in return for his consent to the withdrawal of American forces from Afghanistan by May 2021 and the release of 5,000 fighters from prison. The Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction said the Afghan troops viewed the agreement as “a signal that the U.S. was handing over Afghanistan to the enemy as it rushed to exit the country.” The inspector general also said Trump had reduced American military presence to the lowest levels of the two-decade war, and Afghan forces were not ready to take the lead.
And, as Biden associates were quick to point out, the less-than-ideal security environment in which the newly elected president found himself last January placed him in a near-impossible situation. He could double down and send more American soldiers in a misguided effort to prop up the feeble Afghan government. Doing so, of course, would have prolonged America’s most protracted conflict, raising once again the strong possibility that the Taliban would strike American soldiers anew. The inspector general said that Biden’s statement that he would stick to his 2021 withdrawal schedule led to low morale for the Afghan forces and thus paved the way for the fall of the government to be followed by a Taliban takeover.
TRUMP CALM: Trump said that Biden “put it back on day one” after he axed the Nord Stream 2 project.
Fact-check: False
Trump said Democrats allow the murdering of a newborn in some states. That’s not true.
No state allows the killing of a newborn. All fifty states ban infanticide. His false accusation stems from Democrats refusing to support any legal restrictions on abortion. He cites explicitly comments from physician and former Virginia Gov. Ralph Northam, who said that in the rare cases of late pregnancy where fetuses are nonviable, the doctors deliver the baby and perform CPR if the mother so wishes. Then, they have a “discussion” with the mother.
While most states that allow abortions do so only until fetal viability, several states, such as Minnesota, the home state of Gov. Tim Walz, Colorado, New Jersey, New Mexico, Oregon and Vermont, have no law limiting the number of abortions one can perform. Supporters of abortion rights say doctors will not try to terminate full-term, healthy pregnancies simply because there are no legal consequences past fetal culpability.
Late-term procedures are highly restricted, expensive, and risky; they are most often performed in the instance of a non-viable fetus or in the case of saving a woman’s life. Most Democrats say they would like to see legislation codify the 1973 Supreme Court decision Roe v. Wade that protected abortion rights until viability.
TRUMP CLAIM: Trump suggested that courts siding with his inability to file lawsuits during elections resulted in him losing the 2020 election on a “technicality.”
FACT-CHECK: False
Biden received 306 electoral votes compared to 232 for Trump, meaning that Biden won the 2020 election.
Following his loss in the 2020 election, Trump and his allies filed more than 60 lawsuits to challenge the outcome in several states; the majority were either withdrawn or dismissed. Many of the cases were dismissed because plaintiffs were unable to demonstrate a sufficiently concrete relationship between their claims and the action they were challenging. One common and legally valid reason for a case to be dismissed is lack of “standing.”
TRUMP CLAIM: The Taliban seized control of $85 billion worth of “brand new beautiful military equipment” which the Biden administration abandoned in Afghanistan.
FACT-CHECK: False
This is false because the US estimated the spending on security assistance in Afghanistan since 2001 was $83 billion.
Even so, the Inspector General of the Defense Department estimates that the Taliban seized $7.12 billion worth of U.S.-funded equipment after the U.S. withdrawal. That total, by the estimate of the government watchdog, includes nearly every night-vision device, surveillance system, communication system and biometric device provided to forces in Afghanistan, as well as 78 aeroplanes, 9,500 air-to-ground missiles, 40,000 vehicles and 300,000 firearms.
HARRIS CLAIM: Harris said that Trump ran an ad calling for the execution of the Central Park 5
FACT-CHECK: True
Shortly after the arrest of the Central Park Five, Trump took out full-page ads in New York newspapers advocating for the reinstatement of the death penalty in New York. The ad featured this language over Trump’s name: “These muggers and murderers.should be forced to suffer and, when they kill, they should be executed for their crimes.”
HARRIS CLAIM: Trump and Kim Jong Un exchanged love letters
FACT-CHECK: False
In fact, following their joint summit in Singapore in June 2018, President Trump and Kim Jong Un corresponded via letter in August of that same year. In a tweet, however, Trump thanked the North Korean Kim “for your nice letter — I look forward to seeing you soon.” The White House has said Trump responded to the North Korean leader but didn’t discuss the content of either Trump’s response or Kim Jong Un’s letter.
In August 2019, Trump told reporters that he received a “very beautiful letter” from North Korean leader Kim Jong Un.
At one September 2018 campaign event, Trump revealed to the audience that, at one point in their relationship, the two leaders called each other “and then we fell in love.”
“Then, you know, we fell in love. “No, seriously, he wrote me charming and wonderful letters,” Trump said at the event. In fact, throughout and after his presidency, Trump often had very nice things to say about Kim Jong Un, North Korea’s leader.
