Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump went head-to-head for the first time in the 90-minute "ABC News Presidential Debate."
Both candidates agreed to a set of rules that included muted microphones when it was not their turn to speak, and they also weren't allowed any pre-written notes or props onstage.
A team of Scripps News journalists monitored for claims that were false, misleading or require more context. Here's what we found:
ON THE ECONOMY
CLAIM: Harris said the Trump administration lost manufacturing jobs.
FACTS: According to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, there were 12.4 million manufacturing employees in January 2017 when Donald Trump took office. In January 2021, when Biden took office, that figure dropped to 12.2 million manufacturing employees. However, a more fair assessment would compare the beginning of Trump's term to before the coronavirus pandemic. Using those figures, there was actually an increase of 419,000 manufacturing jobs.
CLAIM: Harris said, "Economists have said that 'Trump's sales tax' would actually result for middle-class families in about $4,000 more a year."
FACTS: Harris’ figure about how much Trump’s proposed tariff hike will cost families comes from an analysis by the Center for American Progress Action Fund. The CAP Action Fund went through the goods the U.S. Census says we're projected to import in 2025, then calculated what the tariff on them would be and divided that by the number of American households. That figure was then adjusted for government estimates on how much middle-income households spend overall relative to other consumers.
That said, the estimate is higher than those calculated by other research institutions and think tanks. The American Action Forum, a center-right think tank, has projected additional costs per household of $1,700 to $2,350 annually. And the Peterson Institute of International Economics, another Washington, D.C.-based think tank, projected that such tariffs would cost a middle-income household about $1,700 extra each year.
CLAIM: Harris said the Trump administration resulted in a trade deficit — one of the highest in American history.
FACTS: The trade deficit in goods was indeed higher under Trump in 2018 and 2019 than in any previous year, though that was not the case in 2017.
However, this ignores a substantial surplus in services. When services are factored in, the overall trade deficit was larger in five separate years during George W. Bush’s administration.
CLAIM: Trump said his administration saw virtually no inflation, while the Biden-Harris administration had the highest inflation perhaps in the history of the country.
FACTS: During the Trump administration, the average annual inflation rate hit a high of 2.4% in 2018 and a low of 1.2% in 2020, according to Federal Reserve Bank St. Louis' presentation of data from the World Bank. The lowest rates were part of major rises and falls during the pandemic.
Rates under President Biden reached an annual average of 8% in 2022. They appear to be decreasing — as of July 2024, the annual inflation rate sat at 2.9%. (Note: The number for May is a snapshot compared to July of 2023, not a change in annual averages).
The highest sustained, year-over-year U.S. inflation rates were recorded in the 1970s and early 1980s when the price increase sometimes ranged from 12% to 15%. For one year — 1946, after the U.S. won World War II — the overall year-over-year inflation rate exceeded 18%.
ON IMMIGRATION
CLAIM: Trump said, "We have millions of people pouring into our country from prisons and jails, mental institutions and insane asylums ..."
FACTS: According to immigration policy experts who spoke to PolitiFact, there is no evidence that immigrants are being released from prisons or mental institutions. When prompted to support this statement, the Trump campaign has reportedly referenced a 2022 story on the conservative website Breitbart.com — allegedly based on an anonymous source and a secret government report — and to articles about the migration of Cubans to the U.S. in the 1980s.
CLAIM: Trump said, "Crime in Venezuela and crime all over the world is way down" and that "crime is up and through the roof" in the U.S.
FACTS: Trump’s main source for the claim that U.S. crime rates are up is the National Crime Victimization Survey, which the Justice Department conducts annually. That survey shows a 43% increase in the rate of violent crime victimization from 2020 to 2022, the last year survey data was published.
NCVS is one of two main sources of federal crime data. The other source, released by the FBI, shows the opposite trend in violent crime, finding that violent crime has dropped from 2020 to 2022. Preliminary estimates show that trend continuing throughout 2023.
Historically, these two federal metrics have tended to move in tandem, but they didn’t in 2022, for unclear reasons. The NCVS data that Trump is relying on is a survey of individuals and thus includes crimes that were not reported to authorities. In that study, more than half the victims of violent crime consistently say they never reported the incident to police. Meanwhile, the FBI data only includes crimes reported to the police.
The study of crime victimization for 2023 is not due for release until fall, about the same time the FBI is expected to finalize its 2023 numbers. In the meantime, many nongovernmental groups have released data, typically based on figures reported by a cross-section of several dozen cities. Their data from 2023 and 2024 aligns with the FBI’s preliminary numbers so far, showing that violent crime has continued to fall since 2022.
As for Venezuela: From 2022 to 2023, there was a 25% drop in violent deaths, homicides, deaths resulting from police intervention and deaths under investigation, according to the independent Venezuelan Observatory of Violence. But criminologists in Venezuela said the decline is because of the country’s poor economy, mass migration and the government's extrajudicial killings, not the government emptying prisons.
CLAIM: Trump said that in Springfield, Ohio, immigrants are eating pets.
FACTS: The claim, circulating on social media, that Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio, are stealing neighbors’ pets to eat, and killing ducks and geese for food is unfounded, a city spokesperson told PolitiFact.
CLAIM: Trump said the president has a right to unilaterally close the border.
FACTS: A Congressional Research Service report from February found that the Trump and Biden administrations both "imposed significant restrictions on alien entry and access to asylum" during the pandemic. However, it also said it was not clear that such authority extended to non-pandemic times, adding, "The question remains whether the executive branch could impose similarly broad restrictions under existing immigration statutes in situations not tied to a declared public health emergency."
CLAIM: Trump referred to Harris as the border czar.
FACTS: In 2021, Kamala Harris was given the assignment of addressing immigration's causes, not border security. President Joe Biden tasked the vice president with working alongside officials in Guatemala, El Salvador and Honduras to address the issues driving people to leave those countries and come to the U.S. Border security and management is the Homeland Security secretary’s responsibility.
ON REPRODUCTIVE RIGHTS
CLAIM: Trump said he has been a leader on IVF.
FACTS: Trump said if he wins a second term in office, his administration would make IVF treatment free to all women. However, Trump has not laid out how he plans to fund IVF procedures, which can cost more than $30,000 per cycle with multiple cycles often needed.
CLAIM: Harris said, "The majority of Americans believe in a woman's right to make decisions about her own body. And that is why every state where this issue has been on the ballot in red and blue states both, the people of America have voted for freedom."
FACTS: This is true. Seven states have had ballot measures about abortion rights following the Dobbs decision: California, Kansas, Kentucky, Michigan, Montana, Ohio and Vermont. Every vote has come out in favor of more access. There are about a dozen states that will have an abortion-related measure on their ballot this year.
ON FOREIGN AFFAIRS
CLAIM: Trump said for 18 months we had nobody killed in Afghanistan.
FACTS: Defense Department data shows an 18-month stretch with no U.S. service member combat deaths in Afghanistan after then-President Donald Trump and the Taliban reached a deal to end the war in late February 2021. However, that time includes seven months of President Joe Biden’s administration.
CLAIM: Trump said Harris was sent to negotiate with Putin and Zelenskyy before the Ukraine invasion.
FACTS: Days before Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Harris attended the Munich Security Conference in Germany. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was present and met with Harris. CNN reported that one of Harris' objectives at the conference was to deter, and prepare for, what was seen as a likely and imminent invasion of Ukraine. Russia was not in attendance at the conference, and the Kremlin denies any contact between Harris and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
CLAIM: Harris claimed Trump said Putin "can do whatever the hell he wants" with Ukraine.
FACTS: At a rally in South Carolina, Trump said the leader of a large NATO country asked whether their country would still receive protection from a Russian invasion if that country were "delinquent" in its NATO payments. Trump said he told that leader no and that he would encourage Russia to do "whatever the hell they want."
However, there's no evidence his comment was in reference to Ukraine.
CLAIM: Harris said Trump invited the Taliban to Camp David
FACTS: Trump did propose meeting Taliban leaders at Camp David to negotiate an end to the war in Afghanistan, but the meeting never happened. The New York Times reported that it was "put together on the spur of the moment and then canceled on the spur of the moment," and dispensed with the usual processes of the National Security Council.
ON DEMOCRACY
CLAIM: Harris said Donald Trump wants to be a dictator on day one.
FACTS: This is a reference to a December interview with Sean Hannity, in which Hannity asked Trump if he promised not to “abuse power as retribution against anybody.
“Except for day one,” Trump responded.
Trump then repeated the exchange.
“He says, ‘You’re not going to be a dictator, are you?’ I said: ‘No, no, no, other than day one. We’re closing the border, and we’re drilling, drilling, drilling. After that, I’m not a dictator.’” A few months later, he stated in an interview this was "said in jest."
CLAIM: Trump said he offered to give 10,000 National Guard members to protect the U.S. Capitol on January 6, 2021.
FACTS: A Vanity Fair report said Trump made a passing remark to his acting defense secretary about potentially needing 10,000 National Guard troops. But there’s no evidence the comment was treated as a formal authorization.
CLAIM: Trump claims he did not lose the 2020 presidential election.
FACTS: A candidate needs to reach 270 electoral votes to win the presidential election. Joe Biden won the 2020 president election with 306 electoral votes. Donald Trump earned 232 electoral votes during the election.
While Trump has often claimed voter fraud took place, there's no evidence of election interference, wrongdoing or errors on any scale that would have impacted the outcome of the 2020 election. No state election authorities have found that fraud affected their elections, even after multiple audits and recounts.
Neither Donald Trump nor any of his supporters ever provided credible evidence of widespread fraud, nor has any court found that such fraud happened over the course of multiple lawsuits. The Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency, an agency created with Donald Trump's own approval, has stated election systems were very secure overall.
CLAIM: Harris said Trump would terminate the Constitution of the United States.
FACTS: In a 2022 post on his social media platform Truth Social, former President Donald Trump wrote, referring to baseless claims about widespread fraud in the 2020 election: "A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution."
OTHER TOPICS
CLAIM: Trump said, “We are going to replace” the Affordable Care Act. “We are working on things.”
FACTS: President Trump has shifted positions about the Affordable Care Act over the years. After trying and failing to repeal it while in office, he said in December he would attempt to dismantle the law, also known as Obamacare, if voters send him back to the White House. But months later he began saying he would keep the Affordable Care Act while being open to ideas to improve it. Tonight, he reverted back to his original claim that he would “replace” the Affordable Care Act. He has never offered a plan for what would replace the law.
CLAIM: Harris said Trump spread birther lies about President Obama.
FACTS: For years, Trump did indeed falsely claim that President Barack Obama was not born in the U.S. He eventually abandoned that position.
CLAIM: Trump said Harris has a plan to confiscate everyone’s guns.
FACTS: While running in the presidential primary in 2019, Harris said she supported a "mandatory gun buyback program" for assault weapons. It did not apply to all guns, and she no longer holds that position.
CLAIM: Harris said Trump has openly expressed disdain for members of the U.S. military.
FACTS: This claim stems from a 2020 article in The Atlantic. The article purportedly details President Donald Trump’s private remarks about the late Sen. John McCain, saying: "When McCain died, in August 2018, Trump told his senior staff, according to three sources with direct knowledge of this event, ‘We’re not going to support that loser’s funeral,’ and he became furious, according to witnesses, when he saw flags lowered to half-staff. ‘What the f--- are we doing that for? Guy was a f---ing loser,’ the president told aides."
Trump has denied saying this, although his former White House chief of staff John Kelly told the media it was true.
Editor's note: A previous version stated there was no evidence to substantiate this claim.
CLAIM: Trump said there were "very fine people on both sides" in regards to violent protests in Charlottesville, Virginia.
FACTS: When asked by a reporter whether neo-Nazis started the violent protests, Trump responded: "They didn’t put themselves — and you had some very bad people in that group, but you also had people that were very fine people, on both sides."
Trump went on to condemn neo-Nazis and White nationalists.
CLAIM: Trump said, "I probably took a bullet to the head because of the things that they say about me."
FACTS: The motive of the shooter in the Trump assassination attempt is still unknown.
CLAIM: Trump accused Harris of being a Marxist.
FACTS: Marxism refers to the school of thought inspired by Karl Marx’s analysis of capitalism. Communism and Marxism experts said Vice President Kamala Harris’ positions do not align with those philosophies. Harris is not against private home or business ownership, for example.
CLAIM: Trump said he has nothing to do with Project 2025.
FACTS: Vice President Kamala Harris’ campaign often conflates the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025 agenda with Trump’s agenda. For example, on the Harris campaign’s “Issues” page, a subsection called “Trump’s Project 2025 Agenda” contrasts Harris’ stances with Project 2025 proposals or Trump’s own record.
But the Trump campaign has repeatedly distanced itself from Project 2025. His official platform, Agenda 47, has some overlap with the project as well as some key differences. In an official statement on July 30 , his campaign said, "President Trump’s campaign has been very clear for over a year that Project 2025 had nothing to do with the campaign, did not speak for the campaign, and should not be associated with the campaign or the President in any way."
However, in a recently released recording of Russell Vought, a Project 2025 author and the former director of Trump’s Office of Management and Budget, Vought told undercover reporters that Trump is "very supportive of what we do." He said Trump was only distancing himself because Democrats were making a bogeyman out of the document. The Trump campaign has since continued to reiterate that Trump has no connection to Project 2025.
For its part, the Heritage Foundation says it has written Project 2025 for "the next conservative administration," not explicitly for Trump.
CLAIM: Trump was investigated for refusing to rent property to Black families.
FACTS: In 1973, Trump was president of his father’s realty company, Trump Management, when the federal government filed a complaint against him, his father Fred Trump, and the company.The complaint alleged that the Trumps violated the Fair Housing Act by discriminating against tenants and potential tenants based on their race. In one instance, a Black man asked about two-bedroom apartments at a Trump complex in Brooklyn, and a superintendent told him nothing was available. The next day, the man’s wife, who was White, visited the complex and was offered an application for a two-bedroom apartment on the spot. Government lawyers interviewed several people who said executives discouraged rental agents from renting to Black people. In one case, the government said the company’s comptroller instructed a rental agent to attach a sheet of paper that said "C" for "colored" to every application submitted by a person of color.
Additional reporting from our fact-checking partner PolitiFact.
