Trump Harris Debate!

21 failures by ABC to fact check:

1. “Very fine people” hoax

Harris claimed Trump called neo-Nazis in Charlottesville “very fine people,” a widely known hoax that Democrats continue to repeat, despite it being debunked for years by numerous outlets, including by the left-wing fact checking website Snopes.

2. Project 2025 hoax

Harris accused Trump of wanting to implement Project 2025. This is false. Trump has repeatedly stated that he has nothing to do with it and hasn’t even read it.

Trump promptly corrected Harris on the debate stage, saying, “I have nothing to do — as you know, and as she knows, better than anyone — I have nothing to do with Project 2025. I haven’t read it, I don’t want to read it, purposely. I’m not going to read it.”

“I have nothing to do [with it],” Trump added. “Everybody knows I’m an open book. Everybody knows what I’m going to do: cut taxes very substantially, and create a great economy like I did before.”

3. False claims on Trump trade deficit

Harris claimed “the Trump administration resulted in a trade deficit” that was “one of the highest we’ve ever seen in the history of America.” This is patently false.

The trade deficit climbed to around $653 billion in Trump’s final year as president, in part because of depressed global demand for U.S. goods and services and a U.S. economy that recovered sooner than most other developed economies.

But the trade deficit never rose to the levels seen under former President George W. Bush or the Biden-Harris administration.

4. Putin can “do whatever the hell he wants”

Harris claimed that Trump told Russian President Vladimir Putin that he could “do whatever the hell he wants and go into Ukraine.” This is false. Trump never told Putin he could do “whatever the hell he wants,” and he never told Putin he could invade Ukraine.

To add insult to injury, this false claim is also coupled with stark gaslighting, given that Putin appears to be doing whatever he wants during the Biden-Harris administration — such as invading Ukraine — and not during the Trump administration.

5. “Dictator on day one” hoax

Harris claimed that Trump “wants to be a dictator on day one.” This is false. Trump has never said this.

Oddly, Harris attempted to justify her false claim by making another false claim (the aforementioned erroneous claim coupled with gaslighting), which was that the 45th president told Putin he could “do whatever the hell he wants.”

Remarkably, Harris failed to mention that Putin has actually been doing whatever he wants during the Biden-Harris administration.

6. Blaming botched Afghanistan withdrawal on Trump

In another example of never before seen levels of gaslighting, Harris blamed her and Biden’s disastrous Afghanistan withdrawal on Trump.

After being asked point blank, “Do you believe you bear any responsibility in the way that withdrawal played out?” Harris segued to talking about Trump’s communications with the Taliban, suggesting that the Biden-Harris administration is not responsible for its own botched Afghanistan withdrawal.

This is not the first time Harris falsely claimed Trump is responsible for her and Biden’s botched Afghanistan withdrawal. Last week, her campaign tried to blame it on Trump — even though it happened seven months after he left office — claiming he didn’t give the Biden-Harris administration any “plans” on what to do.

7. Putin “would be sitting in Kyiv”

Harris claimed Putin “would be sitting in Kyiv with his eyes on the rest of Europe” if Trump were president. This is false.

Russia under Putin invaded neighbors during the George Bush, Barack Obama, and Joe Biden administrations, but never during the Trump administration.

8. “Bloodbath” hoax

Harris also repeated the “bloodbath” hoax, falsely claiming that Trump called for a “bloodbath” if he lost the election.

This is a long-debunked hoax, as Trump was referring to the car industry.

9. Abortion “monitor” hoax

Harris claimed that Trump wanted an abortion “monitor.” This is false. Trump has never said anything like that.

This is not the first time Harris has used this false statement. Breitbart News fact-checked this claim when she made it at the Democratic National Convention. Notably, Harris has never provided the basis for her claim, which is calculated to scare voters, but is simply fictitious.

While making this claim, Harris also uttered another false claim that Trump seeks to implement a “national abortion ban.” Trump has repeatedly stated that he would not sign a federal abortion ban. Additionally, abortion is not a federal issue. It is a state issue.

10. Rental property hoax

Harris claimed that Trump “refused to rent property to black families.” This is false.

The claim has been made for years, but it has never been proven. In 2016, the Associated Press did a fact checked on the claim, reporting that Trump and his father settled a government lawsuit about it with no admission of fault.

11. Central Park Five “execution” hoax

Harris claimed that Trump called for the “execution” of the Central Park Five. This is false.

Trump never specifically called for the “execution” of the Central Park Five defendants. Breitbart News fact-checked this claim when Democrats made it at their convention last month.

12. “Suckers and losers” hoax

Harris alluded to the “suckers and losers” hoax by claiming that Trump had disparaged the military, including the fallen. This is false.

The false claim that Trump called dead soldiers “suckers and losers” is a familiar hoax that has also been repeated by President Joe Biden. It stems from a report by the left-wing Atlantic, which has never been directly corroborated, and has been refuted by many eyewitnesses.

13. False fracking claims

Harris claimed she never called to ban fracking. This is false, as she explicitly called to end fracking when running for president in 2019.

14. False oil production claims

Harris claimed that the Biden-Harris administration ramped up oil production. This is false. The Biden-Harris administration has actively worked to curb domestic oil production.

Early in the administration, Biden ordered the secretary of the Interior Department to halt new oil and natural gas leases on public lands and waters, and review existing permits for fossil fuel development. In 2023, the Biden-Harris administration canceled oil leases sold by the Trump administration in the Alaskan wildlife refuge and blocked new drilling.

15. National Sales Tax

Harris accused Trump of proposing a national sales tax. This is false. President Trump has not proposed a national sales tax.

During the debate, Harris referred to a “Trump sales tax” and claimed it would add 20 percent to the cost of goods. She was likely referring to Trump’s proposal to raise tariffs on imports.

But tariffs are paid by companies that import goods from abroad and not by consumers. They are not a sales tax.

16. Distorting unemployment figures

Harris claimed that Trump “left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression.” This is false, as unemployment was 6.4 percent in January 2021, not far from full employment, when Trump left office.

17. “I was raised middle-class”

Harris claimed she had a middle-class upbringing, saying, ” I was raised as a middle-class kid, and I am actually the only person on this stage who has a plan that is about lifting up the middle class and working people of America.”

This is mostly false. Harris had a rich Canadian upbringing, growing up in Westmount — a majority English neighborhood in the French province of Quebec.

Amusingly, Harris made her “middle-class” claim while completely dodging the question, “Do you believe Americans are better off than they were four years ago?” — and again, ABC moderators never brought her back on track to the question at hand.

18. “Terminating” the Constitution

Harris claimed that Trump wants to “terminate” the U.S. Constitution. This is false. Trump does not want to “terminate” the Constitution and has refuted this lie himself.

Her claim likely stems from Trump’s reaction in 2022 to a bombshell New York Post report that the Democrat Party colluded with what was then known as Twitter to suppress the Hunter Biden laptop story ahead of the 2020 presidential election.

“The Fake News is actually trying to convince the American People that I said I wanted to ‘terminate’ the Constitution,” Trump said in a 2022 Truth Social post. “This is simply more DISINFORMATION & LIES, just like RUSSIA, RUSSIA, RUSSIA, and all of their HOAXES & SCAMS.”

“What I said was that when there is ‘MASSIVE & WIDESPREAD FRAUD & DECEPTION,’ as has been irrefutably proven in the 2020 Presidential Election, steps must be immediately taken to RIGHT THE WRONG,” Trump added.

19. “Sold us out” to China

Harris claimed that Trump “sold us out” to the Chinese government with policies that “ended up selling American chips to China.” This is false.

The Trump administration blocked the takeover of an American semiconductor maker by a Chinese investor, restricted exports to China’s top chipmaker, and largely limited sales to China and even to third countries who do business with Chinese companies considered a national security threat, such as the telecommunications company Huawei.

In another example of blatant gaslighting, the Biden-Harris administration reportedly started greenlighting third party suppliers to sell chips to Huawei in 2021.

20. “Not one” troop in any war zone

Harris claimed there are currently no active-duty troops in any combat zone anywhere around the world for the first time this century. This is false.

There are currently active duty U.S. troops deployed to Iraq and Syria who have been under frequent attack by Iran-backed militia forces over the past year. There are also thousands of active-duty U.S. sailors deployed to the Middle East who are facing attacks by drone strikes and missiles fired by the Iran-backed Houthi forces in Yemen. Earlier this year, three U.S. soldiers were killed on the border of Syria by Iran-backed forces.

21. Taking guns away

Harris claimed that she and her running mate Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz (D) “are not taking anyone’s guns away.” This is false. Harris has campaigned on banning AR-15s and other guns that Democrats label “assault weapons.”

Just last month, during their first campaign event together, Harris and Walz pushed for a ban on AR-15s and other guns.

While ABC’s debate moderators Linsey Davis and David Muir failed to fact-check the plethora of false claims and hoaxes uttered by Harris, they frequently tried to fact-check Trump, with Muir even bizarrely fact-checking a joke the 45th president had previously made.

Economic crib sheet

September 10, 2024

An Economic Data Crib Sheet for the Presidential Debate The economy is likely to be a key battleground in the debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump in Philadelphia on Tuesday night. It is the top issue for a plurality of Americans and one of Harris’s key weaknesses in opinion polls. Here are some of the key facts about the economy under the Trump administration and the Biden-Harris administration that should inform tonight’s debate. In order to allow for a fair assessment of the economic performance and policies of Trump and Harris, we’ve tried to take out the effect of the pandemic by excluding 2020 and sometimes 2021 from our calculations. Sometimes this benefits Trump: we’ve excluded the massive job losses in 2020. Sometimes it benefits Biden: we excluded the deficit spending of 2021 because it includes emergency pandemic measures. Inflation Peak Inflation for Trump: 2.85% Peak Inflation for Biden-Harris: 8.98% This is measured by the year-over-year increase in the consumer price index. Alternatively, we can measure the highest annualized rate of inflation in any month. Peak annualized inflation for Trump: 6.3% in September 2017 Peak annualized inflation for Biden-harris: 16.05% in June 2022 The pain caused by inflation is not, however, entirely captured by the peak rate. The cumulative effect of inflation matters as well. Here we measure it from February at the start of the term through July of the fourth year, the most recent available for the Biden-Harris administration. Cumulative Trump Inflation: 5.9% Cumulative Biden-Harris Inflation: 19% The price of groceries has been a particular sore spot for many voters. Again, we measure this from February of the first year through July of the fourth year of each presidency. Cumulative Trump grocery inflation: 6% Cumulative Biden-Harris grocery inflation: 20.9% Rent is another focus of inflation that is squeezing many American households. Rent increase under Trump: 12.5% Rent increase under Biden-Harris: 22.1% Finally, we can measure inflation by how long it stays elevated above the Fed’s two percent target. Months of PCE inflation above two percent under Trump: 5 Months of PCE inflation above two percent under Biden-Harris: 40 Manufacturing Employment Manufacturing Jobs Added under Trump: 414,500 Manufacturing Jobs Added under Biden-Harris: 138,000 This measures jobs from the peak of the prior presidency to the peak of the relevant administration. This allows us to exclude the pandemic and its rebound, better capturing the effect of each administration’s policies. Growth of Manufacturing Jobs under Trump: 3.5% Growth of Manufacturing Jobs Under Biden-Harris: 1.07% Jobs and Wages The pandemic caused a massive spike in unemployment in 2020. We have excluded that from our calculations by measuring employment at the peak of the prior presidency to its peak during the relevant administration. So, for Trump, this is measured as the peak under Barack Obama to the peak under Trump. For Biden, it is measured form the peak under Trump to the peak under Biden-Harris. Trump employment growth: 6.5 million Percent Trump employment growth: 4.3% Biden-Harris employment growth: 2.6 million Percent Biden-Harris employment growth: 1.7% Inflation has badly eaten away at the wage gains of American workers. Here we measure average hourly earnings from February of the first year of each presidency through July of the fourth year, the most recent data available for Biden-Harris. Trump wage gain: 6.46% Biden-Harris wage gain: 5.17% If we excluded managerial and white collar employees, the pain caused by inflation is even worse. Here are the wage gains for production and nonsupervisory workers. Trump wage gain: 6.54% Biden-Harris wage gain: 0.00% The Border Crisis and American Jobs Immigration is perhaps the only issue that rivals inflation and the economy for the public’s attention in this election. Foreign born population growth under Trump: 2.2% Foreign born population growth under Biden-Harris: 12.6% Much of the job growth under the Biden-Harris administration has gone to foreign-born workers. Here we measure the growth of employment of foreign born workers from the start of the Trump administration through February of the third year and from the pre-pandemic peak under Trump through the most recent month. This allows us to exclude the effect of the pandemic. Foreign-born employment growth under Trump: 7.5%. Foreign-born employment growth under Biden-Harris: 14.2%. We can also measure the growth of foreign employment in the U.S. as a percentage of total employment. Here again we exclude the pandemic period, when foreign-born employment crashed. Foreign-born workers as a percentage of all U.S. workers under Trump: 17.4% Foreign-born workers as a percentage of all U.S. workers under Biden-Harris: 19.6% Budget Deficits Trump and his running-mate Sen. JD Vance (R-OH) have frequently argued, with ample evidence, that the Biden-Harris administration’s deficit spending fueled runaway inflation. To measure the deficit fairly, we have excluded 2020 and 2021, since those years were arguably heavily impacted by the pandemic. Excluding 2020 benefits Trump’s numbers and excluding 2021 benefits Biden’s. Trump average budget deficit 2018-2019: $809 billion Biden-Harris average budget deficit 2022-2023: $1.5 trillion The budget deficit is arguably more relevant as a percentage of the total economy. So, here is the deficit as a percent of GDP. Trump budget deficit as share of GDP in 2018: 3.8% Trump budget deficit as share of GDP in 2019: 4.6% Biden-Harris budget deficit as share of GDP in 2022: 5.3% Biden-Harris budget deficit as share of GDP in 2023: 6.2% Economics Growth The GDP figures are wildly skewed by the pandemic collapse, when the economy contracted by 2.2 percent, and the rebound, when it grew by 5.8 percent. Here we present figures showing the first three years of the Trump administration compared with the first three years of the Biden administration. We also include the Biden figure excluding the pandemic rebound. Average economic growth in first three years of Trump administration: 2.7% Average economic growth in first three years of Biden-Harris administration: 3.4% Average economic growth under Biden-Harris excluding 2021 pandemic rebound: 2.2% The Stock Market and Interest Rates Average return of S&P 500 in first three years of Trump administration: 16.3% Average return of S&P 500 in first three years of Biden-Harris administration: 12.3% Peak 30-year mortgage interest rate under Trump: 4.94% Peak 30-year mortgage interest rate under Biden-Harris: 7.76%

Pensiamento Peligroso