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Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump face off Tuesday night for their first, and possibly only, debate before the Nov. 5 presidential election.
The matchup is being hosted by ABC News and will be moderated by ABC News anchors David Muir and Linsey Davis. The debate is taking place at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia and is set to run for 90 minutes.
This is the second debate for Trump during the 2024 campaign. The first time around he faced off against President Joe Biden on June 27. Biden struggled to answer questions and finish sentences, and dropped out of the race July 21.
The rules in this debate will be the same as the June debate. Candidates’ microphones will be silenced while the opponent is answering questions.
The Daily Signal will be fact-checking this debate live as it happens.
Trump: We had no inflation
Trump repeatedly said he “had no inflation” during his tenure in the White House. While inflation grew much faster under Biden and Harris, prices also rose under Trump.
Prices overall rose 19% over the first 42 months of Biden’s term compared with 6% during Trump’s first 42 months, according to Forbes. Year-over-year inflation peaked under Biden at a four-decade hgh of 9% in 2022.
Opportunity economy
Harris said she is the only candidate promoting an opportunity economy, but Trump’s Tax Cuts and Jobs Act gave the 82% of middle-income earners a tax cut that averaged about $1,050, according to FactCheck.org.
“I was raised in a middle-class home,” Harris said, “And I am actually the only person on the stage who has a plan to lift up the middle class and the working people, and when you look at his economic plan, it’s all about tax breaks for the richest people.”
But even the Biden-Harris administration’s Treasury secretary, Janet Yellen, acknowledged that Trump’s 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act cut taxes for all.
The year following the Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, new job openings surged, and about 83,000 more Americans voluntarily left their jobs for better opportunities at the end of 2019, compared with the trend before the reform.
Trump: Harris’ father Is a Marxist professor
The claim that Harris’ father is a Marxist was fact-checked by Snopes as “true” after a viral X post from political economist Maxine Fowé.
Donald Harris, a now-retired professor of economics at Stanford University, was the author of a 1978 book, “Capital Accumulation and Income Distribution.” It features ideas on Karl Marx’s theory of capital. “His book, ‘Capital Accumulation and Income Distribution’, published in 1978 and dedicated to Kamala and her sister, examines the pitfalls of relying on profit-seeking capitalists to direct an economy,” writes The Economist. The New Yorker wrote of Donald Harris being “a renowned Marxist economist from Jamaica who taught at Stanford University for decades.”
‘Trump Abortion Bans’
Harris branded state laws on abortion “Trump abortion bans,” because Trump appointed the Supreme Court justices who created the majority that overturned the 1973 abortion precedent, Roe v. Wade.
The justices Trump nominated did indeed overturn Roe in the 2022 case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization.
“Donald Trump hand-selected three justices of the Supreme Court with the intention that they would overturn Roe,” Harris said.
When Trump said he supports exceptions to abortion restrictions in the cases of rape, incest, and a threat to the life of the mother, Harris said, “in over 20 states, there are Trump abortion bans which make it criminal for a doctor or nurse to provide health care,” a reference to abortion.
She noted that many of these laws “make no exception for rape or incest.”
Yet Trump claimed that after Dobbs, states can make their own laws on abortion, so a federal ban is unnecessary.
“Look, this is an issue that’s torn our country apart for 52 years,” the former president said. “Each individual state is voting. It’s the vote of the people now. It’s not tied up in the federal government.”
Trump does not bear responsibility for each of the abortion laws passed after Dobbs; the states themselves do. All Trump’s Supreme Court justices did was enable the states to make their own laws.
Harris: No Women Getting Late-Term Abortions
Harris said no women are carrying their babies to the ninth month of pregnancy, then getting abortions.
She said this after answering a question about whether she supported any limitations on abortions by saying she would restore Roe v. Wade.
In saying this, Harris admitted that she would allow abortions in the ninth month. She just denies that they are happening.
But as of June 28, six states and Washington, D.C., impose no term restrictions on abortion. And 11 states have ballot measures that would permit abortion up until birth if a “health care professional” determines the mother needs it.
In 2019, Harris voted to block a bill that would have required medical care for babies born alive in botched abortions.
‘Tax Cut for Billionaires and Big Corporations’
Harris touted her own plan for a $6,000 child tax credit and a $50,000 tax deduction for startup small businesses. But she accused Trump of wanting to give a tax cut only for the wealthy.
“My opponent on the other hand, his plan, is to do what he has done before, which is to provide a tax cut for billionaires and big corporations, which will result in $5 trillion to America’s deficit,” Harris said.
She also attacked what she called a “Trump sales tax.”
Trump has not supported a direct sales tax, but has supported tariffs, which critics say would increase prices and would function effectively as a tax.
Harris’ reference to “what he has done before,” on taxes was an apparent reference to the 2017 tax reform legislation, known as the $1.5 trillion Tax Cuts and Jobs Act.
The tax cuts benefited middle-class workers, as wage growth increased by about $1,400 in the years following the corporate tax cuts. Job openings also increased in 2018.
About 83,000 more Americans voluntarily left their jobs for better opportunities at the end of 2019 compared with the trend before the reform, while Census Bureau data has shown real household income reached an all-time high in 2019, growing by $4,400 (a one-year increase of 6.8%).
Meanwhile, IRS data shows average effective tax rates declined by 9.3% in 2018. Tax cuts as a percentage of taxes paid in 2017 were largest for the lowest-income Americans and lowest for the top 1%, as The Daily Signal previously reported.
Trump Thanked Xi During COVID-19
While discussing tariffs on goods from China, Harris said that Trump thanks China’s leader, Xi Jinping, for his actions during the COVID-19 pandemic.
“What Donald Trump did with COVID, he actually thanked President Xi for what he did during COVID. Look at his tweet, ‘Thank you, President Xi, exclamation point.’”
Harris was likely referring to a X post by Trump that he posted on Jan. 24, 2020.
“China has been working very hard to contain the coronavirus. The United States greatly appreciates their efforts and transparency. It will all work out well. In particular, on behalf of the American people, I want to thank President Xi!”
The first cases of COVID-19 in the U.S. began in late January 2020.
Trump later was highly critical of China, pointing to the Asian nation as the origin site of the disease.
“In the earliest days of the virus, China locked down travel domestically while allowing flights to leave China and infect the world,” Trump said in a U.N. speech in September 2020. “China condemned my travel ban on their country, even as they canceled domestic flights and locked citizens in their homes.”
Presidential Immunity
“The United States Supreme Court recently ruled that the former president would essentially be immune from any misconduct if he were to enter the White House again,” Harris claimed.
This misrepresents the Supreme Court ruling in Trump v. United States.
“The president enjoys no immunity for his unofficial acts, and not everything the President does is official. The President is not above the law,” Chief Justice John Roberts wrote in the 6-3 majority opinion in July. “But under our system of separated powers, the president may not be prosecuted for exercising his core constitutional powers, and he is entitled to at least presumptive immunity from prosecution for his official acts. That immunity applies equally to all occupants of the Oval Office.”
The immunity only applies to constitutional powers and partially to official acts. The immunity also extends to every occupant of the Oval Office, not just Trump.
Harris: Trump Would ‘Terminate the Constitution’
“Understand that this is someone who has openly said he would terminate the Constitution of the United States,” Harris said.
Trump has not said he wants to terminate America’s founding document.
That claim likely comes from a 2022 Truth Social post about the 2020 election, in which Trump wrote, “A Massive Fraud of this type and magnitude allows for the termination of all rules, regulations, and articles, even those found in the Constitution.”
“Our great ‘Founder’ did not want, and would not condone, False & Fraudulent Elections!” Trump continued.
A month later, Trump said, “The Fake News is actually trying to convince the American People that I said I wanted to ‘terminate’ the Constitution. This is simply more DISINFORMATION & LIES.”
In Charlottesville, ‘Very Fine People’
Harris repeated that the false claim that in 2017, Trump said white nationalist rioters in Charlottesville, Virginia, were “fine people.”
President Joe Biden made the same claim in the June 27 debate, days after it was debunked by fact-checking website Snopes. According to Snopes, Trump said there “very fine people on both sides
about the protesters and the counter protesters. But in the same statement, he clarified he was not referring to neo-Nazis and white nationalists, adding they should be ‘condemned totally.’”
Trump: Harris Wants to ‘Defund the Police’
Trump said Harris bailed out rioters who “killed people” and “burned down Minneapolis” after the 2020 Minneapolis race riots following the death of George Floyd.
“She went out and raised money to get them out of jail,” Trump said, “and she did things that nobody would ever think of now.”
Harris infamously urged followers to contribute to the Minnesota Freedom Fund, urging them to “help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota,” after rioters ravaged Minneapolis after Floyd’s death in police custody.
Fact-checkers later established that Harris didn’t personally donate to the Freedom Fund, although at the time she and others helped direct more than $40 million to the organization.
Harris voiced support for the “defund the police” movement after Floyd’s May 2020 death in a radio interview in June of that year, CNN reported.
“This whole movement is about rightly saying, we need to take a look at these budgets and figure out whether it reflects the right priorities,” Harris said.
Harris also praised then-Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti for his decision to cut $150 million from the police budget and redirect funding into social services.
‘Violent Mob’
Harris talked about the Jan. 6, 2021, Capitol riot by Trump supporters in an effort to stop certification of Biden’s Electoral College victory.
“Donald Trump left us the worst attack on our democracy since the Civil War,” Harris said early in the debate.
In fact, the U.S. Capitol was attacked at least four times before Jan. 6, and three of those were after the Civil War.
In 1814, British soldiers burned the Capitol during the War of 1812. It took about five years to rebuild the House chamber. In 1954, four Puerto Rican terrorists—Andres Figueroa Cordero, Lolita Lebrón, Irvin Flores Rodríguez, and Rafael Cancel Miranda—attacked the Capitol. Unlike those who got inside the Capitol building in January 2021, those terrorist were armed with guns. The four opened fire from the House Gallery, wounding five lawmakers.
In 1971, a domestic terrorist group called the Weather Underground bombed the Capitol, causing $300,000 worth of damage. No one was harmed.
The so-called Weathermen returned in 1983 and set off another bomb that “tore through the second floor of the Capitol’s North Wing,” according to the Senate’s history site. No fatalities occurred.
“On that day, the president of the United States incited a violent mob to attack our nation’s Capitol, to desecrate our nation’s Capitol,” Harris later said. “On that day, 140 law enforcement officers were injured, and some died, and understand the former president has been indicted and impeached for exactly that reason.”
During his speech on Jan. 6, 2021, Trump told the gathering, “I know that everyone here will soon be marching over to the Capitol building to peacefully and patriotically make your voices heard.” Though he also said, “We fight like hell, and if you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country anymore.”
A total of 1,240 pro-Trump protesters were charged with committing crimes Jan. 6 as of Thursday, according to the FBI. Most were accused of felonies in connection with storming the Capitol to stop certification of Biden’s win.
According to reports, it’s true that about 140 police were reportedly injured in the rioting. Only two people reportedly died directly from the violence on Jan. 6, 2021. But as many as seven others died indirectly from the events of the day, based on a tally of deaths published this week in The New York Times.
Capitol Police Officer Brian Sicknick, initially thought to have died from an attack, actually died of natural causes. But the stress from the day’s events could have prompted his strokes.
Others died of natural causes or suicide, but the stress from the violence and commotion of the day could have contributed to those deaths.
Rioter Ashli Babbitt was fatally shot by a Capitol Police officer. Another rioter was reportedly stampeded by fellow rioters.
Contrary to Harris’ claim, special counsel Jack Smith didn’t charge Trump with insurrection or incitement of an insurrection in a federal court case. Smith secured a grand jury indictment charging Trump with trying to alter the outcome of the 2020 election.
Smith secured an indictment against Trump that charges him with conspiracy to defraud the United States; conspiracy to obstruct an official proceeding; obstruction of and attempt to obstruct an official proceeding; and conspiracy against rights.
Trump ‘Negotiated the Weakest Deal Ever with Afghanistan’
Harris claimed that Trump “negotiated the weakest deal ever with Afghanistan” and invited the Taliban to Camp David.
It’s true that Trump negotiated with the Taliban and that the Taliban were invited to the Camp David, the presidential retreat in the Maryland mountains. But the negotiations were conditions-based, and Trump made clear the Taliban would be held accountable for their actions.
Moreover, Trump’s team ensured that if, in the end, the Taliban proved untrustworthy, the remaining U.S. force had been sized and scoped to present a serious deterrent to the Taliban and would be sufficient to protect U.S. interests.
Former Secretary of State Mike Pompeo said Trump “made very clear to Mullah Baradar, the senior Taliban negotiator, that if you threatened an American, if you scared an American, certainly if you hurt an American, that we would bring all American power to bear to make sure that we went to your village, to your house.”
“We were very clear about the things we were prepared to do to protect American lives,” Pompeo said. “And indeed, since we began those negotiations back in February of 2020, there wasn’t a single American killed by the Taliban. We had established a deterrence model.”
Democrats have blamed Trump for the Taliban’s 2021 capture of Afghanistan’s capital, Kabul, which effectively handed the country to the terrorist organization.
A total of 13 U.S. service members, ages 20 to 31, were killed and at least 18 other members were injured in the Hamid Karzai International Airport bombing attack on Aug. 26, 2021.
After Biden made an address blaming Trump for the events in Kabul, Trump said, “It’s not that we left Afghanistan. It’s the grossly incompetent way we left.”
This article will be updated throughout the night.
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