Four fact checks from the CNN interview with Kamala Harris and Tim Walz

PolitiFact checked Vice President Kamala Harris and her running mate, Minnesota Governor Tim Walz, in their first joint interview since they accepted the presidential and vice presidential nominations at the Democratic National Convention in Chicago. The segment, moderated by Dana Bash, aired on CNN on August 29.

PolitiFact has rated Harris on our Truth-O-Meter 52 times since 2012 and Walz three times so far this year. We also fact-checked her remarks at the Democratic National Convention.

Harris: “We have created over 800,000 new manufacturing jobs.”

This number is very close to the truth, but there are limitations.

The latest figures show the increase to be somewhat smaller – a gain of 765,000 manufacturing jobs created during the Biden-Harris administration. That gain followed a sharp decline in manufacturing employment at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, so some of the gains reflect a return of workers to their existing jobs after public health improved.

Manufacturing employment is now 173,000 jobs above pre-pandemic levels. (These numbers could change in February 2025, when annual revisions become official, but for now, these are the official numbers.)

In recent decades, economic recessions have typically been followed by a decline in manufacturing jobs compared to the pre-recession peak.

A comparison of historical patterns over the past 45 months since the onset of a recession – including the most recent in 2020 – shows that manufacturing employment in the Biden era has been the strongest recovery from a recession in 72 years and the second strongest since the end of World War II.

One note: No president deserves full credit for job creation or loss during his or her term in office, because other factors – from world events to technological change – also play a role.

Harris: “I made (my opposition to fracking) clear on the debate stage in 2020 that I will not ban fracking. As vice president, I did not ban fracking. As president, I will not ban fracking.”

Harris’ 2024 position supports fracking, but it hasn’t always been that way. Bash recounted how, as a candidate in the 2019 Democratic primary, Harris opposed fracking, a common and controversial technique used to extract hard-to-reach oil and gas in rock formations. The issue is important to voters in the key swing state of Pennsylvania, which has seen a fracking boom, especially in the western part.

Harris’ response to Bash focused on her comments as President Joe Biden’s vice presidential nominee in 2020, rather than her staunch opposition to fracking in the Democratic presidential primary. Her comments in 2020 reflected Biden’s view.

Harris said during a CNN town hall in 2019: “There’s no question that I’m in favor of banning fracking, so yes. And starting with what we can do on public lands on day one, right? And then there has to be legislation, but yes – and that’s something I took on in California. I’ve worked on this issue in the past.

“And to get back to your point, we simply have to recognize that the knock-on effects of fracking on the health and safety of the public are enormous.”

But after Biden chose Harris as his running mate in 2020, Harris stuck to his policy that did not include a fracking ban. During the 2020 vice presidential debate with Republican Mike Pence, Harris said, “Joe Biden is not going to end fracking.” Harris did not say that she no longer supports a fracking ban, but that Biden will not seek one.

Harris: “In my first year in office, we expanded the child tax credit, reducing child poverty in America by over 50%.”

That is true, but it needs clarification. The decline did not continue.

The American Rescue Plan, which Biden signed in 2021, increased the annual child tax credit from $2,000 to $3,600 for children under 6 and to $3,000 for children ages 6 to 17. Beneficiaries received up to half the credit in monthly payments from July 2021 to December 2021.

Overall, supplemental poverty figures show that poverty among all children in the U.S. fell from 9.7% in 2020 to 5.2% in 2021, according to the U.S. Census Bureau — a 46% decline. About 5.3 million people escaped poverty, including 2.9 million children.

The provision subsequently expired, facing opposition from Republicans and Senator Joe Manchin (now IW.Va.), who argued that expanding the credit would worsen inflation. When the expanded tax credit expired, child poverty skyrocketed. Additional child poverty rose from 12.1% in December 2021 to 17% in January 2022—a change of 41%. That meant 3.7 million more children were living below the poverty line.

The supplementary poverty measure, introduced in 2011, was designed to modernize the “official poverty measure” formulated in the 1960s. The supplementary poverty measure includes cash and in-kind benefits and deducts necessary expenses – such as taxes and medical expenses – and takes into account government programs designed to help low-income families.

Harris: “When Joe Biden and I took office at the height of the pandemic, we saw over 10 million jobs lost.”

That’s right. When the COVID-19 pandemic began, the economy lost nearly 22,000 jobs virtually overnight. When Biden and Harris took office in January 2021, employment rebounded by about 12 million, leaving employment about 10 million jobs below pre-pandemic levels.

By June 2022, employment had returned to pre-pandemic levels. Since then, the number has increased by more than 6 million jobs.

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