Fact check of the most important claims in the TV duel

In the TV debate between Kamala Harris and Donald Trump, both accused each other of lying. We checked some of the statements for their veracity.

Around two months before the US election, the two US presidential candidates Kamala Harris and Donald Trump engaged in a heated exchange in their first TV debate. In Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, they accused each other of having run the country into the ground and of not having and spreading a plan for the pressing problems. A closer look at the statements:

Trump’s claim: Trump had “virtually no inflation” during his term in office. President Biden and Kamala Harris had the highest inflation in US history.

Rating: This is wrong

Since the founding of the United States in 1776, the highest annual inflation rate was recorded in 1778 at 29.78 percent. In the period since the introduction of the Consumer Price Index, the highest inflation rate was 20.49 percent in 1917.

Inflation was lower during Trump’s term than it is today, but it existed: about 8 percent cumulatively for his presidency (compared to 19 percent under President Biden so far) and 1.4 percent year-on-year in the last month of his term compared to the current 2.9 percent (as of July 2024).

Trump’s claim: The Democrats’ policies allow the life of a baby to be ended in the ninth month of pregnancy or even after birth.

Rating: This is wrong

The intentional killing of a newborn is criminally classified as infanticide and is illegal throughout the United States. Harris’ running mate Tim Walz supports maintaining current legislation that allows abortions until the fetus is viable, usually until about 24 weeks of pregnancy. After that, abortions are only allowed in cases where the life or health of the mother is in danger.

“The government, and certainly Donald Trump, should not be telling a woman what to do with her body,” said Harris, promising that if she wins the election she will enshrine the right to abortion in law. To do this, however, Harris would need a majority in Congress.

Harris’ claim: Trump claimed that climate change was invented.

Rating: That is correct

Donald Trump has repeatedly questioned the existence of man-made climate change. In 2012, he claimed that the concept of global warming was invented by the Chinese to harm the competitiveness of American industry. During the election campaign, he promised to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement.

Trump’s claim: “I had more votes than any Republican in history. By far more than any president.”

Rating: This is wrong

The term “popular vote” refers to the total number of votes cast in the election. Although Trump won the 2016 presidential election against Hillary Clinton, his Democratic rival was ahead of Trump nationwide with more than 2.8 million of these votes. Ultimately, he won with the decisive votes of the Electoral College.

The President and Vice President of the United States are formally elected by what is known as the Electoral College. The members of this college are elected by popular vote in each state. To be elected President, a candidate must receive a majority of the electoral votes.

Harris’ claim: Trump has left behind the worst unemployment since the Great Depression.

Rating: Lack of context

Harris lamented that Trump had left the country in a disastrous state in 2021 – with the highest unemployment since the Great Depression, the worst health epidemic in a century and the worst attack on American democracy since the Civil War. “And what we have done is clean up Donald Trump’s mess.”

The so-called “Great Depression” had led to mass unemployment, falling prices and wages, and banking crises in almost all industrialized countries in the world by 1933. In April 2020, when Trump was still in office, the unemployment rate peaked at 14.8 percent – according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, this was actually the highest level since the Great Depression.

However, when Trump left office in January 2021, unemployment fell to 6.4 percent as the economy began to recover. This 6.4 percent unemployment rate is, contrary to Harris’ claim, still better than the peak of 10% during the “Great Recession” in October 2009.