Fact Check-Harris-Trump debate: 12 statements examined​

Reuters examined 12 claims made by Harris and Trump.

CLAIM

Harris said economists project that Trump's tariff proposals would cost middle-class families about $4,000 more a year (timestamp: 09:05 p.m. ET).

WHAT WE KNOW

Trump has pledged tariffs of up to 20% on all imports and up to 60% on Chinese goods. Estimates vary on the impact of such tariffs on customers and the “almost $4,000” figure is consistent with the high end of some calculations available but is above others.

Tariffs are taxes on imports paid by U.S. importers who often pass the costs of tariffs on to customers by raising their prices.

The Center for American Progress Action Fund, a liberal think tank, estimated that middle-income families could face a $3,900 tax increase with Trump’s proposal of 20% tariffs on most imports and 60% levies on Chinese goods. Conservative think tank the American Action Forum also calculated an increase of up to $3,900 in costs if a 60% tariff on items from China is levied.

Other nonpartisanorganizations have estimated lower increases for middle-income households if the tariffs were implemented.

CLAIM

Sixteen Nobel laureates have described Trump’s economic plan as something that would increase inflation and invite a recession by the middle of next year. (09:10 p.m. ET)

WHAT WE KNOW

This is mostly true. Sixteen Nobel prize-winning economists raised concerns in June, warning that the U.S. economy will suffer if Trump wins the election in November.

The jointly-signed letter, first reported by Axios, says the economic agenda of President Joe Biden is "vastly superior" to Trump's. The letter was released before Biden stepped aside from the presidential race in late July.

“Many Americans are concerned about inflation, which has come down remarkably fast. There is rightly a worry that Donald Trump will reignite this inflation, with his fiscally irresponsible budgets,” the economists state in their letter.

The letter did not explicitly say Trump’s plan would invite a recession but said it would have a negative impact on the country’s economic global standing and a “destabilizing effect” on the domestic economy.

CLAIM

Harris said a Trump administration would lead to a “national abortion ban” and a national “monitor that would be monitoring your pregnancies, your miscarriages” (09:20 p.m. ET) Trump replied: “I'm not in favor of an abortion ban” (09:21 p.m. ET)

WHAT WE KNOW

This can’t be predicted and Trump has sent mixed signals on his abortion policy plans.

In March, he signaled support for a 15-week national ban on abortion with exceptions for rape, incest and saving the life of the mother because "you have to win elections." He repeated the exceptions during Tuesday’s debate.

Prior to the debate, however, he has said abortion should be left up tothe states. In a late-August interview, Trump did not respond on whether he would veto a national abortion ban. This came just days after his running mate JD Vance said Trump would veto the ban if Congress passed it.

Trump also said in August that he would not enforce the Comstock Act to block mailing of the pill mifepristone, which is used in more than 60% of U.S. abortions. The “no” on the act was less than definitive because shortly after he added: “We will be discussing specifics of it.” Experts have warned that the 19th century law could be used to stop abortion nationwide.

The prospect of the government monitoring miscarriages came from Project 2025, a set of conservative policy proposals its authors hope Trump will adopt if elected.

The Harris campaign has accused Trump of being tied to Project 2025, which was prepared by some of the former president’s closest policy advisors. Trump has disavowed the plan.

Project 2025 published a 900-page proposal of recommendations that include restricting abortion rights and the removal of the terms “reproductive health” and “reproductive rights” from government documents - but it does not explicitly recommend the government collect menstrual cycle data.

CLAIM

Harris cited Trump as saying, "there will be a bloodbath" if the outcome of this election is not to his liking (09:48 p.m. ET)

WHAT WE KNOW

This is true. Trump warned of a “bloodbath” while discussing the need to protect the U.S. auto industry from overseas competition during a March 2024 speech in Dayton, Ohio: “If I don't get elected, it's going to be a bloodbath for the whole ... country.”

The Trump campaign and allies later said that when he used the term, he was referring to the auto industry, which Trump said was threatened by the Biden administration over its promotion of electric vehicles.

CLAIM

Harris said Trump negotiated directly with the Taliban, got 5,000 Taliban terrorists released and he invited the Taliban to Camp David. (10:18 p.m. ET)

WHAT WE KNOW

Harris’ statements are accurate. In 2020, Trump said he would be personally meeting leaders of the Taliban to pave the way for a troop-withdrawal deal. That year he also said he spoke on the phone directly to a Taliban leader.

Under Trump’s administration, by 2020 the U.S.-backed Afghan government had released 5,000 Taliban prisoners. The release was a condition for the insurgent group to join peace talks with the Afghan government.

In 2019, Trump called off plans to invite Taliban leaders to a presidential compound in Camp David, Maryland.

CLAIM

Harris said, “The former president has said that the climate change is a hoax.” (10:33 p.m. ET)

WHAT WE KNOW

This is true. Trump has repeatedly said that climate change is a hoax.

In November 2012, Trump wrote on Twitter, now X, that “the concept of global warming was created by and for the Chinese in order to make U.S. manufacturing non-competitive.”

Later, in January 2014, he said on the platform: “Snowing in Texas and Louisiana, record setting freezing temperatures throughout the country and beyond. Global warming is an expensive hoax!”

During a Campaign rally in South Carolina in December 2015, he said (timestamp 35:37): "Obama's talking about all of this with the global warming and … a lot of it's a hoax. It's a hoax. I mean, it's a money-making industry, okay? It's a hoax, a lot of it."

Under Trump’s administration, the United States exited the Paris Agreement, which aims to limit the rise in the average global surface temperature. In 2017, Trump argued the pact undermined the U.S. economy.

STATEMENTS BY TRUMP

CLAIM

Trump said 21 million people have poured into the U.S. during the Biden administration (09:15 p.m. ET)

WHAT WE KNOW

It’s not clear what Trump meant when he said 21 million people have poured into the U.S. He has previously used a 15 million (timestamp 33:35) or 20 million figure (timestamp 20:23) when speaking about people entering the country illegally.

While it is true that the number of encounters reported by U.S. Customs and Border Protection reached record levels at the U.S.-Mexico border during the Biden administration, it isn’t 21 million.

CBP data compiled between January 2021 and July 2024 shows 8,297,036 encounters at the southwest land border.

When considering nationwide encounters, CBP registered 10,249,626 encounters between January 2021 and July 2024.

Encounter figures include data apprehensions under Title 8 and “inadmissibles.” This policy grants some migrants the chance to seek asylum in the U.S. or be processed for deportation.

Between March 2020 and May 2023, encounters also included expulsions under the now-expired Title 42, a COVID-era restriction that allowed border agents to quickly expel migrants without being able to seek asylum. Under Title 42, many individual migrants who were rapidly expelled across the border to Mexico tried to cross again or multiple times, increasing the number of encounters counted by border authorities.

These figures do not account for “got aways,” people who are never apprehended by CBP. Although the actual number in this category is unknown, available U.S. government estimates are not close to 21 million.

Available estimates for “got aways” reported by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) for fiscal years 2022 and 2021 are at more than 600,000 and 391,316, respectively.

CLAIM

In Springfield, Ohio, immigrants are “eating the cats, they’re eating the pets.” (09:29 p.m. ET)

WHAT WE KNOW

Trump is referring to unsubstantiated claims about Haitian immigrants in Springfield, Ohio. There is no evidence Haitian immigrants killed and ate pets in the town. Posts online on Monday and Tuesday shared videos purporting to support the allegations alongside claims that the Biden-Harris administration is to blame for allowing Haitian immigrants into the country.

In a statement on Tuesday, a Springfield police spokesperson said, "In response to recent rumors alleging criminal activity by the immigrant population in our city, we wish to clarify that there have been no credible reports or specific claims of pets being harmed, injured or abused by individuals within the immigrant community."

CLAIM

“I got more votes than any Republican in history by far. In fact, I got more votes than any sitting president in history by far," Trump said (09:32 p.m. ET).

WHAT WE KNOW

This is true. Trump received 74.2 million votes in the 2020 presidential election, surpassing former President Barack Obama’s record number of votes (65.9 million in 2012) for an incumbent candidate.

In 2020, more votes were cast for both Biden and Trump than for any other previous candidate in U.S. history. They received 81,283,786 votes (51.3%) and 74,222,552 votes (46.8%), respectively, according to data by Edison Research reported by Reuters.

According to the Council on Foreign Relations think tank, more than 159 million Americans cast their ballot in the 2020 presidential elections, marking the largest voter turnout in the country’s history.

CLAIM

Trump said Harris “was the border czar, remember that. She was the border czar.”

WHAT WE KNOW

This is missing context. “Border czar” was never an official title and Harris was never strictly overseeing the southern border.

It is true that Biden asked Harris to lead diplomatic efforts to tackle the “root cause” of illegal immigration. Her portfolio, however, was focused on the drivers of migration from Central America and not enforcement at the border.

CLAIM

On the topic of abortion, Trump said that the former governor of Virginia “said we put the baby aside and then we determine what we want to do with the baby.”

WHAT WE KNOW

This is misleading. Minutes before, Trump had mentioned “executing” babies after birth, which is likely a reference to claims that former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam advocated for the legalization of infanticide in remarks in 2019 to a local radio station while discussing a bill (HB 2491) aimed at easing certain restrictions on abortions. The bill did not pass.

After confusion about Northam’s interview comments, a spokesperson for the then-governor told Vox that Northam had “absolutely not” been referring to infanticide and instead was discussing the “tragic and extremely rare case in which a woman with a nonviable pregnancy or severe fetal abnormalities went into labor.”

CLAIM

Trump says that during his administration, “for 18 months we had nobody killed” in Afghanistan (10:19 p.m. ET)

WHAT WE KNOW

This is false. Reuters Fact Check previously addressed Trump saying there were no military deaths in an 18-month period under his administration.

While it is unclear which 18 months Trump is referring to, the Defense Casualty Analysis System for Operation Freedom's Sentinel database recorded U.S. military deaths in Afghanistan each year since 2015 (except for 2022) and found there were casualties for each year of Trump’s administration.

The database shows there were 14 total deaths in 2017, 15 total deaths in 2018, 23 total deaths in 2019 and 11 total deaths in 2020.