Democratic presidential candidate Kamala Harris and Republican rival Donald Trump went head-to-head in Philadelphia on Tuesday at a high-stakes debate hosted by ABC News.
Reuters examined 12 claims made by Harris and Trump.
Statements by Harris
Claim
Ms Harris said economists project that Mr Trump's tariff proposals would cost middle-class families about $4,000 more a year (timestamp: 09:05pm. ET).
What we know
Mr Trump has pledged tariffs of up to 20 per cent on all imports and up to 60 per cent 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 US 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 Mr Trump’s proposal of 20 per cent tariffs on most imports and 60 per cent 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 per cent tariff on items from China is levied.
Other nonpartisan organizations have estimated lower increases for middle-income households if the tariffs were implemented.
Claim
Sixteen Nobel laureates have described Mr Trump’s economic plan as something that would increase inflation and invite a recession by the middle of next year. (09:10pm ET)
What we know
This is mostly true. Sixteen Nobel prize-winning economists raised concerns in June, warning that the US economy will suffer if Mr 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 Mr Trump's. The letter was released before Mr 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 Mr Trump’s plan would invite a recession but said it would have a negative impact on the country’s economic global standing and a “destabilising effect” on the domestic economy.
Claim
Ms Harris said a Trump administration would lead to a “national abortion ban” and a national “monitor that would be monitoring your pregnancies, your miscarriages” (09:20pm ET)
Mr Trump replied: “I'm not in favor of an abortion ban” (09:21 pm ET)
What we know
This can’t be predicted and Mr Trump has sent mixed signals on his abortion policy plans.
In March, he signalled 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 to the states. In a late-August interview, Mr Trump did not respond on whether he would veto a national abortion ban. This came just days after his running mate JD Vance said Mr Trump would veto the ban if Congress passed it.
Mr 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 per cent of US 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 Mr Trump will adopt if elected.
The Harris campaign has accused Mr 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
Ms Harris cited Mr Trump as saying, "there will be a bloodbath" if the outcome of this election is not to his liking (09:48pm ET)
What we know
This is true. Mr Trump warned of a “bloodbath” while discussing the need to protect the US 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 Mr Trump said was threatened by the Biden administration over its promotion of electric vehicles.
Claim
Ms Harris said Mr Trump negotiated directly with the Taliban, got 5,000 Taliban terrorists released and he invited the Taliban to Camp David. (10:18pm ET)
What we know
Ms Harris’ statements are accurate. In 2020, Mr 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 Mr Trump’s administration, by 2020 the US-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, Mr Trump called off plans to invite Taliban leaders to a presidential compound in Camp David, Maryland.
Claim
Ms Harris said: “The former president has said that the climate change is a hoax.” (10:33pm ET)
What we know
This is true. Mr Trump has repeatedly said that climate change is a hoax.
In November 2012, Mr 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 Mr 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 US economy.
Statements by Trump
Claim
Mr Trump said 21 million people have poured into the US during the Biden administration (09:15pm ET)
What we know
It’s not clear what Mr Trump meant when he said 21 million people have poured into the US. 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 US Customs and Border Protection reached record levels at the US-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 US 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 US epartment 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.” (09:29pm ET)
What we know
Mr 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 (09:32pm ET).
What we know
This is true. Mr 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 Mr Biden and Mr Trump than for any other previous candidate in US history. They received 81,283,786 votes (51.3 per cent) and 74,222,552 votes (46.8 per cent), 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
Mr Trump said Ms 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 Ms Harris was never strictly overseeing the southern border.
It is true that Mr Biden asked Ms 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, Mr 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 legalisation 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 Mr Northam’s interview comments, a spokesperson for the then-governor told Vox that Mr 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 labour.”
Claim
Mr Trump says that during his administration, “for 18 months we had nobody killed” in Afghanistan (10:19pm ET)
What we know
This is false. Reuters Fact Check previously addressed Mr Trump saying there were no military deaths in an 18-month period under his administration.
While it is unclear which 18 months Mr Trump is referring to, the Defense Casualty Analysis System for Operation Freedom's Sentinel database recorded US 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.
