Fact checking debate claims from Trump and Harris’ 2024 presidential face-off

Former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris faced off in their first presidential debate, and challenging each other over their plans for the nation and the economy. The 90-minute debate was hosted by ABC News at the National Constitution Center in Philadelphia. 

CBS News’ Confirmed team is conducting the fact-checks of the comments Harris and Trump made about each other and about their own records and plans.

False: Trump claims “millions and millions of people” are “pouring into our country monthly”

Trump: “[W]hen you look at what she’s done to our country, and when you look at these millions (and) millions of people that are pouring into our country monthly, where it’s, I believe 21 million people, not the 15 that people that say. And I think it’s a lot higher than the 21. That’s bigger than New York state. Pouring in. And just look at what they’re doing to our country.”

Details: Encounters of migrants by Customs and Border Protection at the U.S.-Mexico border have reached record levels in the past four years, under the Biden administration.  But the number isn’t close to the figures cited by Trump, and not everyone who has crossed the border under Mr. Biden has been allowed to stay.

CBP has recorded over 8 million encounters with migrants at the southern border since Mr. Biden took office in 2021, federal figures show. Encounters include migrants who cross into the country illegally between legal entry points and those processed at these official crossings, known as ports of entry. Encounters do not represent unique individuals, since some migrants cross the border illegally multiple times. 

CBP has never recorded “millions” of migrant encounters in a month. The highest monthly migrant encounter tally was recorded in December 2023, when CBP processed over 300,000 migrants.

In addition to those processed by CBP, there are migrants who successfully cross the southern border illegally without being caught. Border Patrol estimates that 1.7 million migrants have evaded apprehension since the start of fiscal year 2021.

Just because migrants were processed by CBP does not mean they were allowed to stay. Many have been released into the U.S. with notices to appear in immigration court. But the U.S. has also turned away or deported over 4 million migrants since the start of fiscal year 2021, according to Department of Homeland Security data.

By Camilo Montoya Galvez

Partially true, needs context: Harris claims Trump would enact $4,000 “sales tax”

Harris: “Economists have said that Trump sales tax would actually result — for middle class families — in about $4,000 more a year because of his policies and his ideas about what should be — [on] the backs of middle class people paying for tax cuts for billionaires.”

Details: Harris is citing an estimate of potential costs if Trump were to implement tariffs on imported goods. Trump has advocated for a tariff of at least 10% on most imports and a tariff of at least 60% on Chinese imports.

However, estimates of the potential costs and the likely scale of the tariffs vary. An analysis from the Center for American Progress Action, a progressive policy institute, estimated that a 20% tariff on most imports, combined with a 60% tax on Chinese goods, would amount to a tax increase of around $3,900 annually for middle-income families.

The Tax Policy Center, a nonpartisan think tank, estimated that a 10% worldwide tariff and a 60% tariff on Chinese goods would lower average after-tax incomes by about $1,800 in 2025.

Economists told CBS News that everyday consumers would bear the brunt of higher import tariffs through increased prices on goods, effectively acting as a tax. In an interview with The New York Times, Robert Lighthizer, who served as Trump’s chief trade negotiator and still advises his campaign on trade issues, said the burden on American households could be offset by tax cuts.

By Emma Li

False:  Trump claims “they had the highest inflation perhaps in the history of our country” 

Details: Under President Biden, year-over-year inflation peaked at 9.1% in June 2022. That was the highest monthly figure in about 40 years, but not the highest ever. The 1970s and early 1980s saw inflation rates between 12% and 14%, according to Federal Reserve data. Inflation has since cooled considerably. The figures for July 2024 show year-to-year inflation is about 2.9%.

By Laura Doan

False: Trump claims Haitian immigrants are “eating the dogs” and pets in Springfield, Ohio

Trump: “In Springfield, they’re eating the dogs — the people that came in — they’re eating the cats. They’re eating — they’re eating the pets of the people that live there. And this is what’s happening in our country, and it’s a shame.”

Details: Officials in Springfield, Ohio, say they have not received any credible reports of Haitian immigrants abducting and eating pets, despite viral claims on social media that have been amplified this week by Republican vice presidential nominee Sen. JD Vance and others. 

A city spokesperson told CBS News there have been “no credible reports or specific claims” of pets being harmed by immigrants. Clark County Park District officials told CBS News there has been “no evidence or reports” of people eating pets or wildlife.

By Layla Ferris, Rhona Tarrant

Inconclusive: Harris claims Trump “will sign a national abortion ban”

Harris: “If Donald Trump were to be reelected, he will sign a national abortion ban.”

Details: While Trump has not flat-out endorsed a national abortion ban, he floated the idea of a 15- or 16-week national ban in March when he still had competitors in the Republican primary, suggesting it was something under discussion that he would support. 

However, Trump has also repeatedly said that the issue belongs with the states, and when he was asked directly about a ban in an Aug. 22 interview with “Fox and Friends,” he replied, “I would never. There will not be a federal ban. This is now back in the states where it belongs.” 

During his first term, Trump endorsed House legislation banning abortion nationwide after 20 weeks.

By Libby Cathey

False: Trump claims Walz says “execution after birth” of babies “is okay.”

Trump: “[H]er vice presidential pick says abortion in the ninth month is absolutely fine. He also says execution after birth — it’s execution, no longer abortion because the baby is born, — is okay. And that’s not okay with me. Hence the vote.”

Details: Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz, the Democratic vice presidential nominee, has not said that execution of an infant after birth is “okay.”

In 2023, Walz signed into law a bill that included an update to Minnesota state law regarding medical care for infants born alive as a result of an abortion, according to the Minnesota Star Tribune. The updated state statute requires that “all reasonable measures consistent with good medical practice…shall be taken by the responsible medical personnel to care for the infant who is born alive,” according to the Star Tribune. The law says that an infant born alive is fully recognized as a human person and “accorded immediate protection under the law.”

It is not legal in any state to execute an infant after birth.

By Steve Reilly

Misleading: Trump claims Harris would end fracking in Pennsylvania “on Day One” 

Trump: “If she won the election, fracking in Pennsylvania will end on Day One.”

Details: As California attorney general, Harris filed a lawsuit challenging a federal assessment and approval for fracking off the coast of California. She also said “there’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking,” when asked during a 2019 town hall if she would commit to implementing a federal ban.

However, as a presidential candidate in 2024, Harris has said her administration would not ban fracking. “As vice president, I did not ban fracking. As president, I will not ban fracking,” Harris said in a recent interview with CNN.

When asked why she changed her mind on the issue, Harris said, “What I have seen is that we can — we can grow, and we can increase a thriving clean energy economy without banning fracking.”

By Emma Li and Laura Doan

False: Trump claims Harris is busing in and paying people to attend her rallies

Trump: “People don’t go to her rallies, there’s no reason to go. And the people that do go, she’s busing them in and paying them to be there and then showing them in a different light.”

Details: An August 2024 Facebook post was circulated on the social media websites Truth Social by Trump and X by Kevin Sorbo. The post depicts a supposed Craigslist ad asking for paid actors to carry signs with “Anti-Trump” messages. 

The post is a doctored image of another fabricated 2019 post of a Craigslist ad showing to ask for paid actors carrying “Pro Trump” signs at a rally in Phoenix. 

By Jui Sarwate          

Misleading: Trump claims he has “nothing to do with Project 2025”

Trump: “I have nothing to do — as you know and as she knows better than anyone — I have nothing to do with Project 2025. That’s out there, I haven’t read it. I don’t want to read it purposefully. I’m not going to read it.”

Details: Trump has tried to put distance between himself and the controversial Project 2025, a multi-pronged initiative overseen by the conservative Heritage Foundation that includes a detailed blueprint for the next Republican president to usher in a sweeping overhaul of the executive branch.

Democrats have seized on Project 2025 and sought to tie the transition project to Trump, warning that its policy proposals are what Americans can expect if they elect him in November.

Rhetoric aside, a key data point from the policy perspective is apparent. Former Trump administration officials have contributed to Project 2025, and CBS News identified at least 270 proposals in the published blueprint that match Trump’s past policies and campaign promises as he runs again for the White House.

By Hunter Woodall and Laura Doan 

Misleading: Harris claims “we have created over 800,000 new manufacturing jobs while I have been vice president.” 

Details: August data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics showed that since President Biden took office in January 2021, the U.S added around 739,000 manufacturing jobs. 

On Aug. 21, the Labor Department issued a preliminary revision of its data that estimated that the number of manufacturing jobs created over the 12 months ending in March was likely 115,000 lower than the original estimate. The final calculation should be issued in early 2025. If that revision holds up, it would put the total number of manufacturing jobs created during the Biden-Harris administration closer to 624,000.

It is also worth noting that many of these gains followed heavy job losses in 2020 at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. The number of manufacturing jobs in the U.S. has largely been growing since 2010, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, with the exception of 2020.

By Laura Doan and Julia Ingram

True: Trump “got more votes than any sitting president.” But challenger Joe Biden won more.

Trump: “I got more votes than any Republican in history, by far. In fact, I got more votes than any president- sitting president, in history, by far.”

Details: Trump received 74,223,975 popular votes in the 2020 presidential election, according to official election results published by the Federal Election Commission, the highest number of votes for a Republican candidate — or a sitting president, records show. 

But Mr. Biden received 81,283,501 votes, the most ever cast for a U.S. presidential candidate — and over 7 million more than Trump.

In the Electoral College, Mr. Biden won the 2020 presidential election with 306 electoral votes to Trump’s 232, a result that was certified by Congress.

In 2016, Trump won the Electoral College with 304 votes to Hillary Clinton’s 227, but he lost the popular vote by nearly 2.9 million votes, winning 62,979,879, while Clinton won 65,844,954.  

By Laura Doan

False: Trump claims “crime in this country is through the roof”        

Trump: “They’ve destroyed the fabric of our country. Millions of people let in. And all over the world, crime is down, all over the world, except here. Crime here is up and through the roof, despite their fraudulent statements that they made. Crime in this country is through the roof. And we have a new form of crime, it’s called migrant crime. And it’s happening at levels that nobody thought possible.”

Details: FBI data from law enforcement agencies nationwide, including cities with crime increases during the Trump presidency, show rates of violent crime offenses — homicide, rape, robbery and aggravated assault —decreased annually in the first two years of the Biden administration.

The crime drop has occurred in cities large and small, according to the FBI’s preliminary data for 2023, with the largest drop occurring among those with populations of 1 million or more, many of which have received immigrants who entered the country during the Biden administration.

By Matt Clark 

contributed to this report.