The first United States 2024 presidential debate took place on September 10, 2024, featuring Democratic candidate Kamala Harris and Republican contender Donald Trump. This debate provided a platform for both candidates to present their agendas and appeal to undecided voters.
The debate, which lasted around 90 minutes, saw Harris and Trump exchange political jabs while discussing key issues such as the economy, healthcare, abortion, immigration, taxes, and job creation. They also addressed questions regarding their previous administrations, policies carried over from predecessors, and their future plans for America.
During the debate, moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis from ABC News had to correct Trump several times when he made factual inaccuracies. Kamala Harris also made some claims that were later found to be unsubstantiated.
Notably, Harris claimed that Trump left the worst unemployment rate since the Great Depression and asserted that if re-elected, he would impose a national abortion ban and that Trump’s proposed sales tax would cost middle-class families about $4,000 more annually. However, fact-checks by U.S. media revealed these claims to be inaccurate.
Specifically, while the unemployment rate did spike to 14.8 percent in April 2020 during Trump’s presidency, it had decreased to 6.4 percent by December 2020, and thus he did not leave the Biden administration with a record-high unemployment rate.
During the debate, several claims made by both candidates were scrutinized:
– Kamala Harris asserted that Donald Trump would impose a national abortion ban if re-elected. However, Trump has denied this, stating he would leave abortion regulations to individual states.
– Regarding the proposed sales tax, Trump claimed it would only impact foreign countries, but economists suggest it could also affect U.S. importers and consumers.
– Trump claimed that Kamala Harris missed a meeting with Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu due to attending a sorority party. In reality, Harris was at a scheduled sorority meeting on the day Netanyahu addressed Congress but met him the following day.
– Trump alleged that the Biden administration left $85 billion worth of new military equipment in Afghanistan. An independent inspector general report, however, stated that around $7 billion of U.S.-funded equipment remained with the Taliban.
– Trump also claimed that Haitian immigrants in Springfield were eating dogs and cats. Local authorities have found no evidence to support this, and the city reported no such incidents.
– Trump dismissed the 818,000 jobs created under the Biden administration as fraudulent, but the federal agency responsible for employment figures had indeed adjusted the past year’s job gains downward by approximately that number.
– Trump accused Democrats of supporting execution after birth, referencing a misinterpretation of comments by former Virginia Governor Ralph Northam about late-pregnancy care.
– Trump claimed that Kamala Harris had been sent to negotiate with Russian President Vladimir Putin and failed. In truth, Harris did not meet with Putin, and there were no negotiations.
– Trump made an exaggerated claim that millions of people are entering the U.S. from prisons, jails, mental institutions, and asylums.
Of the 1.4 million apprehensions of people crossing the border illegally so far this financial year, the Border Patrol databases said about 14,700 people had previous criminal convictions.
There are no publicly available figures on how many of them have served time in prison or come from mental institutions.
