Toned-down Trump continues his onslaught of falsehoods
Trump came into the debate needing to clean up from his first performance and he clearly listened to his advisers who urged him to turn down the heat and stop his incessant interruptions. But the President relied heavily on the same rhetoric that fills his raucous rallies and Twitter feed, just set at a lower volume. His lies ranged from the political, like when he falsely claimed the coronavirus was “going away” or that a vaccine to end the pandemic was ready, to the personal, like when he falsely said Biden has “houses all over the place” or lied about Biden receiving millions of dollars from Russia. And his lies were clearly aimed at politically important issues, like health care, the economy and coronavirus, three topics that voters say are critical to them as they head to the ballot box.
Biden’s misstatements were more on the margins, like when he falsely claimed that he never said he opposed fracking, understated the number of people for whom Trump has granted clemency and made a misleading claim about health care coverage losses under Obamacare.
Coronavirus
Trump: Coronavirus is ‘going away’
Trump claimed the virus is going away. “We’re rounding the corner. It’s going away,” Trump said.
Facts First: This is false. The US coronavirus situation — as measured by newly confirmed cases, hospitalizations and the test positivity rate — is getting worse, not better. There is no basis for his vague claim that we are “rounding the corner.”
Trump has baselessly claimed for eight months that the virus would disappear or was currently disappearing.
— Holmes Lybrand
Biden: An additional 200,000 Americans will die from Covid-19 by the end of the year
Biden said: “The expectation is we’ll have another 200,000 Americans dead the time between now and the end of the year.”
Facts First: This needs context.
— Jen Christensen
Trump: Covid vaccine is ready
Trump claimed a vaccine for Covid-19 is ready. “We have a vaccine that’s coming, it’s ready,” said Trump.
Facts First: It’s false to say that a vaccine is currently ready. The FDA has not approved a vaccine for emergency use authorization.
There are currently four US clinical vaccine trials in Phase 3 with Moderna, Pfizer, AstraZeneca, and Johnson & Johnson.
Two clinical trials are paused with no indication when they will resume. AstraZeneca paused more than a month ago on September 8 when a participant developed an unexplained illness. Johnson & Johnson paused on October 12 for the same reason.
Pfizer and Moderna have both said they could apply for Emergency Use Authorization from the US Food and Drug Administration in the coming weeks, but only if they have positive results from their Phase 3 clinical trials. Neither company says they know whether the results will be positive. Pfizer has said they could apply for emergency use authorization after the third week in November. Moderna has said they could apply in early December.
— Sierra Jenkins and Elizabeth Cohen
Trump: He was ‘kidding’ when he suggested injecting bleach
Biden attacked Trump on comments he made over disinfectants and the coronavirus.
“What did the President say? He said don’t worry, it’s going to go away. Be gone by Easter. Don’t worry…Maybe inject bleach,” Biden said. “He said he was kidding when he said that but a lot of people thought it was serious.”
Trump replied that he “was kidding on that.”
During an April 23 press briefing, Trump expressed interest in exploring the possibility of “injection inside or almost a cleaning” with disinfectants.
Here’s what he said: “[T]hen I see the disinfectant, where it knocks it out in one minute. And is there a way we can do something like that, by injection inside or almost a cleaning, because you see it gets in the lungs and it does a tremendous number on the lungs, so it’d be interesting to check that, so that you’re going to have to use medical doctors with, but it sounds interesting to me.”
The next day Trump claimed he was “asking a question sarcastically to reporters like you just to see what would happen.”
— Daniel Dale and Holmes Lybrand
Coronavirus response
Trump: 2.2 million people were initially expected to die from coronavirus
Trump claimed 2.2 million people were “expected to die.”
Facts First: This is false.
In other words, that would be the loss of lives if no action were taken at all to mitigate it.
The report did not analyze what would happen if just the federal government took no action against the virus but rather what would occur if there were absolutely no “control measures or spontaneous changes in individual behavior.”
— Holmes Lybrand and Tara Subramaniam
Biden: Trump’s coronavirus mismanagement left millions without health insurance
Biden claimed Trump’s failure to contain the coronavirus or prevent the resulting economic downturn has left millions of people without jobs and health insurance.
“The fact is that he’s already cost the American people because of his terrible handling of the Covid virus and economic spillover. Ten million people have lost their private insurance,” Biden said.
Facts First: Biden’s claim needs context.
The study predicted that about 32% of the 10.1 million would switch to the employer-sponsored insurance of another family member. Another 28% would enroll in Medicaid, and 6% would sign up for other coverage, primarily on the Affordable Care Act exchanges, where many would receive federal premium subsidies.
Only about a third, or 3.5 million people, would be left uninsured, the study estimates.
However, the actual number of people who have lost their job-based coverage isn’t known. There are various estimates out there, and some early data indicate that some employers that furloughed workers continued to provide them with health insurance — at least in the first few months of the pandemic.
–– Alyssa Choi and Tami Luhby
Trump: Obama administration was a ‘disaster’ on swine flu
In attacking Biden over his handling of the H1N1 epidemic, Trump said Biden had handled the epidemic poorly for the Obama administration and it was “a total disaster.”
“And frankly, he ran the H1N1 swine flu and it was a total disaster. Far less lethal, but it was a total disaster,” Trump said. “Had that had this kind of numbers, 700,000 people would be dead right now, but it was a far less lethal disease.”
Facts First: This claim is misleading and needs context. The swine flu killed an estimated 12,500 Americans and Trump praised the Obama administration’s early handling of it.
Trump said the Obama administration’s handling of the swine flu was “a total disaster,” claiming 700,000 would have died if the swine flu had been more deadly. Trump’s claim appears to be citing an article from the Wall Street Journal opinion page and not an academic study.
“It’s going to be handled,” Trump said on Fox News. “It’s going to come. It’s going to be bad. And maybe it will be worse than the normal flu seasons. And it’s going to go away. I think it is being handled fine. I think the words are right.”
Later in the interview, Trump downplayed the swine flu and referenced the false assertion that vaccines might cause autism (there is no evidence that vaccines cause autism).
“It’s called the flu,” Trump said. “Have you had the flu many times, Neil (Cavuto)? Probably. You know, we all have.”
– Andrew Kaczynski
Trump: Biden called him “xenophobic” following travel restrictions on China
“When I closed and banned China from coming in … he was saying I was xenophobic, I did it too soon,” Trump said.
Facts First: This needs context.
It’s not clear the former vice president even knew about Trump’s China travel restrictions when he called Trump xenophobic on the day the restrictions were unveiled; Biden has never explicitly linked his accusation of xenophobia to these travel restrictions.
Biden’s campaign announced in early April that he supports Trump’s travel restrictions on China. But the campaign did not say the former vice president had previously been wrong about the ban, much less apologize. Rather, the campaign says Biden’s January 31 accusations — that Trump has a record of “hysterical xenophobia” and “fear mongering” — were not about the travel restrictions at all.
The campaign says Biden did not know about the restrictions at the time of his speech, since his campaign event in Iowa started shortly after the Trump administration briefing where the restrictions were revealed by Health and Human Services Secretary Alex Azar.
Given the timing of the Biden remarks, it’s not unreasonable for the Trump campaign to infer that the former vice president was talking about the travel restrictions. But Biden never took an explicit position on the restrictions until his April declaration of support.
— Holmes Lybrand
Trump: Nancy Pelosi was dancing on streets of Chinatown
Trump claimed House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was “dancing on the streets in Chinatown in San Franciso,” after his administration enacted restrictions on travel from China.
Facts First: This is false.
Amid fears of anti-Asian bigotry related to the pandemic, Pelosi did go to San Francisco’s Chinatown in late February and did urge people to visit, saying it was safe. But contrary to Trump’s repeated claims, she did not call for a Chinatown parade, parties, a street fair or a march; she was not holding a street fair or a rally, and she was not dancing; she simply walked around, visited businesses and a temple, ate dim sum, and spoke to the media.
After her visit to Chinatown, Pelosi said, “we think it’s very safe to be in Chinatown and hope that others will come. It’s lovely here. The food is delicious, the shops are prospering, the parade was great. Walking tours continue. Please come and visit and enjoy Chinatown.”
So, while Pelosi did speak positively about Chinatown, she was not dancing on the streets.
— Tara Subramaniam and Daniel Dale
Russia
Trump: Biden received $3.5 million from Russia
Trump claimed that Biden received $3.5 million from Russia and that it “came through Putin because he was very friendly with the former mayor of Moscow, and it was the mayor of Moscow’s wife. You got $3.5 million. Your family got $3.5 million.”
Facts First: This is false.
Trump was seemingly trying to raise an allegation previously made against Joe Biden’s son, Hunter Biden, but there’s no connection to Joe Biden.
Hunter Biden also denies the allegation he received $3.5 million. Hunter Biden’s lawyer, George Mesires, told CNN that Hunter Biden was not an owner of the firm Senate Republicans allege received the $3.5 million payment in 2014.
Hunter Biden was a co-founder and CEO of the investment firm Rosemont Seneca Advisors. But Mesires said Hunter Biden did not co-found Rosemont Seneca Thornton. It’s not clear what connection exists between Rosemont Seneca Advisors and Rosemont Seneca Thornton.
Neither the Senate report nor Trump have provided any evidence that the payment was corrupt or that Hunter Biden committed any wrongdoing.
— Jeremy Herb
Trump: Russia is meddling in the election
Trump falsely claimed that Russia is meddling in the election to defeat him.
“About your thing last night, I knew all about that. And through John, who is — John Ratcliffe, who is fantastic, DNI,” Trump said, using the initials for Director of National Intelligence. “He said the one thing that’s common to both of them, they both want you to lose because there has been nobody tougher to Russia — between the sanctions — nobody tougher than me on Russia.”
Facts First: It’s false to suggest that Russia wants Trump to lose. In fact, senior US intelligence officials announced months ago that Russia is actively meddling in the election to hurt Biden.
— Marshall Cohen
Trump: Mueller probe found ‘nothing wrong’
Trump exaggerated the scope of former special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into Russian meddling in the 2016 election, and he claimed that the probe found “nothing wrong.”
“They went through everything I had, including my tax returns, and they found absolutely no collusion and nothing wrong,” Trump said, referring to the Mueller investigation.
Facts First: Trump is wrong on three fronts. There’s no indication that Mueller’s team examined Trump’s tax returns. While it didn’t bring collusion-related charges, it found that Trump associates were willing to take help from Russia. And it never said he did “nothing wrong.”
— Marshall Cohen
Foreign policy
Trump: Obama sold ‘pillows and sheets’ to Ukraine
Trump claimed that while he “sold tank busters to Ukraine,” the Obama administration sold “pillows and sheets.”
Facts First: Trump is being hyperbolic about the Obama administration.
Obama did refuse to provide lethal aid to Ukraine, but he didn’t send mere pillows; he sent counter-mortar radars, armored Humvees and night vision devices, among other things. You can read a full fact check here.
—Tara Subramaniam
Trump: NATO members increased contributions to ‘guard against Russia’
As an example of how he’s been tough on Russia, Trump said he had gotten NATO member nations to increase their contributions to fund the alliance “to guard against Russia.”
“I’ve got the NATO countries to put up an extra $130 billion, going to $420 billion a year,” Trump said. “That’s to guard against Russia.”
Facts First: This is misleading. Trump was using actual figures but describing them inaccurately.
NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg said in November 2019 that non-US NATO members were expected to add a total of $130 billion to their defense budgets between 2016 and the end of 2020 — not $130 billion more per year. By the end of 2024, Stoltenberg has said, the total was expected to be $400 billion over 2016 levels.
— Tara Subramaniam
Trump: China is paying billions in tariff revenue
Trump claimed that China is paying the billions in tariff revenue Trump’s administration has distributed to farmers.
“First of all, China is paying. They’re paying billions and billions of dollars. I just gave $28 billion to our farmers,” Trump said.
“Taxpayers’ money,” Biden interrupted. “It didn’t come from China.”
“You know the taxpayers are called China,” Trump said. “China paid $28 billion and you know what they did to pay it Joe? They devalued their currency and they also paid up. And you know who got our money? Our farmers,” he added.
Facts First: Trump’s claim about who is paying the tariff money is false.
Study after study has found that Americans are bearing the cost of Trump’s tariffs on imported Chinese products. And American importers, not Chinese exporters, make the actual tariff payments to the US government.
— Daniel Dale and Katie Lobosco
Social Security
Biden: Trump wants to end payroll tax that funds Social Security
Biden repeated his claim that the President wants to end the payroll tax that funds Social Security.
“If in fact he continues to withhold — his plan to withhold the tax on Social Security, Social Security will be bankrupt by 2023. With no way to make up for it,” Biden said.
Facts First: This is not quite true. Trump signed an executive measure in August giving employers the ability to defer Social Security’s payroll taxes until the end of the year.
When he signed the action, the President said that if he wins reelection, he’ll push to terminate the levy in 2021. Asked by Democrats to assess the impact of eliminating the tax, the Social Security Administration’s chief actuary said it would deplete the Social Security trust fund within three years if there were no alternative source of revenue.
The White House has said that Trump was referring to forgiving the deferred amount, not canceling the levy. The Treasury Department has said that the executive measure will not harm the Social Security trust funds because the deferral is temporary, and the funds must be repaid.
Only Congress has the power to eliminate the payroll tax, either temporarily or permanently.
— Tami Luhby
Racial justice
Trump: He’s done more for Black people except for Lincoln
Echoing comments he made during last week’s town hall, Trump claimed nobody has done more for the Black community than him, with the “possible exception” of Abraham Lincoln.
Facts First: This is false.
It’s absurd to say Lincoln is a “possible” exception; emancipating enslaved people was obviously more important for Black Americans than anything Trump has done.
President Lyndon B. Johnson also signed the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1965 Voting Rights Act, monumental bills whose impact dwarfed the impact of any legislation Trump has signed.
— Tara Subramaniam
Trump: Biden called Blacks ‘super-predators’
While attacking the 1994 crime bill that Biden supported, Trump claimed that Biden called the Black community “super predators.”
In 1994, Trump said, the Black community was “called, and he called them ‘super predators’ and he said that. He said it.”
Facts First: This is false.
Biden never called Blacks “super predators.”
But Biden himself rejected the theory of super predators.
“In 1994, there were about 1.5 million juvenile delinquency cases,” Biden said then. “Less than 10% of those cases involved violent crimes. So when we talk about the juvenile justice system, we have to remember that most of the youth involved in the system are not the so-called ‘super predators.’ “
— Andrew Kaczynski
Immigration
Trump: ‘Over 400 miles of brand new wall” have been built
Trump claimed during the debate, “We’re over 400 miles of brand new wall.”
Facts first: This is false.
The Trump administration is nearing 400 miles of new border wall system, but has not surpassed that benchmark yet. The majority of construction is swapping out old, dilapidated design for new, enhanced wall system. Only a small share that’s been constructed has gone up where no wall previously existed.
Earlier Thursday, acting Homeland Security Secretary Chad Wolf said the administration has “completed almost 400 miles of the new border wall system in high priority locations like San Diego, El Centro, Yuma, Tucson, El Paso, and the Rio Grande Valley Sectors.”
— Priscilla Alvarez
Trump: Separated migrant children arrived with ‘bad people’
When asked about migrant children separated at the US-Mexico border, Trump claimed they were “brought here by coyotes and lots of bad people, cartels, and they’re brought here and they used them to get into our country.”
Facts First: This is false.
In 2018, the Trump administration announced the so-called “zero tolerance” policy, in which the Justice Department initiated criminal prosecutions of every adult illegally crossing the border. Doing so resulted in the separation of thousands of families, including those with infants — some only a few months old — because children can’t be kept in federal jail with their parents.
While a federal court order forced the reunification of many of those families, an explosive government watchdog report released last year revealed there could be thousands more who hadn’t previously been acknowledged by officials.
A court-appointed “steering committee” has tried to locate those families. As of October 20, the committee has attempted to reach the families of 1,030 children. Of those, the committee has not been able to reach the separated parents of 545 children, according to the court filing. Hundreds of parents may also have been deported without their children.
The children were previously released from government custody and almost all are likely in the United States with a sponsor.
— Priscilla Alvarez
The rest
Trump: Biden has houses ‘all over the place’
Trump, who has long touted his own prosperity as a selling point, attacked Biden’s lifestyle, saying, “You have houses all over the place.”
Facts first: This is false.
While Biden has reported earning millions since leaving office, the former vice president doesn’t have houses “all over the place.”
He owns two properties in Delaware.
Biden’s main home in Greenville, a suburb of Wilmington, was constructed on land he bought in 1996 for $350,000.
Biden bought a vacation home, also in Delaware, for $2.7 million in 2017 — after he finished his tenure as vice president and signed a lucrative book deal.
— Anneken Tappe
This is a breaking story and will be updated.
