Democrat Tim Walz and Republican JD Vance confronted off in New York City on Tuesday night time for his or her one and solely vice-presidential debate, hosted by CBS News.
Reuters examined 12 statements made by the 2 working mates.
While Reuters monitored the complete debate, this reality test didn’t look at each assertion. It focuses on subjects and narratives which are a part of broader public discourse and will be assessed with credible proof.
Statements by Walz
CLAIM
Walz mentioned that the U.S. is producing extra pure fuel and extra oil than ever earlier than. (Timestamp 9:15 p.m. ET)
WHAT WE KNOW
This is usually true. In March 2024, the federal government Energy Information Administration mentioned in a launch that the U.S. had produced “extra crude oil than any nation at any time” for a sixth straight yr. The report added that it’s unlikely the report for 2023 shall be damaged by one other nation within the “close to time period,” as none have a manufacturing capability of 13.0 million barrels per day. The U.S. averaged 12.9 million barrels per day that yr.
Monthly manufacturing of dry pure fuel within the U.S. reached a report excessive in December 2023, having steadily elevated by means of a lot of the previous decade. However, manufacturing is forecast to say no in 2024, which might mark the primary time output declined since 2020.
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CLAIM
“Donald Trump hasn’t paid any federal tax in 10 of the final 15 years, and the final yr as president.” (9:35 p.m.)
WHAT WE KNOW
This is usually true primarily based on the knowledge out there. In 2020, the New York Times reported, primarily based on an evaluation of tax return knowledge from 2017, that Trump had paid no revenue taxes in 10 of the earlier 15 years. This was “largely as a result of he reported shedding way more cash than he made,” the Times mentioned. Trump did pay $750 the yr he gained the 2020 election, the paper added, in addition to in his first yr within the White House. Trump had dismissed the report as “pretend information.”
In 2022, the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee launched Trump’s tax returns for 2015 by means of 2020, which confirmed that Trump paid no revenue tax through the last full yr of his presidency. “Trump and his spouse, Melania, paid some type of tax throughout all 4 years, the paperwork confirmed, however have been capable of reduce their revenue taxes in a number of years as revenue from Trump’s companies was greater than offset by deductions and losses,” Reuters reported.
CLAIM
Minnesota’s youngster tax credit score “reduces childhood poverty by a 3rd.” (9:30 p.m.) WHAT WE KNOW
This is unknown. The 2023 youngster tax credit score program for low- and middle-income households was projected to chop youngster poverty in Minnesota by one-third primarily based on an evaluation by Columbia University’s Center on Poverty & Social Policy.
No report inspecting whether or not the kid tax credit score program did lead to a one-third discount in youngster poverty within the state has been revealed.
An August 2024 press launch by the governor famous figures from the state’s Department of Revenue that mentioned this system “put over $545 million into the budgets of greater than 215,000 Minnesota households” between 2023 and 2024.
CLAIM
Minnesota is ranked first in healthcare (9:46 p.m.)
WHAT WE KNOW
This relies on who you ask. It is true primarily based on knowledge revealed in July 2024 by the monetary info website WalletHub, which Walz has beforehand cited as governor of Minnesota.
The website ranked Minnesota because the state with the perfect healthcare system that gives low healthcare prices, a excessive variety of handy care clinics per capita, a high-quality public hospital system and low emergency room wait occasions.
Minnesota additionally topped the chart in a Forbes evaluation, however different rankings with totally different methodologies charge the states in another way.
CLAIM “Minneapolis is the one metropolis the place we have seen the bottom inflation charges,” the Minnesota governor mentioned. (10:07 p.m.)
WHAT WE KNOW This is usually true throughout sure intervals previously 1.5 years. Data from the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on the 12-month proportion change within the Consumer Price Index, which measures inflation throughout metropolitan areas, discovered that the Minneapolis-Saint Paul space recorded the bottom inflation charge within the nation in May and July 2023, and once more in March 2024.
CLAIM
Walz mentioned Trump created the most important commerce deficit in American historical past with China. (9:34 p.m. ET)
WHAT WE KNOW
This is true. The U.S. commerce deficit in items with China reached a report excessive throughout Trump’s second yr within the White House. The commerce hole rose by 11.6% to $419.2 billion in 2018, from the earlier report of $375.5 billion in 2017, a Commerce Department report confirmed in 2019.
In 2018 beneath Trump, the U.S. imposed tariffs on $250 billion value of products imported from China, with Beijing then retaliating with duties on $110 billion value of American merchandise, together with soybeans and different commodities.
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Statements by Vance
CLAIM
Vance mentioned Iran “obtained over $100 billion in unfrozen property because of the Kamala Harris administration.” (Timestamp 9:06 p.m.)
WHAT WE KNOW
This is blended. In August 2023, U.S. President Joe Biden authorised a prisoner swap deal between the U.S. and Iran that concerned the unfreezing of $6 billion in Iranian funds that have been frozen in South Korea.
After the Iranian-backed Palestinian group Hamas attacked Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, the U.S. mentioned 5 days later that Iran wouldn’t acquire entry to the funds, parked in a Qatari financial institution, anytime quickly and that Washington retained the proper to freeze the funds.
Separately, Biden had beforehand sought to revive a 2015 nuclear cope with Iran, which had been deserted by Donald Trump. The talks stalled in September 2022.
In 2015, U.S. officers mentioned that the deal would give Iran entry to $100 billion in frozen property if applied. Former Israeli Prime Minister Yair Lapid mentioned in 2022 that the deal would give Tehran $100 billion a yr to destabilize the Middle East, however didn’t present particulars for the calculation.
CLAIM “When was the final time that an American president didn’t have a serious battle escape? The solely reply is through the 4 years Donald Trump was president,” Vance mentioned. (9:10 p.m.)
WHAT WE KNOW
This wants extra context. Trump joins different presidents similar to Barack Obama, Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, Jimmy Carter, Gerald Ford, Richard Nixon, John F. Kennedy and Dwight D. Eisenhower in not formally bringing the U.S. into a brand new struggle since 1945.
Trump’s presidency, nevertheless, concerned army hostilities and the chance of recent wars. Trump ordered in 2020 a drone strike that killed Iranian General Qassem Soleimani, and launched in 2017 an assault on a Syrian military base, a transfer that marked an escalation of the U.S. army’s position in Syria.
The former president additionally mentioned in 2017 throughout a speech to the United Nations General Assembly that he would “completely destroy” North Korea.
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CLAIM
Vance mentioned the U.S. is “the cleanest financial system in the complete world.” (9:12 p.m.)
WHAT WE KNOW
This is fake. According to the EU’s Emissions Database for Global Atmospheric Research 2024 report, the U.S. was second solely to China as the very best emitter of greenhouse fuel emissions globally final yr.
The U.S. accounted for 11.25% of worldwide greenhouse fuel emissions, whereas China represented 30.1%.
Per capita, greenhouse fuel emissions in 2023 for the U.S. stood at 17.61 tons of CO2 equal, larger than China’s 11.11, the UK’s 5.55, and Mexico’s 5.15, however decrease than Canada’s 19.39 and Russia’s 18.66.
In a 2024 World Economic Forum report on the Global Average Energy Transition Index, a measure of efficiency and readiness for clear vitality transition, the U.S. ranked nineteenth. Sweden tops the record, adopted by Denmark, Finland, Switzerland and France.
According to this yr’s Environmental Performance Index – a undertaking by Yale and Columbia universities that evaluates international locations primarily based on indicators like local weather change mitigation, air air pollution, deforestation and biodiversity safety – the rankings put Estonia in pole place, adopted by Luxembourg, and Germany. The U.S. ranks thirty fourth.
CLAIM When discussing methods to deal with carbon emissions, Vance mentioned Kamala Harris’ insurance policies have led to “extra vitality manufacturing in China, extra manufacturing abroad” (9:13 p.m.)
WHAT WE KNOW Vance could possibly be referring to the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act that gives incentives to spice up home vitality manufacturing and manufacturing funding, together with help for clear vitality jobs and the sale of recent and used electrical autos.
The influence of the IRA on the U.S. manufacturing sector continues to be too early to inform, however some analysis has discovered it has benefited home clear vitality manufacturing.
The IRA supplies billions of {dollars} in tax credit to assist customers purchase EVs and companies to provide renewable vitality as a part of the Biden administration’s plan to decarbonize the U.S. energy sector. China, which dominates the worldwide battery provide chain, is among the many 4 international locations excluded from the subsidy out there to companies trying to spend money on the U.S. EV provide chain.
China has since requested the World Trade Organization arrange a panel to assist settle the dispute over what it describes as “discriminatory subsidies.”
Another space of the worldwide provide chain that China dominates is photo voltaic panel manufacturing. Some Chinese-backed firms with factories within the U.S. are claiming these subsidies for clear vitality manufacturing beneath the IRA, and a bipartisan group of U.S. lawmakers launched a invoice in July that will block them from claiming subsidies for his or her American factories.
CLAIM
Vance mentioned Donald Trump’s financial insurance policies delivered the very best take-home pay in a technology. (9:33 p.m.)
WHAT WE KNOW
This is true. U.S. median family revenue reached a report excessive of $68,703 through the Trump administration in 2019, a 6.8% improve from 2018 – the very best the nation had seen for the reason that U.S. Census Bureau began monitoring the information in 1967.
The White House Council of Economic Advisers on the time mentioned a rise within the variety of employees within the nation drove the revenue improve. “There have been 2.2 million extra folks working sooner or later in 2019 in contrast with 2018, and 1.2 million extra folks working full-time year-round,” the council added.
CLAIM
“The gross majority, near 90% in a few of the statistics I’ve seen, of the gun violence on this nation is dedicated with illegally obtained firearms.” (10:00 p.m.)
WHAT WE KNOW
This is deceptive. Most public mass shootings – a taking pictures that kills 4 or extra folks – between 1966 and 2019 have been carried out by legally obtained handguns, in line with analysis funded by the National Institute of Justice.
The knowledge confirmed “77% of those that engaged in mass shootings bought at the least a few of their weapons legally,” an article on the 2021 research mentioned, whereas 13% of the mass shootings concerned illegally bought firearms.
The report additionally famous that over 80% of people concerned in Okay-12 college shootings had stolen weapons from members of the family.
Between 2017 and 2021, over 1.4 million crime weapons have been traced to a identified purchaser with a Federal Firearms License, of which 99% have been acquired from a vendor, pawnbroker or producer, in line with a 2023 report (web page 7) by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
These crime weapons, nevertheless, “could change fingers a lot of occasions after that first retail sale, and a few of these transactions could also be a theft or violate a number of laws on firearm commerce,” the report provides (web page 41).
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