This reality examine initially appeared on PolitiFact.
Ohio Republican Sen. JD Vance and Minnesota Democratic Gov. Tim Walz met in an Oct. 1 vice presidential debate hosted by CBS News that was cordial and heavy on coverage dialogue — a placing change from the Sept. 10 debate between Vice President Kamala Harris and former President Donald Trump that always devolved into private assaults.
Vance and Walz acknowledged occasional settlement with one another on coverage factors and respectfully addressed each other all through the controversy. But additionally they blamed one another’s operating mates for issues dealing with the U.S., together with immigration and inflation.
WATCH: CBS cuts Vance’s mic throughout reality examine on immigration
The moderators, “CBS Evening News” anchor Norah O’Donnell and “Face the Nation” host Margaret Brennan, had stated they deliberate to encourage candidates to fact-check one another, however generally clarified after candidates’ solutions.
They additionally pinned down the candidates once they evaded solutions, with Brennan urgent Walz to say he misspoke up to now about being in China’s Tiananmen Square throughout the lethal 1989 protests. Brennan additionally pushed Vance for specifics on Trump’s mass deportation plan and whether or not he would separate mother and father from youngsters, however didn’t get a particular reply.
During the controversy, Walz misspoke throughout a dialogue about faculty shootings. He described altering his place on an assault weapons ban after the 2012 bloodbath at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut that killed 26 individuals, together with 20 youngsters.
“I sat in that workplace with these Sandy Hook mother and father. I’ve develop into buddies with faculty shooters,” Walz mistakenly stated. The gaffe prompted derision on social media, together with from Trump, who mocked Walz on Truth Social.
The candidates sparred on quite a few subjects, together with immigration, faculty shootings, reproductive rights and the economic system. We fact-checked a number of of their statements.
PolitiFact fact-checks statements of individuals in energy, no matter political occasion. We’ve rated claims with quite a lot of Truth-O-Meter rankings from the Republican presidential nominee, former President Donald Trump, and the Democratic nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris. This is how we select claims to examine.
Immigration
Vance: “We have 320,000 youngsters that the Department of Homeland Security has successfully misplaced. Some of them have been intercourse trafficked.”
Mostly False.
This shouldn’t be what a federal oversight report stated. The declare refers to a federal oversight report about unaccompanied minors — youngsters who got here to the U.S. with no dad or mum or authorized guardian. The report coated fiscal years 2019 by 2023, which incorporates a part of Trump’s presidency.
The report talked about 32,000 youngsters who failed to look for his or her immigration court docket hearings and 291,000 youngsters whom Immigration and Customs Enforcement had not served a “Notice to Appear.”
The report led Republican lawmakers and conservative information shops to say that Immigration and Customs Enforcement “misplaced” the kids or that they’re “lacking.” But the report didn’t make that declare.
The report stated the kids are prone to trafficking, however it didn’t current a quantity.
Vance: “So there’s an utility referred to as the CBP One app, the place you may go on as an unlawful migrant, apply for asylum or apply for parole and be granted authorized standing.”
Mostly False.
U.S. Customs and Border Protection launched the CBP One cellphone app in 2020, when Trump was president. Biden expanded its use. As of January 2023, individuals can use the app whereas in Mexico to make appointments with immigration officers for processing at official ports of entry.
The app is a scheduling instrument, not an utility for asylum or parole; a prolonged course of follows. Vance is fallacious to characterize the individuals making the appointments as “unlawful” migrants, as a result of the individuals utilizing the app haven’t crossed into the U.S. illegally.
At ports of entry, immigration officers may give individuals humanitarian parole, for as much as two years, permitting them to dwell and work within the U.S. as they apply for asylum. Under U.S. immigration regulation, individuals can apply for asylum, however they should be bodily within the nation. From January 2023 to August 2024, 813,000 individuals have scheduled appointments on the app, the Department of Homeland Security stated.
Humanitarian parole is an official permission to briefly dwell within the U.S., however it isn’t a lawful standing. To keep within the U.S. after protections expire, or finally acquire citizenship, individuals should safe authorized standing by different avenues, akin to asylum, marriage or employment.
Abortion
Walz: “Their Project 2025 is gonna have a registry of pregnancies.”
False.
Project 2025 recommends that states submit extra detailed abortion reporting to the federal authorities. It requires extra details about how and when abortions happened, in addition to different statistics for miscarriages and stillbirths.
READ MORE: Fact-checking warnings from Democrats about Project 2025 and Donald Trump
The handbook doesn’t point out, nor name for, a brand new federal company tasked with registering pregnant girls.
Vance: “As I learn the Minnesota regulation that (Walz) signed into regulation … it says that a physician who presides over an abortion the place the newborn survives, the physician is underneath no obligation to offer lifesaving care to a child who survives a botched late-term abortion.”
False.
Experts stated instances by which a child is born following an tried abortion are uncommon. Less than 1 % of abortions nationwide happen within the third trimester. And infanticide, the crime of killing a toddler inside a yr of its delivery, is unlawful in all U.S. states.
In May 2023, Walz, as Minnesota governor, signed laws updating a state regulation for “infants who’re born alive.” It stated infants are “totally acknowledged” as human individuals and subsequently, protected underneath state regulation. The change didn’t alter rules that already require docs to offer sufferers with acceptable care.
Previously, state regulation stated, “All cheap measures according to good medical observe, together with the compilation of acceptable medical information, shall be taken by the accountable medical personnel to protect the life and well being of the born alive toddler.” The regulation was up to date to as an alternative say medical personnel should “take care of the toddler who’s born alive.”
When there are fetal anomalies that make it seemingly the fetus will die earlier than or quickly after delivery, some mother and father determine to terminate the being pregnant by inducing childbirth in order that they will maintain their dying child, Democratic Minnesota state Sen. Erin Maye Quade instructed PolitiFact in September.
This replace to the regulation means infants who’re “born alive” obtain acceptable medical care depending on the being pregnant’s circumstances, Maye Quade stated.
Iran
Vance: “Iran, which launched this assault (on Israel), has obtained over $100 billion and unfrozen property, due to the Kamala Harris administration.”
False.
Under President Barack Obama, Iran did take possession of $100 billion in unfrozen property after the signing of the Iran nuclear deal, which Trump later overturned. But Harris was not concerned within the Obama administration.
Something that occurred on Biden and Harris’ watch was a hostage-release settlement with Iran that was presupposed to free $6 billion in frozen Iranian property. There isn’t any proof that any of the $6 billion reached Iran.
In August 2023, the U.S. introduced an settlement with Iran to safe freedom for 5 U.S. residents who’d been detained within the nation in change for permitting Iran to entry $6 billion of its personal funds that had been frozen in South Korean banks.
The cash consisted of Iranian oil income frozen since 2019, when Trump banned Iranian oil exports and sanctioned its banking sector. It was not U.S. taxpayer cash. In April 2024, Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo stated that these funds had been frozen after the Oct. 7, 2023, Hamas terrorist assaults on Israel and had not reached Iran.
Walz: “When Iranian missiles did fall close to U.S. troops they usually obtained traumatic mind accidents, Donald Trump wrote it off as ‘complications.’”
True.
Walz was referring to a Jan. 8, 2020, Iran assault on U.S. troopers in Iraq. More than 100 troopers have been identified with traumatic mind accidents, in line with the Pentagon.
Trump has repeatedly referred to as the accidents “complications.”
In 2020, Trump stated he had “heard that that they had complications” and added it “shouldn’t be very severe.” Trump repeated this declare in an Oct. 1 press convention in Wisconsin.
After Iran attacked Israel Oct. 1, Trump responded to a query about whether or not he ought to have been stronger on Iran after the 2020 assault that injured U.S. troops. He stated: “What does injured imply? You imply as a result of that they had a headache as a result of the bombs by no means hit the fort?”
Walz in China
Walz stated he ‘misspoke’ about being in Hong Kong throughout 1989 Tiananmen Square protests
Walz as soon as described being in Hong Kong throughout the May 1989 pro-democracy protests in Beijing’s Tiananmen Square that turned lethal that June. But contemporaneous information studies contradict that timeline. The CBS News debate moderators requested Walz to clarify this discrepancy, and Walz stated he “misspoke.”
In the following sentence, he stated: “So, I’ll simply, that’s what I’ve stated. So, I used to be in Hong Kong and China throughout the democracy protests, went in.”
Minnesota Public Radio News and APM Reports discovered a 1989 Nebraska newspaper report that stated Walz deliberate to go away for China in August of that yr, months after the Tiananmen Square protests.
Walz’s first journey to China in 1989 was to show English and U.S. historical past for a yr at a highschool. He and his spouse, Gwen, each highschool lecturers, led faculty journeys to China within the Nineteen Nineties and early 2000s. Walz stated in 2016 that he had visited China about 30 instances, however a Harris-Walz marketing campaign spokesperson clarified in September that Walz has been to the nation “nearer to fifteen instances,” in line with Minnesota Public Radio News and APM Reports.
Economy
Vance: “What (Harris has) really finished as an alternative is drive the price of meals increased by 25 %, drive the price of housing increased by about 60 %.”
Half True.
Grocery costs have risen by 22 % since Biden and Harris took workplace. Housing costs, in line with the Case-Shiller house value index, have risen 38 %.
Economists have instructed PolitiFact that the primary components driving the height inflation in 2022 have been postpandemic provide chain backups and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Biden’s pandemic reduction invoice, the American Rescue Plan Act, exacerbated this inflation, economists say, however it didn’t trigger it.
This additionally leaves out the simultaneous improve in wages, which have outpaced costs because the begin of the pandemic. Wages have additionally outpaced costs for the previous one-year and two-year durations.
Fentanyl and opioids
Vance: “Kamala Harris let in fentanyl into our communities at document ranges.”
Mostly False.
Illicit fentanyl seizures have been rising for years and reached document highs underneath Biden’s administration. In fiscal yr 2015, for instance, U.S. Customs and Border Protection seized 70 kilos of fentanyl. As of August 2024, brokers have seized greater than 19,000 kilos of fentanyl in fiscal yr 2024, which resulted in September.
But these are fentanyl seizures — not the quantity of the narcotic being “let” into the United States.
Vance made this declare whereas criticizing Harris’ immigration insurance policies. But fentanyl enters the U.S. by the southern border primarily at official ports of entry, and it’s principally smuggled in by U.S. residents, in line with the U.S. Sentencing Commission. Most illicit fentanyl within the U.S. comes from Mexico made with chemical substances from Chinese labs.
Drug coverage specialists have stated that the illicit fentanyl disaster started years earlier than Biden’s administration and that Biden’s border insurance policies are to not blame for overdose deaths.
Experts have additionally stated Congress performs a job in lowering illicit fentanyl. Congressional funding for extra automobile scanners would assist regulation enforcement seize extra of the fentanyl that comes into the U.S. Harris has referred to as for elevated enforcement in opposition to illicit fentanyl use.
Walz: “And the excellent news on that is, is the final 12 months noticed the most important lower in opioid deaths in our nation’s historical past.”
Mostly True.
Overdose deaths involving opioids decreased from an estimated 84,181 in 2022 to 81,083 in 2023, based mostly on the newest provisional knowledge from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This lower, which happened within the second half of 2023, adopted a 67 % improve in opioid-related deaths between 2017 and 2023.
The U.S. had an estimated 107,543 drug overdose deaths in 2023 — a 3 % lower from the 111,029 deaths estimated in 2022. This is the first annual lower in total drug overdose deaths since 2018. Nevertheless, the opioid loss of life toll stays a lot increased than only a few years in the past, in line with KFF. It’s too quickly to foretell whether or not the downward pattern will proceed.
Walz’s son as taking pictures witness
Walz: “Look, I bought a, I bought a 17-year-old and he witnessed a taking pictures at a neighborhood heart taking part in volleyball.”
The Walz marketing campaign instructed PolitiFact that Walz’s son, Gus Walz, witnessed a January 2023 taking pictures outdoors St. Paul’s Oxford Community Center, which homes the Jimmy Lee Recreation Center. The marketing campaign spokesperson stated Gus Walz witnessed the taking pictures however wasn’t concerned within the altercation that preceded it.
WATCH: Walz says his son witnessed a taking pictures at a neighborhood heart
Exavir Dwayne Binford Jr., a 26-year-old recreation heart worker, bought into an argument with a 16-year-old boy that “mushroomed right into a struggle outdoors the middle that ended with the employee taking pictures the boy within the head and fleeing,” Minnesota’s public radio station MPR News reported.
In February, Binford was sentenced to 10 years and 5 months in jail, MPR News reported.
MPR News reported that youngsters have been current throughout the taking pictures, and particulars reported from the felony grievance assist that was the case.
During a Sept. 12 marketing campaign cease in Grand Rapids, Michigan, Walz talked about this taking pictures: “My personal son was in a location the place somebody was shot within the head,” he stated. “Too many people have this.”
Health care
Vance: “Donald Trump may have destroyed the (Affordable Care Act). Instead, he labored in a bipartisan means to make sure that Americans had entry to reasonably priced care.”
False.
As president, Trump labored to undermine and repeal the Affordable Care Act. He reduce tens of millions of {dollars} in federal funding for ACA outreach and navigators who assist individuals join well being protection. He enabled the sale of short-term well being plans that don’t adjust to the ACA client protections and allowed them to be bought for longer durations, which siphoned individuals away from the well being regulation’s marketplaces.
READ MORE: Fact-checking JD Vance’s previous statements and relationship with Trump
Trump’s administration additionally backed state Medicaid waivers that imposed first-ever work necessities, lowering enrollment. He additionally ended insurance coverage firm subsidies that helped offset prices for low-income enrollees, he backed an unsuccessful repeal of the landmark 2010 well being regulation and he backed the demise of a penalty imposed for failing to buy medical health insurance.
Affordable Care Act enrollment declined by greater than 2 million individuals throughout Trump’s presidency, and the variety of uninsured Americans rose by 2.3 million, together with 726,000 youngsters, from 2016 to 2019, the U.S. Census Bureau reported; that features three years of Trump’s presidency.
Climate
Walz: “Sen. Vance has stated that there’s a local weather drawback up to now. Donald Trump referred to as it (local weather change) a hoax after which joked that this stuff would make extra beachfront property to have the ability to spend money on.”
True.
In a 2020 speech at Ohio State University, Vance stated, “We have a local weather drawback in our society.” But Vance has grown extra doubtful of local weather change in recent times. In 2022, he instructed the American Leadership Forum, “I’m skeptical of the concept that local weather change is brought on purely by man. … (The local weather has) been altering, as others identified, it’s been altering for millennia.”
Also that yr, Vance stated he had “develop into persuaded that local weather change is actually taking place,” however that “a few of the alarmism is a bit of overstated.”
Trump tweeted that local weather change is a “hoax” in 2012, although he made efforts in 2016 to explain that comment as a “joke.” But in 2014 and 2015 Trump repeatedly referred to as local weather change a “hoax” in speeches, tweets and media appearances. He additionally made related “hoax” feedback in 2022.
In an August 2024 interview with X proprietor Elon Musk, Trump stated, “The greatest menace shouldn’t be world warming, the place the ocean goes to rise one-eighth of an inch over the following 400 years … and also you’ll have extra oceanfront property.” (The declare about sea stage rise is vastly understated and Pants on Fire!)
Energy
Walz: “We are producing extra pure fuel and extra oil at any time than we ever have.”
True.
U.S. pure fuel manufacturing has reached new highs throughout Joe Biden’s presidency, as has U.S. crude oil manufacturing, U.S. Energy Information Administration knowledge reveals.
Taxes
Walz: “Donald Trump hasn’t paid any federal tax within the final 15 years. The final yr as president.”
Mostly False.
Trump paid no federal revenue tax some years, together with his final yr as president, however not yearly within the final 15 years — and we don’t know what he’s paid since 2020 as a result of his tax returns haven’t been made public.
In September 2020, The New York Times reported that it obtained copies of Trump’s tax returns. They confirmed that Trump paid $641,000 in 2015, $750 in federal revenue taxes in each 2016 and 2017, and, as of that 2020 report, “no revenue taxes in any respect in 10 of the earlier 15 years.”
In 2022, the House Ways and Means Committee launched Trump’s tax returns from 2015 to 2020. According to these returns, Trump reported paying $999,456 in taxes in 2018, $133,445 in taxes in 2019 and $0 in taxes in 2020, ABC News reported.
Walz: Trump “gave the tax cuts that predominantly went to the highest class. What occurred there was an $8 trillion improve within the nationwide debt, the most important ever.”
Mostly True.
Saying which revenue class earned a higher share of the tax cuts varies relying on the yr studied.
A 2017 evaluation of the Republican tax regulation by the nonpartisan Urban-Brookings Tax Policy Center stated that by 2027, the tax invoice would ship 82.8 % of its advantages to the highest 1 % of revenue earners.
The distribution of the advantages earlier than 2027 additionally skewed towards wealthier Americans, however by a decrease share. For occasion, in 2018, the invoice was projected to ship 20.5 % of the advantages to the highest 1 %, the middle’s evaluation confirmed. And as late as 2025, 25.3 % of the advantages would stream to the highest 1 %.
Looking on the improve in federal debt on a president’s watch, Trump at the moment ranks first for debt accrued in a single time period, at $7.8 trillion. However, Biden is projected to cross Trump’s complete by the point he leaves workplace in January 2025.
Using a distinct technique — counting how a lot future debt a president’s actions created — Trump’s insurance policies are projected to build up roughly double the quantity of future debt as Biden’s.
January 6, 2021
Vance: Donald Trump “peacefully gave over energy on January the twentieth as we’ve got finished for 250 years on this nation.”
Mostly False.
Trump left the White House on Jan. 20, 2021, and one other president was sworn in that day. But Vance’s assertion ignores Trump’s phrases and actions that led as much as the violent Jan. 6, 2021, assault on the U.S. Capitol.
In December 2020, Trump repeatedly inspired his supporters to struggle the election outcomes and collect on the Capitol. On Jan. 6, 2021, Trump used his “Save America” rally to repeat inaccurate claims that he received the election. He regularly urged the gang to “struggle” earlier than inviting them to march to the Capitol.
WATCH: Vance received’t say Trump misplaced 2020 election. Walz says that’s a ‘damning non-answer’
“Our nation has had sufficient,” Trump stated. “We won’t take it anymore and that’s what that is all about. To use a favourite time period that each one of you individuals actually got here up with, we’ll cease the steal.”
The crowd later chanted: “Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump! Fight for Trump!”
At the Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021, supporters mobbed the constructing and assaulted regulation enforcement officers. The riot injured about 150 federal and native cops and brought on greater than $1 million in damages to the Capitol. More than 1,500 defendants have been charged.
PolitiFact Executive Director Aaron Sharockman, Chief Correspondent Louis Jacobson, Senior Correspondent Amy Sherman, Staff Writers Grace Abels, Kwasi Gyamfi Asiedu, Maria Briceño, Jeff Cercone, Madison Czopek, Marta Campabadal Graus, Samantha Putterman, Sara Swann, Loreben Tuquero, Maria Ramirez Uribe, Researcher Caryn Baird, KFF Health News Senior Editor Stephanie Stapleton and KFF Health News Senior Correspondent Stephanie Armour contributed to this story.