Trump vs Biden: 8 falsehoods and inconsistencies in the US presidential debate verified by the BBC

The economy, abortion, immigration and taxes were some of the topics on which Donald Trump and Joe Biden were questioned by CNN moderators during their first debate ahead of the United States presidential elections.

The candidates exchanged statements and assertions on these issues in an attempt to prevail among voters ahead of the November elections.

However, The moderators adopted a hands-off policywithout questioning the veracity of Trump and Biden’s statements or following up on their statements.

BBC Verify, the BBC’s fact-checking unit, has been analysing some of the claims made by the rival candidates.

Trump accused Biden of being behind the criminal trial that led to his recent conviction in New York in a case of falsifying documents to conceal payments he made to actress Stormy Daniels.

STATEMENT: “Basically, [Biden] “He went after his political opponent because he thought it would hurt me,” Trump said.

VERDICTThe case was brought by New York prosecutors, not by a federal authority. The Justice Department does not approve charging decisions by the Manhattan district attorney’s office.

On the issue of abortion, Biden stated that if he were re-elected he would restore the so-called Roe v Wade law (which grants the constitutional right to abortion).

Asked whether he supported limiting the time frame for when a woman could terminate her pregnancy, the current president signaled his support for the framework contemplated in Roe v Wade.

STATEMENTTrump responded: “That means they can take the life of a baby in the ninth month [de gestación] and even after birth” and added “he is willing, as we say, to tear the baby from the womb in the ninth month and kill the baby.”

VERDICT: Fake. The Roe v Wade framework states that during the second trimester, the State may regulate abortion only to protect the woman’s health. During the third trimester, the State may regulate or prohibit abortion for the sake of the fetus, except when it is necessary to preserve the life or health of the woman.

During the 2016 campaign, Trump pledged to overturn Roe v Wadea landmark Supreme Court ruling that guaranteed the right to abortion nationwide until the fetus was viable outside the womb (after 24 weeks).

The ruling was overturned in 2022 by the highest court, which included Three judges appointed by Trump.

Killing a newborn is illegal in every state in the US, and no state is trying to pass a law to change that.

Less than 1% of abortions in the US occur after 21 weeksaccording to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

And 93.5% of abortions occur in the first trimester, that is, before 13 weeks.

STATEMENTJoe Biden said: “I have changed it so that we now have a situation where there are 40% fewer people crossing the border illegally, which is better than when he left office.”

VERDICT: Mostly true. Since Biden pushed for regulations in early June to restrict the right of those crossing the border from Mexico to seek asylum, The average daily number of undocumented immigrants is more or less 2,000according to internal Department of Homeland Security data obtained by BBC partner CBS News.

That represents a 47% drop from the average daily figure of 3,800 in May.

In 2019, during the Trump administration, undocumented border crossings reached a peak of 4,300. But there were months during the Covid pandemic when illegal crossings averaged below 2,000.

Since February 2021, U.S. Customs and Border Protection says there have been 9.6 million encounters between its border agents and those who have crossed the border between Mexico and the United States.

That does not mean that this is the number that entered the US, as it includes cases where there are multiple encounters with the same person, as well as people who have been returned or deported.

STATEMENTBiden said he is the only president in the last decade who does not have “the death of troops anywhere in the world like he does [Trump]”.

VERDICT:Three US Army recruits were killed in a drone strike in Jordan in January of this year.

And during the US withdrawal from Afghanistan in August 2021, 13 soldiers killed in suicide attack at Kabul airport perpetrated by IS-K, the Afghan arm of the self-proclaimed Islamic State group.

According to figures from the Defense Casualty Analysis System database, 65 soldiers died in combat during Trump’s presidency from 2017-20.

STATEMENT“He has the largest deficit in the history of our country,” Trump said of Biden.

VERDICT: According to US Treasury data, the deficit peaked when Trump occupied the White House US$3.13 trillion (3,130,000,000,000).

By 2023, During the Biden administration, it had dropped to $1.7 trillionalthough it is estimated that in 2024 it will rise again to US$1.9 trillion.

STATEMENT: Trump said Biden “wants to raise your taxes four times…He wants the Trump tax cuts to expire.”

VERDICT: President Biden’s latest U.S. budget makes no mention of quadrupling taxes for poor or middle-class households. Instead, it proposes tax cuts for families earning less than $400,000 a year — the majority — along with increases for those earning more than that amount.

Trump introduced sweeping tax cuts in 2017, many of which are set to expire in 2025.

Even if they are not extended, that would not amount to anything like a fourfold increase in taxes on households.

An analysis by the Tax Policy Center based on the 2024 Budget found that the top 1% of earners would see a 9.7% tax increase.

STATEMENT: At one point in the debate, Biden stated that black unemployment “is at its lowest point in a long, long time.”

VERDICT:While it’s true that the unemployment rate among African Americans registered a record drop during the Biden administration’s one month, the claim lacks context.

According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the unemployment rate for black Americans was at 4.8% under Biden in April 2023, a record decline at the time.

Since then, has risen againreaching 6.1% in May 2024.

However, the unemployment rate among African Americans during Trump’s presidency fell to 5.3% in August and September 2019, also a record low for the time.

STATEMENT: Trump assured in the debate that Biden inherited “almost no inflation” when he took office and that now “Inflation is killing us”.

VERDICT: When Biden took office in 2021, inflation was at 1.4%, using the most widely used measure, the Consumer Price Index, which is based on average spending in urban areas.

This rose significantly during the first two years of his governmentpeaking at 9.1% in the year to June 2022.

The figure was comparable to that of other Western countries, which experienced high inflation rates in 2021 and 2022, with the main responsible factors being global supply chain problems, the consequences of the covid pandemic and the war in Ukraine.

Since then, US inflation has fallen steadilywith the latest monthly figure of 3.3% in May.

Since Biden took office in January 2021, Prices have risen by a total of almost 20%.

Several commentators have focused on the role of CNN reporters Dana Bash and Jake Tapper, who moderated the debate between Joe Biden and Donald Trump.

Although the questions they asked were specific, in most cases The candidates avoided answering them directly and on many occasions – Trump in particular – came out with some of the outlandish statements discussed above.

But neither moderator specifically challenged the statements. Journalist Dana Bash repeatedly repeated the same question. She did so twice with Biden and, in another exchange, three times with Trump. That was the limit of their interventions.

Under the debate rules adopted by CNN, Tapper and Bash would be interrogators and not refereesso there was no way for them to question or follow up on the candidates’ evasive responses.

Biden and Trump accused each other of being “liars,” but their statements were left to the judgment of an audience that, if not well informed, would take what was said as a creed.

Gayle King, a journalist and presenter for BBC partner CBS, commented that lack of factual verification benefited Trump because he appeared to be more in control of his responses. “If you don’t know the facts, you would think that what she was saying made a lot of sense,” she said.

Domenico Montanaro of NPR, the US public radio, also criticized the “lack of moderation” of the debate that allowed Trump to make false statements without being interrupted or corrected.

“They left it up to the candidates, essentially, and with Biden unable to speak in real time and the moderators refusing to intervene, the audience was left with a big salad of rotten eggs and moldy lettuce that passed for facts,” Montanaro said.

*This article was based on research by the BBC Verify team

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