Fact Checking Kamala Harris at the Debate

Since the media isn't interested in honestly doing so, I figured someone had to. There's a lot.

Last week’s presidential debate elicited a flurry of fact checks from the mainstream media. But it appeared that the press was really only interested in invalidating the claims of one candidate: former President Donald Trump. To be sure, there was plenty to work with. But the media has fact checked those claims to death, sometimes doing so without much regard to the truth.

But what of his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris? One could read through many a fact check and not know Harris had made a meaningful number of false or dishonest statements.

A number caught my ear when I watched the debate live. A quick read-through of the transcript revealed more. With an election less than two months away, and the media continuing to give Democrats a pass when they play fast and loose with the facts (my recent fact check of Biden’s DNC speech is here, and calls out some of the dishonest claims Harris repeated below), I wanted to shine some light on Harris’s claims.

*All quotes are from ABC’s transcript.

The Claims: Like last time, I try to tick through these pretty quickly, focusing on the really egregious ones.

Claim: Harris said she was “the only person on this stage with a plan that is about lifting up the middle class and working people.”

The facts: This claim is one where, if the politics were reversed, the media would likely say it “needs context.” While Harris may claim to have a “plan” to benefit the working class, she’s spent three years as the second-most-important policymaker in an administration that has gutted the well-being of the middle class with elevated inflation and other economic problems. Even CNN isn’t fooled.

Claim: “Donald Trump left us the worst unemployment since the Great Depression.”

The facts: This one is way off. Since CNN was so sparing in the Harris-provided “facts” they bothered to check, I figured I would give them this one.

Claim: Harris invoked a “…dangerous plan called Project 2025 that the former president intends on implementing.”

The facts: Harris and the Dems keep trotting out this claim, that Trump is just waiting to be elected so he can push the big scary button with “Project 2025” written on it.

But Trump has said, repeatedly, that he has no intention of implementing Project 2025, that he doesn’t support many of the measures (especially the media’s interpretations thereof), and has very publicly disavowed the project.

You would think that would have some bearing on whether Harris’s claim here is legitimate. Apparently not. This detail was left un-fact-checked by the press, who continue their own efforts to tie Trump to a project he has disavowed.

Claim: Harris said “Xi was responsible…for not giving us transparency about the origins of Covid.”

The Facts: This is true, as I’ve written about before. Interesting to slip it in after Democrats repeated for years that it was a racist conspiracy theory. But, hey, facts are facts!

Claim: “If Donald Trump were to be re-elected, he would sign a national abortion ban.”

The Facts: As I explained in my last fact check, Trump has said repeatedly the opposite:

Trump has repeatedly said he would do no such thing, and has often faced pushback from conservatives for not being pro-life enough. JD Vance recently said Trump would veto a nationwide abortion ban.

Trump has repeatedly said he would do the opposite of what Biden (and other Democrats) claimed, as Batya Ungar-Sargon explained recently on The Commons at American Compass.

Claim: Harris said “nowhere in America is a woman carrying a baby to term and asking for an abortion.”

The Facts: While rare, it isn’t accurate to say that nowhere in America does this happen. Mary Margaret Olohan explains this for the Daily Wire, and I encourage you to read the full piece: https://www.dailywire.com/news/wake-up-america-abortion-survivors-accuse-harris-of-cruelty-ignorance-about-born-alive-babies

Claim: Harris supported tougher border measures, including a bill that “would have put more than 1,500 border agents on the border.”

The Facts: Again, were the political shoe on the other foot, I think this is a claim media fact checkers would’ve said “needs context.” Harris elides the point in her answer and subsequent ones, but in 2020, Harris supported decriminalizing illegal border crossings, perhaps the most radical approach to mass immigration in American political history. It seems unthinkable that that fact shouldn’t be front and center when it comes to her expected policies on the border.

And of course, Harris was the one in charge of Biden’s horrific border policy for the last three years, much as she may deny it (along with the media, thread here).

Claim: Harris bragged about the endorsement of former Vice President Dick Cheney.

The Facts: Okay, not a fact check, but doesn’t anyone else find it weird that Harris and others are hyping her endorsement from the guy who lied us into the Iraq War, whom Democrats used to accuse of war crimes?

Claim: Harris said Trump would “weaponize the Department of Justice” if re-elected.

The Facts: Again, this one could probably use the context that the current Department of Justice is leveling countless trials against Harris’s opponent, Donald Trump, and attempting to resurrect them after judges have thrown them out. Is she really in a position to accuse her opponent of running afoul of our sacred principles. given her own admin’s behavior?

Claim: Harris said of her position on fracking: “I made that very clear in 2020. I will not ban fracking.”

The Facts: Look at these Harris claims on fracking, from back then vs. now, and tell me she has made anything on this policy clear, beyond reliably telling audiences what they want to hear.

Claim: Trump said Harris “wants to do transgender operations on illegal immigrants who are in prison.”

The Facts: Despite some media claims to the contrary, this is true. Harris supported this policy when she ran in 2019. It led to one extremely embarrassing correction from Time and a pained admission from New York Times (who initially said the claim needed “context”) that she did, in fact, support this ludicrous policy. Apparently Susan Glasser, one of NYT’s top reporters, didn’t get the memo.

Claim: Harris, when describing law enforcement casualties at the Capitol on Jan. 6th said “and some died.”

The Facts: Whatever else you think about January 6th, it isn’t accurate to say any law enforcement officers died at the scene that day. Brian Sicknick is usually held out as the example. A medical examiner determined he died of natural causes.

Again, even for the tough stuff, the facts matter.

Claim: Harris accused Trump of saying there were “very fine people on both sides” at the “Unite the Right” rally in Charlottesville.

The Facts: This has been repeatedly debunked. Even Snopes said so! The quote provided leaves off the actual context of what Trump was talking about. Speaking of…

Claim: Harris accused Trump of saying there would be a “bloodbath” if he lost.

The Facts: This has also been repeatedly debunked. Trump said there would be a bloodbath *in the auto industry* if he lost. The second part of the statement is repeatedly omitted by the press, and that oversight has become a Democratic campaign talking point.

Claim: Harris “there is not one member of the United States military who is in active duty in a combat zone, in any war zone around the world.”

The Facts: Even the NYT objected to this one. She may be technically correct, but remember that three U.S. soldiers were killed in Jordan in January, and many others remain deployed to conflicts (in Israel and beyond).

Claim: “I’ve made very clear my position on fracking.”

The Facts: At this point in the debate, the moderators were focused on live fact checking Trump. Harris used the opportunity to once again repeat the falsehood that she’s been clear on fracking. She’s been anything but. Again:

Claim: Harris and Biden have “invested in clean energy to the point that we are opening up factories around the world.”

The Facts: Biden said this in his DNC speech, too. As I fact checked at the time, all of that investment has led to the creation of seven charging stations for EVs, one of the main goals of the investment.

Total.

Nationwide.

We are investing lots in clean energy. But to say we’re getting anything for that investment “needs context.”

Claim: Harris said she had a plan for “giving hard-working folks a break in bringing down the cost of living.”

The Facts: If Harris has a plan for this, why hasn’t she done it in the last three years while in office? Since Trump left office, the cost of living has only increased: inflation is considerably up, as are the costs of food as well as renting or owning a home. Feels like the “context” that Harris has presided over a considerable increase across each of these metrics is worth bringing up.

If this is her “plan,” I think voters would likely opt out.

The Takeaway: As I’ve said repeatedly, this will only continue. The media simply isn’t interested in applying a modicum of scrutiny and accountability to any candidate not named Donald Trump.

It’s a disservice to the profession, and a disservice to the American people, who deserve full pictures of both candidates before they go to the polls.

I’ll keep doing whatever little I can to try to provide what the media would rather ignore. And hopefully soon I’ll write about the broader bastardization of “fact checking” as a media occupation.