Both former President Donald Trump and Vice President Kamala Harris made a series of false statements during their first debate against each other this week.
It is difficult to put an exact number on all of the false claims made by each candidate since some of the statements are made more as an opinion versus a statement of fact and some false claims are more egregious — outright lies — versus being slightly misleading, like mixing up a location.
The difference between their false claims was that Trump was repeatedly fact-checked and hit with followup questions by ABC News debate moderators David Muir and Linsey Davis while Harris was never fact-checked once and the moderators never asked her any followup questions after she finished talking.
CNN’s Daniel Dale laughably claimed that Trump made more than 33 false statements during the debate, while Harris made only one — a claim that is blatantly false. A rough estimate from a Daily Wire analysis of the debate found both candidates made a comparable number of false statements at more than a dozen false claims each.
The following are the top 7 lies that Harris told during the debate:
1. Harris: “Donald Trump left us the worst public health epidemic in a century.”
Harris’ claim is false because her statement implies that Trump was responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic, a pandemic that originated in communist China in what many experts say was a lab accident. The coronavirus spread to every corner of the world within short period of time. More Americans died with COVID-19 under the Biden-Harris administration than the Trump administration even though COVID-19 vaccines have been available for the entire time that Biden-Harris have been in office.
2. Harris: “What you’re going to hear tonight is a detailed and dangerous plan called Project 2025 that the former president intends on implementing if he were elected again.”
Trump has repeatedly disavowed Project 2025 and said that it has nothing to do with him and he will not implement it if elected.
3. Harris: “I made that very clear in 2020. I will not ban fracking.”
This is false. During the 2020 presidential campaign, she stood on stage at a CNN town hall event in 2019 and said that “there’s no question I’m in favor of banning fracking.” Harris has tried to carefully craft her response to this by saying that she is talking about remarks that she made during the vice presidential debate in 2020. But that claim is still false. During 2020 the vice presidential debate against Vice President Mike Pence, Harris never said that she would not ban fracking, she said that Biden would not ban it.
4. Harris lies about her support for a bail fund that helped those who rioted in Minneapolis in 2020.
Harris made the false claim during the following interaction with Trump:
TRUMP: … Like, she was big on defund the police.
HARRIS: That’s not true. [mouthed, not audible]
TRUMP: In Minnesota, she went out — wait a minute. I’m talking now. If you don’t mind. Please. Does that sound familiar?
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: Don’t lie. [lie is audible]
TRUMP: She went out — she went out in Minnesota and wanted to let criminals that killed people, that burned down Minneapolis, she went out and raised money to get them out of jail.
VICE PRESIDENT KAMALA HARRIS: That’s not true. [Mouthed, not audible. Shook her head “no” when he said it.
Harris’ denial of her past actions is dishonest. She absolutely raised money for the Minnesota Freedom Fund to “help post bail for those protesting on the ground in Minnesota.”
Kamala SHOOK HER HEAD NO when President Trump called her out for raising money to bail violent rioters out of jail.
She’s a chronic liar — her tweet is literally still up. pic.twitter.com/GdstSQctU7
— Trump War Room (@TrumpWarRoom) September 11, 2024
5. Harris: “Let’s remember Charlottesville, where there was a mob of people carrying tiki torches, spewing anti-Semitic hate, and what did the president then at the time say? There were fine people on each side.”
Harris’ claim that Trump said that neo-Nazis and white nationalists were “fine people” is false. This has been repeatedly debunked by numerous news organizations, including left-wing fact-check website Snopes.
Trump specifically said that the neo-Nazis and white nationalists should be “condemned totally.”
Tickets for “Am I Racist?” are on sale NOW! Buy here for a theater near you.
6. Harris: “Donald Trump the candidate has said in this election there will be a bloodbath, if this — and the outcome of this election is not to his liking.”
Harris lied about what Trump said in reference to his “bloodbath” comments. Harris insinuates that Trump was saying that there would be violence if he does not win, when, in reality, he was saying that car manufacturers would experience a “bloodbath” if he loses because Chinese automakers would take over the industry.
7. Harris: “And as of today, 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 first time this century.”
The U.S. has more than 3,000 soldiers spread across Iraq and Syria fighting ISIS and providing stability to the region. These soldiers have been attacked by Iranian-backed terrorists more than 200 times since Hamas’ October 7 massacre in Israel last year and at least 3 U.S. soldiers have been killed. The U.S. Navy is also operating in the region fighting against the Houthis, another Iranian-backed terrorist group.
